TWO BUILDINGS belonging to the Berkshire College of Agriculture have been flooded as a result of the thunderstorms on Tuesday evening.

All four floors of a wing of the college's Hall Place mansion, including the basement, were damaged by rainwater, in addition to both floors of the Clock Cottage.

The principle, Gillian May, of Maidenhead, said: “Both sustained damage as a result of being old buildings. They are listed assets, so are always going to be a challenge to look after.

"It's not too dissimilar from church roofs; they're costly to fix and as soon as you fix one problem, another one occurs.”

The Fire service was called out to the scene at about 9.15pm. They spent about two hours assessing both buildings to ensure they were structurally sound.

Mrs May said that the damage had not been disruptive to the college so far. She said: “There's been no disruption to business. It happened outside the academic year, and neither building is used for teaching in any case – mostly for conferences. It's business as usual here.”

The cost of the damage had not been assessed at this time, but as listed buildings, Mrs May said they would be 'not cheap' to repair.