A FAMILY have been left counting the cost of a fire which virtually destroyed their Grade II listed thatched cottage.

Seventy fire fighters tackled the blaze at the house, on the A420 Oxford to Swindon road next door to the Greyhound pub, which started at about 5pm on Thursday.

The family who live at The Cottage in Besselsleigh are now staying with friends while the clean-up continues.

The family of four escaped unhurt by the fire.

A relative of the family was at the scene yesterday.

He told the Oxford Mail: “They have lived there for seven years, and they just got planning permission for an extension, but now they won’t have the money to think about that.

“I was just here for the weekend, we had a barbeque, and now this. It’s hard to believe.

“They are staying with friends at the moment, but I will stay to give my moral support. They will have to rebuild the whole thing.”

It is not know if the couple were insured.

They were given planning permission in September to build a two-storey rear extension, and demolish a redundant 20th century chimney.

Last night, fire station manager Mike Adcock said: “We are currently removing debris from the house, obviously there is a lot of thatch.”

He said that the fire investigation is ongoing and he expected fire fighters would be on the scene for at least a further 24 hours.

The fire service managed to rescue all the family’s possessions from the ground floor.

One of the family’s neighbours, Peter Challis, 59, said: “I was out in the garden and there was a huge column of smoke and I thought – that’s a big fire.

“Then our neighbour drove past and said the house was on fire. Of course we would offer them any support we can give, they are nice people.”

Master thatcher Kit Davis said that repairing the roof would cost between £30,000 and £40,000. “I did a quote for that place years ago,” he said. “You are looking at £150 a square metre, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that place was 250 square metres.”

Mr Davis, who is also chairman of the Ox, Bucks and Berks Master Thatchers Association, said that log burners were the most common cause of fire in thatched roofs.

He said: “If you leave a burner on all night the flue temperature can reach hundreds of degrees, and when you get to 220C you get spontaneous combustion. But you still won’t know your roof is alight until it reaches the surface and by then it’s too late.”

Chartered surveyor Jonathan Durndell said: “If the fire has completely gutted the house it could cost £800 a square metre to put back all the furnishings. A lot depends on whether the walls and foundations are structurally sound.

“Because it is a listed building, whoever repairs it will have the painstaking task of looking through photographs to restore it.”