Builders have finished work to finally fix a garden wall which forms part of Sidmouth’s flood defences.

Around 70 feet of Bridge House’s brick boundary was destroyed in last summer’s extreme weather, leaving a hundred-year-old cedar tree leaning precariously over the River Sid.

But the daughter of the owners said the wall at the ford is now completely finished and ‘looking really good’.

Judy Greene had said she would be relieved when the work is finally done, admitting to have ‘lived and breathed’ the project for almost a year, keeping her elderly parents up to date with progress, who are both 94 and live in a care home in Sidmouth.

It required agreement by numerous agencies to get planning permission for the repairs, as Bridge House is both in Sidmouth’s conservation area and the wall forms part of the town’s flood defences.

But an application was passed by the district council, and work began earlier this year removing the garage and a portion of the garden to fix the wall.

She said: “The builders have worked really hard and done a sterling job.

“It caused a lot of interest and one of the builders said to me ‘it is like being a monkey at Paignton Zoo’.”

The house was in the process of being sold when the floods damaged the property, but Judy said the buyer had stayed interested and the sale has now gone through.

“So it is the end to a really difficult and unusual project,” she added.