MOTORISTS were stranded, homes and businesses flooded and thousands of north Cotswold residents left without electricity as storms battered the region.

Home owners and businesses were last night (Wednesday) crossing their fingers and hoping that a big depression in the Atlantic would pass the region by and avoid a repeat of last weekend's gales and driving rain.

Fallen trees and floods brought many roads to a standstill last Sunday and Monday. Trees fell on the B4081 near Chipping Campden, Batsford Road, Moreton, the A429 at Stow, the B4077 at Ford and the A44 near Bourton-on-the-Hill.

The storms knocked out the traffic lights at the foot of Stow Hill for a time on Monday morning and floods affected roads in Bledington, Evenlode and Broadwell, where two cars were stranded in floodwaters.

Bernard and Sandra Edgeworth, owners of the Swan Inn in Moreton, found themselves mopping up for the third time in less than three years after storm water poured off the fields and the A44 between Moreton and Bourton-on-the-Hill and rushed into the town in the early hours of Monday morning.

A weary Mrs Edgeworth said: "We found water in the pub at 5.20am, but I know when I let one of my dogs out at 4am there was no sign of any water. It happened that quickly.

"All the passageway carpet was completely under water and the function room. It has lifted the tiles in the kitchen. The toilets were flooded and the bar carpet damaged."

The worst floods seen at the pub came at Easter 1998, causing £62,500 worth of damage. More floods came last Christmas Eve and after this week's flooding Mrs Edgeworth said: "I'm very down about it."

She pinned much of the blame for the severity of the floods on Gloucestershire County Council for not keeping roadside drains clear, but divisional surveyor Laurence Elcocks said: "We do clear out the drains and every year a machine goes round and empties the sumps." In addition, he said, highways staff did clear any blockages brought to their attention by the public.

He said the problem was that when water tables were at their peak and the ground saturated water poured from fields into already-full ditches and it then took the line of least resistance to the bottom of the hill - in this case the A44 road into Moreton town centre.

He also urged people to sweep fallen leaves off drain gratings near their homes and said farmers should clear out roadside ditches that were their responsibility.

The flooding in Moreton left a long stretch of the lower High Street several feet under water and, as traffic queued to pass through it, one woman from Stow was taken to hospital with minor injuries after her VW Polo was one of four cars involved in a shunt-type accident.

The floods also forced St David's School to close. Headteacher Bob Forster said: "The whole field and playground were under water and we had water coming up into one of the toilets. Had we had any more rain it would have been a disaster."

Schools in Chipping Campden would also have been forced to close as the whole town was left without electricity on Monday, but Chipping Campden School, St James's and St Catharine's Primary Schools were all closed to pupils for a teacher training day anyway.

Batsford Arboretum manager Malcolm McLachlan was breathing a sigh of relief after the arboretum escaped with little damage to its collection of trees, including many mature rarities. "We have got away very lightly," he said.

Thames Trains cancelled all services on the Cotswold Line on Monday, and although services resumed on Tuesday, the company was warning passengers to expect delays caused by debris and flooding on the line.

Farmers too suffered and one lost three lambs, which were electrocuted by a fallen power line near Charingworth. Police responding to a burglar alarm found the lambs dead in a field.