Flooding forces National Trust Mottisfont to close rooms

Mottisfont closed parts of its house and gallery to visitors yesterday, Tuesday, March 18, after some of its rooms were flooded, but it should be repaired by next week.

A spokesperson wrote on Facebook: "Due to flooding in part of the house, some rooms on the show floor and two art gallery rooms will be closed today. Additionally, the seating area at the back of the Kitchen Cafe will be closed."

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Mottisfont is a popular destination for tourists in the Test Valley (Image: Trevor Bevins) On Wednesday, March 19, General Manager Vicky Fletcher said: "Early on the morning of March 18 our house team found water pooling on three floors of the house whilst preparing the rooms for visitors.

"Swift action was taken to locate the source of the water, which was a faulty pipe valve coming off a water tank in the roof.

"The water was quickly isolated and turned off, paintings and pictures were removed and a plumber was called to replace the faulty part.

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"An emergency notice was put up on our website but, due to the fast work of the team, we were able to re-open the house and most of the exhibition the same day.

"One part of the long gallery on the ground floor remains roped off but is likely to be open again next week.

"The tanks and pipes are regularly checked but, as with any domestic house, sometimes things happen which you can’t predict.” 

Experiences & Visitor Programming Manager Helen Potts said: "Our current exhibition, Three Victorian Travellers, is proving very popular with visitors and we’re working on getting the exhibition fully open again by the weekend."