WATER RESCUE - Moment volunteers rescued an exhausted humpback whale being dragged to the seabed after it got caught on lobster pot
Image by: Noel Hawkins
This the incredible moment volunteers rescued an exhausted humpback whale being dragged to the seabed by a lobster pot.
The 12m long adult was left fighting for its life after it got its tail caught on fishing gear off Orkney in Scotland.
The majestic mammal had spent at days - potentially up to a week - battling to keep its blowhole above water, but was fast losing its fight when volunteers arrived.
Video footage shows the cetacean - which could have travelled 4,500 miles from the Caribbean - fighting for its life.
Volunteers from British Divers Marine Life Rescue worked for hours - hanging off the side of boats with their heads in the water - to cut the terrified animal free.
And against the odds it survived the ordeal to swim off into the deep.
Volunteer Noel Hawkins, 49, from Ullapool, Ross and Cromarty, in the Highlands, said: "It was managing to lift its head up and down but it was quite distressed when we first got to it.
"It was trumpeting and breathing very fast. That noise you hear on the video isn't the boat - it's the whale exhaling.
"Once we started work it did begin to be more still.
"That seems to be a bit of a humpback trick. I like to think that's them knowing that they are getting help.
"We had to be really careful. It's not just dangerous for us, but it's dangerous for the animal too.
"It could have been there for up to a week. There was scarring on the tail and down its back. It had been pulling on it for a while."
The team were alerted by a fisherman who returned from holiday to find his lobster and crab pots off Westray Island had snared a whale.
Much to the relief of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue, he didn't try to free the whale himself, but got in touch with volunteers.
Image by: Noel Hawkins
Image by: Noel Hawkins
Image by: Noel Hawkins
Image by: Noel Hawkins
Members from across Scotland drove to the top of the country, before getting a ferry, then driving further and chartered a boat, to reach the animal on October 1.
The humpback was being pulled to the seabed by rope tied around a lobster pot, tethered to the seabed by a massive weight.
It was strong enough to lift the weight just enough to get to the surface to breathe, but was fast running out of energy.
The team faced the challenge of getting close enough to rescue the animal, but having to stay safe.
It was too risky for the team to get in the water - in case they are caught up and dragged down with the freed whale - so they have to rescue the animal from the boat.
The team hung off the side of the boat with their heads in the water to get a better look.
Noel, a communities manager with the Scottish Wildlife Trust, cut the whale free, hanging in the water with a knife, while someone on the boat held his legs.
"This one was quite a straight forward rescue, in terms of it was just on the tail," he said.
"We had lots of local support. The fisherman himself was on hand to help us too."
Video by: Gabriella Petty
Desperate mum fears she could lose her son because cannabis oil that stops him having hundreds of daily seizures costs £4,000 a month
Image by: Rachel Rankmore
The family of a teenage boy with a rare form of epilepsy are struggling to pay for his £4,000 a month cannabis oil which stops him having hundreds of seizures a day.
Bailey Williams, 17, has had epilepsy since the age of two, but in recent years it has became so severe he would regularly fall to the floor and turn blue.
Doctors tried everything - endless kinds of drugs and therapies - but nothing worked, until a law change meant he was able to have full extract cannabis oil.
Bailey, from Cardiff, was given a prescription from specialist doctors for medicinal use in June, and his parents said it instantly reduced his seizures to less than five a day.
But it is still not available on the NHS, meaning Bailey’s parents have to pay thousands to a neurologist in London for the medicine, which is injected three times a day.
His mum, Rachel Rankmore, 43, called on the NHS to start providing prescriptions so families do not lose out because they can't afford the drug.
Image by: Rachel Rankmore
Image by: Rachel Rankmore
Former banker, Rachel, said: “Without it, he has hundreds of seizures a day and it’s damaging his body.
“He has developed learning difficulties, mental delays and it has changed his personality.
“I thought the seizures might kill him. It’s heartbreaking and I’m scared I’ll lose my son.
“He has improved dramatically since being on cannabis oil and he’s only been on it two months.
“I finally feel like I’ve got my son back and I couldn’t bare to go back to what it was like before.
“But we are not by any means rich and that is just unsustainable. We can’t afford it.”
Bailey has Lennox–Gastaut syndrome, a form of epilepsy only found in around five of every 100 children with the condition, and was diagnosed aged two.
At first his condition was manageable for his parents, Rachel and Craig Williams, 48, a garage manager, and he only had a fit once or twice a month.
But his seizures got worse and by the age of seven Bailey was fitting hundreds of times a day.
His family changed his diet in a desperate bid to stop the seizures, but when that didn't work inserted a device into Bailey's chest, aged seven.
It sends signals to his brain that helped to limit the frequency and severity of his fits, but it only worked for a short time.
At its worst Bailey’s seizures make him fall to the floor and turn blue, and often leave him wheelchair bound and unable to feed himself or talk.
Mum-of-two, Rachel, said: “We have bunged him up on so many drugs but nothing has seemed to work.
“He has different types of seizure and they make him screech and shake.
“He has drop seizures where he does fly across the room and fall to the floor.
"He'll turn blue and be in a complete comatose state afterwards where he can’t walk or talk or do anything.
“The seizures are just horrific. When they happen you can hear every bone in his body creak.
“It’s absolutely heartbreaking but we’ve had to learn to put our emotions to one side.
"It got to the point where there were no drugs left to try.”
Image by: Rachel Rankmore
Image by: Rachel Rankmore
Aged 14, during a hospital admission at the University Hospital of Wales doctors told Rachel there were no more drugs to give Bailey.
So the family took matters into their own hands and started to look into the benefits of treating epilepsy with cannabis oil.
They found a product called Charlotte’s Web, a form CBD cannabis oil sold in the USA, and decided to give it a go.
It cost £300 a bottle and would last about six weeks.
Bailey started taking it in 2015 and at first Rachel said she saw a “great improvement” in his condition.
She said: “It worked a treat. There were no emergency hospital visits or increases in medication.
“At the time we couldn’t get our hands on it in the UK.
“But even that reached its potential. He’s seizures go more violent again to the point where he had no quality of life.
“He could be sat playing one minute and the next he could be on the floor shaking.
“He ends up being sat in a wheelchair unable to walk or talk.”
Last November a change in the law made cannabis with Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) - a psychoactive constituent of cannabis - available for prescription from specialist doctors.
It has allowed him to be treated with a cannabis oil called Bedrolite, since June.
But it's not available on the NHS, forcing Bailey’s family to pay for a private prescription from a neurologist in London, costing up to £4,000 a month.
The family have already raised around £15,000 to put towards treatment but are crowdfunding for the future.
“The difference the oil has is miraculous," Rachel said.
"The evidence is all there and a lot of children need these prescriptions.
“The improvement has been astonishing. It’s not his fault the cannabis oil works for him and he should not be punished for it.
“If we could get an NHS prescription, that would change everything”, said Rachel.
“We can’t keep asking people for help, we can’t keep begging for money
“Until the NHS start writing prescriptions this is what it will be like."
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has not recommend the wider use of medical cannabis.
Rachel said: “I thought he would be damaged forever but we’ve finally got the old Bailey back.
“It’s been amazing for us and that has been delightful.
“It’s hard to explain what it’s been like caring for a sick child and we need to spend time repairing our family now.
“We need to learn to get our family life back.”
"If we have to give the medicine up he will not be here for much longer.”
Bailey's fundraising page can be found at: www.gofundme.com/f/mission-for-baileys-shakes
Image by: Rachel RankmoreVideo by: Rachel Rankmore
28-year-old donkey which gave rides to thousands of children has been found stabbed by its owner.
Image by: Steve Chatterley
A 28-year-old donkey which gave rides to thousands of children has been found stabbed by its owner.
Bimbo, one of Greenwich’s beloved Blackheath donkeys, was found bleeding from his side on Friday by one of its minders.
The wound has since become infected and the old donkey has taken a ‘turn for the worse’ in past few days, his owner said.
The oldest in the herd, Bimbo is in a state of shock and has contracted laminitis, a disease similar to thrombosis in humans.
Owner Lorayne Ahmet visited Bimbo after one of his minders raised the alarm.
She said: “I cut back the hair surrounding the wound and found a straight cut. It could have only been from a knife.
“I felt sick when I saw the wound. Who could do this to a donkey?”
“I called the vet and she confirmed Bimbo had been stabbed.”
Lorayne looks after the group of donkeys in memory of her father Len Thorne who died in 2012.
Len had run rides on Blackheath, near Greenwich park in London for 65 years as part of a family tradition dating back to the 1800s.
Lorayne, who is awaiting Bimbo’s blood test results, said: “I call him the Victor Meldrew of the donkey world. He is always on his own and looks grumpy, but never is.
“Dad would have been devastated if he knew what had happened to Bimbo. He was his favourite and led him at his funeral.
“He was doing really well until yesterday. He is now very subdued and in a lot of pain. He spends all day in the corner with a ‘lay off’ look on his face.
“He won’t eat his antibiotics so we are having to manually syringe them into his system.”
Image by: Steve Chatterley
Image by: Steve Chatterley
Image by: Steve Chatterley
The herd had lived for nearly 30 years in a field surrounded by six foot fences.
But in 2012 they were moved on after then Mayor of London Boris Johnson decided to build the Greenwich Equestrian Centre on the spot as an Olympic legacy.
The donkeys are now in a field in Eltham, south east London, with shorter fences which leave the herd open to outsiders.
Lorayne said: “The shorter fences was dad’s main worry when we were moved on from Shooters Hill.
“Most of the donkeys are quite shy, but Bimbo is domesticated so I think that’s why they went for him.
“There have been a few stabbings in Eltham of late and I have seen youths messing around with the donkeys. I think one of them could have stabbed Bimbo as a gang initiation task.
“I’d like to get my hands on them, put them in a field and let the general public do what they want with them.
“Anyone who harms an animal, child or elderly person needs to be locked away and the key thrown away.”
Lucy Morris, the donkey minder who found bimbo, has set up a go fund me campaign to cover the vet bills and install taller fences around the field. It has raised more than £2000.
Loyrane added: “I am overwhelmed by people’s comments and donations and I thank them from the bottom of the heart.
“My dad would have been delighted that people remembered him and his donkeys.”
Loyrane reported the incident to the police and is waiting for them to get back to her.
Britain's smallest PUB run by a 98-year-old from her front room and only serves one beer
Image by: Tom Wren SWNS
These pictures show Britain's smallest pub - run by a 98-year-old from her front room who only serves one type of beer.
Mary Wright runs The Luppitt Inn and sits at a makeshift bar dishing out glasses of booze.
The pensioner only opens up three nights a week, from Thursday to Saturday, from 7.30pm.
There is no music or entertainment, and the toilets are located across the yard, but that hasn't stopped the pub in Honiton, Devon, making it a firm favourite with ale lovers.
Mary's pub has been featured in the real ale drinker's bible published by the Campaign for Real Ale, and the National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors.
The inn, previously known as the Red Lion Inn, was opened by Charles Wright, the grandfather of Mary's late husband Albert.
Albert ran it with Mary, who he had one child with, until his death in 1989 at the age of 73.
Since then Mary has run it alone, and despite being in exceptional health for age, her granddaughter Caroline and her husband Philip now help keep it open.
Mary said: “I was born on a farm on the other side of the village but I can’t remember if I came to the pub much before I married when I was about 22, and I’ve lived here since.
"I've enjoyed being a landlady, but I can't tell you many stories because my memory isn't so good these days.
"Caroline and Philip now open the pub for me. They don’t expect me to because I am in my nineties!
“I’ve always joined in with things and customers still come and see me where I’m sat so we still have our chats. Pubs can bring communities together."
Image by: Tom Wren SWNS
Image by: Tom Wren SWNS
Image by: Tom Wren SWNS
Inside the pub there is a fireplace, dartboard and a mix-match of small tables and chairs.
There are few seats to choose from, and an even limited choice of drinks. Its one and only beer is locally brewed Otter Bitter.
Cider lovers are also catered as Mary has a collection of unchilled Thatcher cans behind the bar, and also on offer is a limited selection of spirits, mixers and wine.
It’s cash only and there is no till.
Surrounding the bar is simple wooden shelves and the walls have a few decorations, including pictures of a beauty queen, and even a signed photo of Tina Turner.
Mary continued: “I don’t mind anybody coming in here.
“Years ago it was busy a lot of the time, especially weekends, but it’s not now. It has definitely gone quieter.
"Nowadays you probably get around half a dozen people during the evening."
Image by: Tom Wren SWNS
Image by: Tom Wren SWNS
SCRUM-BELIEVABLE - Meet the incredible young rugby star who is scoring a hatful of tries - despite only having one ARM
Image by: Anita Maric SWNS
Meet the incredible young rugby star who is scoring a hatful of tries - despite only having one ARM.
Little Shay Dunster was born with half of his left limb missing but has always loved rugger.
Sadly, the nine-year-old's coaches in Blaenau Gwent, Wales said he had been bullied about his disability to the point where he wanted to give up.
But gentle encouragement meant he kept going - and now he's a local legend.
Shay recently took part in a rugby festival in nearby Cardiff and stole the show by scoring a staggering ELEVEN tries - catching the eye of some of the game's superstars.
Ex-Wales and British and Irish Lions captain Sam Warburton tweeted: "Tell Shay I said well done and keep up the amazing work. Inspirational."
Shay's mum, Donna, said international scrum-half Rhys Webb had also been in touch to lend his support.
Image by: Anita Maric SWNS
Image by: Anita Maric SWNS
Image by: Anita Maric SWNS
Image by: Anita Maric SWNS
Image by: Anita Maric SWNS
Proud Donna said: "Shay absolutely loves playing rugby and it was amazing to see him play so well at the festival.
"He started with tag rugby about three years ago and loved it. He was worried about the tackles when it moved up to touch, but he hasn't stopped.
"He was on fire at the festival. It is great because it gives him so much more confidence, especially as he had been bullied in the past."
A spokesman for Shay's team, Trefil under 10's, said: "Shay's been asked 'how can you play rugby with one arm? '.
"The team has replied 'because he's talented'.
"He's been bullied to the point he has doubted himself and wanted to give up.
"But with a lot of encouragement he is still playing, he doesn't get treated any differently to the rest of the team and goes out on that field every week and gives it his all.
"He's our very own twinkle toes. Shay is a prime example that a disability doesn't define you as a person. Proud, proud, proud."
Video by: Anita Maric SWNS
A green-fingered couple rented an allotment to grow all their own flowers - for their WEDDING
Image by: Jamie Wolfeld
A green-fingered couple rented an allotment to grow all their own flowers - for their WEDDING.
Tyler and Aimee Morrison spent a year growing colourful blooms which adorned the guests, tables and venue at their nuptials.
Their flowers decorated the buttonholes of the groomsmen's suits and even the confetti was made out of dried petals from their plot.
They grew poppies, dahlias, Cosmos, and sweetpeas, as well as plenty of wildflowers, including blue cornflowers.
Their countryside wedding venue was filled with bouquets, table arrangements, and a floral arch of 20 different types of pink, white, purple and yellow flowers.
And they had enough left over to dry some out and press them - so that they could be showered with a confetti of their own petals as they walked out of the ceremony.
Image by: Jamie Wolfeld
Image by: Jamie Wolfeld
Image by: Jamie Wolfeld
The couple grew all the flowers themselves in an allotment they took on just twelve months before their wedding on August 10 after almost nine years together.
The couple, both 25, from Salisbury, Wilts., described the gardening project as "a steep learning curve".
Tyler, a carpenter, joked: "Up until we got the allotment, my only real experience of gardening was that I had killed a few house plants.
"When we first got the allotment last summer we didn't really have a clear aim in mind. It wasn't our initial thought to grow the flowers for our wedding.
"We've always had the ambition of being quite self-sustaining, and growing our own plants.
"Once we'd decided we'd grow flowers for the wedding, it was quite a steep learning curve.
"We jumped in at the deep end. We had to prepare it all in the winter, so we spent quite a lot of time down there with freezing fingers.
"Then as it got closer to the wedding, with the heat of this summer, we were quite often down there watering the flowers at 7am.
"Sometimes we wouldn't leave the allotment until 10pm. Most of our weekends were spent down at the allotment.
"Minutes definitely turn to hours down there - but we enjoyed it. We weren't sick of it."
He added: "So much can go wrong with extreme weather - some days we would go down there and find the ground as flat as a pancake."
Tyler and his graphic designer bride, Aimee, threw themselves into their wedding project, growing 20 different types of flowers for their venue at Dean Hill Farm in West Dean, West Sussex.
And the couple were certainly not short of ideas on how to use their flowers to decorate their wedding venue.
Tyler said: "In the weeks leading up to the wedding we collected loads of jam jars and dotted them around with flowers in them.
"We also had a floral centrepiece on each table, and I built a wooden arch that we could decorate with flowers."
Image by: Jamie Wolfeld
Image by: Jamie Wolfeld
Image by: Jamie Wolfeld
Aimee's six bridesmaids and Tyler's three groomsmen had bouquets and buttonhole flowers picked from the couple's allotment.
And Tyler said the most "time-consuming" part of the floral arrangements was drying out flowers and pressing the petals to be used as confetti.
He said: "Luckily we had more than enough flowers, and we got quite a good response from people.
"Loads of our friends ended up pitching in to help us arrange the flowers, so it all went smoothly. It was really, really good."
Tyler said his favourite flowers to grow were the small, round poppy seed heads - whilst his new wife preferred the "showy" flowers, like the dahlias.
And the newlyweds don't have any plans to stop there.
He added: "A friend of ours is getting married in three weeks and has asked us to do the flowers for their wedding.
"I think the aim is eventually to turn this into a small business. We've invested a lot in the allotment in the last year, and the flowers always grow back after you cut them."
Image by: Jamie Wolfeld
Image by: Jamie Wolfeld
Image by: Jamie Wolfeld
Image by: Jamie Wolfeld
Video shows the moment a man picks up a massive stranded jellyfish with his bare hands
Image by: Conor Davidge
This video shoes the moment a brave bystander rescued a massive stranded JELLYFISH - by picking it up with his bare hands.
Kind-hearted Belal Almassri, 34, was on his way home following a business meeting when he spotted the huge creature stuck against rocks in shallow water.
He said he didn't want to see the animal suffer, so took it upon himself to set it free.
But he soon realised he'd have to lift it, so had to pick up the stinger and push it back out to deeper waters off Plymouth, Devon.
He said: "I was walking back from a meeting with my mate along the Barbican when we just saw this huge jellyfish, I have never seen anything like it.
"We could see it was stuck and the tide was going lower and lower, so someone had to do something about it.
"I went down and saw it was moving so I started pushing it out into the water.
"We watched it for about half an hour afterwards and it was definitely moving so I think we managed to save it.
"It was so heavy I couldn’t lift it myself."
Image by: Conor Davidge
Belal, who is originally from Palestine, was wary of the jellyfish's tentacles which can deliver a painful sting.
But, fortunately for him, the worst injury he picked up was a small cut on his foot from a sharp rock.
"Some people did warn me that it could sting me or be dangerous but I am aware that there is a certain way of holding – not from underneath," he said.
"I took it from its head and pushed it away.
"I was not really scared. The water was very cold though!
"When I got out I realised I had a cut on my foot but it was nothing serious."
Video by: Conor Davidge
Motorist plunged into four foot deep pothole - then climbed inside it
Image by: Sophie Gill
A motorist thought "hell had opened up" when his vehicle hit a four foot deep pothole - that was big enough for him to climb inside.
Stunned Grant Parker, 46, was driving down a residential road when part of the concrete suddenly collapsed under the weight of his wheel.
The front portion of his Volvo C30 disappeared into the void and Grant couldn't believe his eyes when he got out and saw a four foot deep hole had appeared.
Pictures taken by a resident on Granville Terrace in York show the motorist inside the hole with his head and shoulders popping out of the top.
A City of York Council spokesman said the hole was the result of a sewer collapse, which occurs when escaped water washes away the structure of a road until it gives way.
Workers from Yorkshire Water, which is responsible for York's sewage system, have filled the hole in since it appeared on March 25.
Grant, who works as a landlord, said: "I was driving down the street and all of a sudden the car just sank down and went into a hole.
"It did some damage to the car, and I'm still waiting for the insurance to deal with it.
"There was just a little mark in the road, and as I went over it, the whole car dropped at one side.
"I got out and thought it was unbelievable.
"You could see a tunnel under the road. I thought hell had opened up or something."
Image by: Sophie Gill
Image by: Sophie Gill
Image by: Dan Rowlands SWNS
He added: "I actually got in the hole, it went right down and you could see right under the road.
"The hole has been filled in but only recently.
"It was cordoned off for a while because they couldn't move any cars because the road was unsafe."
Fortunately Grant was able to reverse out and take the car to a garage for repairs.
He said he's already spent £200 having work done to his vehicle and is yet to hear whether insurance will cover the costs.
A spokeswoman for City of York Council said the authority's highways identified the hole as a sewer collapse.
She said: "This is caused by water escaping from somewhere and washing out the structure of the road, over time, until a void is created.
"The road surface will hold up for so long and then the void becomes too large and the tarmac fails."
She confirmed the road had been repaired, adding that "liability will not be with City of York Council".
The spokeswoman said an insurance claim had been received but that it would be redirected to officials at Yorkshire Water.
A Yorkshire Water spokesman said: "We carried out sewer repair work on Granville Terrace on April 5 and completed it on April 12.
“We are sorry to hear Mr Parker damaged his vehicle whilst the road surface was damaged and we repaired the road as quickly as possible once we were notified of the issue on April 3.
"In circumstances like this it is the insurance companies who resolve any claims."
FLIGHT THEN FIGHT - Seven Brits were bundled off a budget flight after it made an emergency landing following a row between passengers - with one allegedly SPITTING at a woman, witnesses say
Image by: Nathan Belford
Seven Brits were bundled off a budget flight after it made an emergency landing following a row between passengers - with one SPITTING at a woman, witnesses say.
Onlookers claim two groups of lads forced the easyjet flight from Manchester to Tenerife on Thursday (3) to divert to Portugal after a bust up.
The ruckus is said to have broken out around two hours after the 5.35pm take-off, when a group of four sat at the back started punching each other.
An air stewardess broke up the fight, and seated one of the rowdy guys at the front of the airliner in an effort to calm tensions.
Minutes later, though, the man vaulted back to his pals - where things kicked off again.
Passengers then tried to break up the fight, leading to the moment one of the lads apparently spat in a woman's eye.
As a girl shrieks, a woman shouts: "There's children on the airplane!"
One man can be heard saying: "He f**king spat on a woman - dirty bastard!"
At this moment, the captain announced plans to divert the plane and make an emergency landing in Faro, Portugal.
Key eyewitness Nathan Belford, 30, said a 10-man stag party then "howled with rage" and picked a fight with both cabin crew and the group of four.
He said the stag party "complained bitterly to the stewardess" - and even "started pinching drinks from the front of the plane".
Landing in Portugal at around 8pm, security then bundled seven men - all from the four-man group, three from the stag party - off the plane.
Image by: Nathan Belford
Image by: Nathan Belford
Image by: Nathan Belford
Image by: Nathan Belford
Two hours later, the plane completed its journey to Tenerife.
Fed-up Nathan, of Stoke-on-Trent, said: "We couldn't believe what was happening. We just wanted to go on holiday.
"Things first kicked off when the group at the back got into a fight. Punches were thrown, and the stewardess broke them up.
"But then they kicked off again, and passengers actually intervened to calm them down.
"One woman got in the way, but a guy spat in her eye. It was disgusting.
"After that, cabin decided to divert to Portugal. Then things escalated after the bigger stag party howled with rage about it.
"They picked a fight with cabin crew and with the group of four, complaining that they should be going to Tenerife for their weekend.
"One of the guys got into trouble when he started pinching drinks from the front of the plane. It was Bedlam.
"Once we landed, though, security got them off. It was impressive - one of the guys they had to carry off was at least six-foot-six."
easyJet has confirmed the incident took place on one of its flights.
It is still unclear why Jet2 also confirmed it but it was an easyJet flight.
An easyJet spokesman said: “We can confirm that flight EZY1903 from Manchester to Tenerife on 3 October diverted to Faro as a result of some passengers on board behaving disruptively and was met by police on arrival.
''The passengers were removed by police and the aircraft continued onto Tenerife.
"easyJet’s cabin crew are trained to assess and evaluate all situations and to act quickly and appropriately to ensure that the safety of the flight and other passengers is not compromised at any time.
"Whilst such incidents are rare, we take them very seriously, and do not tolerate abusive or threatening behaviour on board.
''The safety and wellbeing of customers and crew is our highest priority.
Video by: Nathan Belford
Villagers driven round the bend by 26-mile diversion after 50m road closed cheer themselves up with street party on shut highway
Image by: Ruth Hickmott
Villagers driven round the bend by a 26-mile diversion after a 50m stretch of road was closed cheered themselves up - by throwing a street party on the shut highway.
A short stretch of the A465 at Stoke Lacy, Herefordshire, is closed for eight weeks while work is carried out to strengthen a nearby bridge.
While the road - equivalent to around 11 car lengths - is closed, motorists face a 26-mile detour around country lanes, many of which are single tracks, to travel from one side of the village to the other.
Despite the inconvenience caused to the 450 villagers and hundreds more drivers who use the road each day, residents are using the closure to their advantage.
On Bank Holiday Monday, villagers got trestle tables, sunshades and a paddling pool out for an impromptu street party.
There are also plans to use the road for fetes and flower shows in the next month.
Image by: Ruth Hickmott
Image by: Ruth Hickmott
Image by: Ruth Hickmott
Resident John Walters said: "Closing the road for such a long time is a bit of a pain and it means some of us now have a 26-mile detour home.
"But we're a reslient bunch and when the sun was beaming out over the weekend some bright spark suggested we use the road closure to our advantage so we did.
"It was a lovely day and a good old fashioned English knees-up. We're a very traditional village and it was good to hark back to a more simpler time for a few hours.
"A lot of people are now seeing the benefit of having the road pedestrianised and will use it to hold village events over the next few weeks."
Ruth Hickmott, 58, who lives in Stoke Lacy and is part of the village's heritage project, said: "Basically we held the street party because we could.
"Usually you have to apply to the council for road closures but this just fell into our laps.
"There was no fundraising reason, simply let's have a party on the road because we won't be able to in eight weeks' time.
”The road closure is awkward because it is the main route between Bromyard and Hereford and diversions and despite the village being small, you now have to travel up to 26 miles to go from one side to the other."
The village plans to make use of the road closure again next month with a flower and produce show on the 50m stretch of closed off highway.
