Severe flooding across South Oxfordshire has led to several unique events including the closure of one of Tesco’s biggest stores.

Tesco Extra in Abingdon reopened yesterday morning after two days of closure due to a flooded-out car park.

Staff were alerted during the night on April 1 to the flooding, following a flood alert for the River Ock, from Watchfield to Abingdon, and also for Letcombe Brook at Wantage, Grove and East Hanney.

READ MORE: Latest on Abingdon Tesco reopening after flooding

The only access to the store entrance was via duckboards and click and collect services were also affected as drivers were unable to get out of the car park.

Yesterday morning a spokesperson for Tesco said: “The store has reopened this morning as planned.”

This came after a previous statement from a Tesco spokesperson apologising for any inconvenience cause by the closure.

On Saturday morning (April 1) In West Hanney, near Wantage, a van driver was rescued by firefighters after he became trapped in a flood.

The incident occurred on the road towards Denchworth, and firefighters from Abingdon Fire Station were called to the emergency and rescued the man in a canoe.

The lane in West Hanney was completely flooded due to the recent heavy rainfall.

A wildlife rescue service was forced to suspend its operations after their centre flooded on Friday night (March 31).

Staff at the centre on Woodway Road Blewbury in Upton, near Didcot, were forced to remove water with buckets and salvage expensive equipment.

Sick animals were also relocated from the affected area.

On Friday night, Oxfordshire Wildlife Rescue (OWR) posted on Facebook: “Sadly, we’ve flooded.

“Tonight saw the team shovelling and bucketing water out until our pump arrived, rescuing and floating patients to safer areas and saving out expensive equipment where we possibly could.”

Hal Colliver, a flying instructor at V1 Flight, with an airfield based at Landmead Farm, near Garford, took some aerial photos of the flooding across the south of the county.

He said: “The exceptional thing about the flooding is just how quickly it occurred.

“We rarely see that amount of water in Abingdon. The area has been flooded before, but this time it came and went at such a speed - we usually see that volume of rainfall over an entire winter, not just a few days.

“I took those photos while doing a pleasure flight, the customer was really interested in the flooding.”

Mr Colliver added that it was lucky his airfield wasn’t flooded, and that he could see all the flooding leading down towards Tesco.

He shared that he couldn’t fly during the heavy rains.

 

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This story was written by Matthew Norman, he joined the team in 2022 as a Facebook community reporter.

Matthew covers Bicester and focuses on finding stories from diverse communities.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Matthew.norman@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @OxMailMattN1