THIS guest house had unexpected visitors after a water pipe burst in front of its property, flooding the driveway and cutting off a whole village's supply.

The pipe split in front of Mather House in East Hendred at about 5am yesterday, sending water spurting up between the kerb stones on White Road.

Villagers were left without a proper supply of water for the rest of the day, and Thames Water even started handing out bottles of water at the village hall.

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One resident who asked not to be named said: "My wife phoned me and said they didn't have any water - the water just went.

"She phoned Thames Water and then found out they were down at the village hall giving out water."

She and others were initially told that they could be waiting up to 72 hours to get a normal supply back.

Herald Series:

The leak required emergency roadworks to fix, and the man said that when he drove home the temporary traffic lights meant he spent 15 minutes getting from Rowstock to East Hendred – a distance of about a mile.

Yesterday evening water pressure was still extremely low.

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Finally, at about 1am this morning Thames Water engineers managed to restore the full, proper supply and villagers were woken up by the sound of water gurgling back through their pipes.

Thames Water apologised to all affected in the OX12 postcode area, and said it was all due to a single break in a pipe.

Spokeswoman Hannah Law said yesterday: "We’re sorry to anyone in OX12 who may have been affected by low pressure or water outages, which was due to a burst on a 6-inch diameter pipe.

"Our engineers completed the repair overnight and have brought all customers back into supply.”