A FAMILY of four from Pewsey has spoken of its narrow escape from the flooding disaster that devastated the Cornish village of Boscastle.

Tom and Victoria Page and their children Fred, 14, and Flo, 11, arrived in Boscastle just as last week's deluge was at its worst.

They had been looking forward to a peaceful week's holiday in the same National Trust cottage where they had a relaxing holiday last year.

They couldn't wait for their nightmare journey through storms to end and to get into their brook side cottage.

Little did they know that the stream flowing past the cottage was the River Valency, one of two rivers that were to burst their banks and cause devastation on a scale not witnessed in Cornwall since the Lynmouth disaster of 1953.

Office furniture salesman Mr Page, his wife who is a landscape designer, and their two children had been looking forward for months to getting back to Cornwall.

Mrs Page said: "We booked the same cottage again and we set off from Pewsey last Monday at about 11am expecting to be in and unpacked by tea time."

After passing through Launceston the family ran into heavy rain with some localised flooding on roads that they managed to get through.

Mrs Page said: "There were unbelievable floods coming off the fields.

"As we approached Boscastle and looked own into the village we were amazed to see how swollen the river running down through the middle was."

What had been a burbling brook last year, she said, had become a coursing torrent.

The family pulled up in the village car park with some difficulty. "It was difficult because it was so packed with people," said Mrs Page.

"It was just spitting with rain at that time and I went to the visitor centre in the car park to pick up some leaflets thinking that if was going to be raining we needed to find some places to take the children."

While she went to the visitor centre her husband and children stood watching the river.

Flo said: "It was going really fast with large waves on it which was completely different to how we saw it last year."

The family went to the village's only general stores and bought some local-grown potatoes and Cornish ice-cream to take to their cottage.

Mrs Page said: "We thought we had better not delay in getting to the cottage which is in the Valency Valley just up the hill out of Boscastle.

"As we got to the cottage we realised the river was incredibly fast although it had not burst its banks at that stage."

An old man living in a neighbouring cottage told them it was the worst he had ever seen it. They used a parking space between the cottage and the river and began to unpack.

"The electricity was coming on and off and there was thunder and lightning," said Mrs Page.

"I went to the car to unpack the rest of the stuff and I could see the water was rising in the river and suddenly saw a tree begin to crack and fall towards me."

By then the rain was so heavy she could not hear warnings shouted by her husband and children and they watched horrified as the mature tree fell and missed her and the car by inches to be swept away by the torrent.

Flo said: "We were screaming at her but she could not hear us because of the noise of the river and the rain."

Mrs Page said: "I said to my husband that we ought to get the car up onto higher ground because I realised the river was about to burst its banks."

Within seconds, she said, the water rose and was up to the centre of the car wheels.

"At that point," said Mrs Page, "we thought it was a bit ridiculous staying there because we could seen huge trees coursing down the river in front of us."

Their concern was heightened when a huge metal electricity transformer was swept down the river in front of them and they saw that power cables had fallen into the water.

Huge trout from the river were floundering in the flooded cottage garden. Flo is keen on wildlife, said Mrs Page, and insisted they scooped the stricken fish back into the river.

The family headed back into the village to see trees and cars being swept down the river into the harbour and the parapet had been ripped away by the floodwater pouring over the bridge in the centre of the village.

"The noise and the rush of the water was unbelievable," said Mrs Page.

"Then the helicopters started to arrive and we watched as people were winched off the rooftops."

The downdraft from the helicopters sent up plumes of water that soaked everyone, said Mrs Page.

"We saw people walking towards us who were drenched and traumatised," she continued.

"We asked what we could do to help. We met a family who had somehow managed to escape through the roof of their cottage onto the hillside."

Mr Page offered to drive the other family to his cottage to get dry and warm while his wife and children stayed in the village.

When he got back to the cottage and saw how the river had risen to the point where it was beginning to flood the property they decided, to use Mrs Page's words, "to get the hell out of there".

They decided to cancel their holiday rather than risk their lives. Mrs Page said: "We just wanted to get back inland and away from the floods."

They had to drive to Okehampton in Devon before they could find somewhere to stay for the night because all other accommodation nearer Boscastle had already been taken.

Mrs Page said: "The main thing is that we were safe."