Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre reacts to the floods after new paths were washed away

By Saturday afternoon it was almost as if nothing dramatic had happened at the Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre but that was down to the sterling efforts of a team of volunteers who responded fast when the damage was known.

"Anything man-made was washed away, while anything natural survived," said Grant Wilson the manager at the charity run centre in Craven Arms. "Apparently the River Onny reached its highest recorded level."

The flooding on Wednesday washed away paths which were accessible and used by the disabled. They were funded by using £20,000 of Government money that was administered by Shropshire Council.

Mr Wilson, who said he felt 'guilty' that the paths had only been in use for a few months but they would not be rushing into any decisions.

"We are going to have a serious think what we are going to do," he said. "It is a flood plain and likely to flood again. We will be taking some expert advice."

Mr Wilson said for the short term, access has been restored but that the "all abilities" access would take "much longer."

He apologised to disabled and other people with difficulties that they now could not get to the whole of the Onny Meadows site.

But Mr Wilson praised volunteers for turning out in force repairing paths and removing ruined fences.

"We are so grateful to the wonderful Onny Meadows Group for all they do," he said. "The 15 volunteers removed 15 tons of stone which had been churned out by the floods.

"Our path network is now fully open to pedestrians, but sadly those using wheelchairs will not currently be able to access the river. We feel sorry for them and deflated that we are not able to offer it."

He added that there was a sense on Saturday that visitors had turned up to help by using the cafe and visiting the exhibitions.

"We certainly had more people here than I would normally expect," Mr Wilson said.

There is plenty going on at the centre in the next few months, including a fireworks display there on October 26, then a host of half term activities before the Frost Fair on November 2 and 3.