Water recovery: One year on, Somerset flood victims have transformed their devastated homes

Families forced to abandon their homes following last winter's devastating floods on the Somerset Levels have finally returned to their properties one year on.

More than 600 homes and 17,000 acres of farmland were inundated with quickly rising waters and entire villages were cut off after roads became unusable during the wettest January since records began.

A year later, relieved residents are finally able to move back into their homes.

Mark Corthine and his wife Sharon have spent 52 weeks and more than £365,000 renovating their detached property in Fordgate, Somerset.

MORE PICTURES: Families lives return to normal a year after the Somerset floods


The couple were forced to cut short a holiday in Sydney after they were told water had leaked into their farmhouse.

They attempted to pump water from their home of 23 years but a week after the floods began they were overwhelmed and made the decision to leave.

Mark said: ‘We're back into our house and it is looking good. It's taken us time, we moved back in pretty much a year to to the day we left.

‘The whole house has totally changed, we even needed to replaces the ceilings. When we came back the plaster was running down the walls like plasticine.

‘This will affect some of the local people for a very long time, a very long time indeed."

In total £2.8 million has been paid out by insurers to farmers in a bid to get them back on track.

A number of measures have also been taken to ensure the tragedy is not repeated, including the dredging of the Rivers Tone and Parrett, to remove 130,000 cubic meters of silt.

Farmer Rebecca Horsington, chair of the Flooding on the Levels Action Group who lost 100 acres of land during the flooding worries about the future.

She said: ‘More needs to be done outside of dredging - we need to look at preparing the area for pumps and looking at investing in better pumps.’