'Miracle' nobody hurt as car crashes into pub

A pub owner has said it was a "miracle no-one was severely injured" after a car crashed into the building.

Ted Docherty runs The Little Angel on Remenham Lane in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.

He said at about 18:45 GMT on Sunday, the car smashed into the back wall of the 16th Century building sending equipment and rubble flying across the kitchen where five chefs were finishing off dinner service.

Thames Valley Police said one person suffered minor injuries. No arrests have been made and officers appealed for witnesses to contact them after the vehicle left the scene.

Mr Docherty said he was on his way home and quickly turned back to get to the pub.

"The chefs thought something had exploded and then they thought the wall had collapsed," he said.

He added that most of the customers also thought there had been an "explosion".

He described how heavy equipment had completely shifted from one end of the kitchen to the other.

"If there was someone in-between that it could have been a whole lot worse," he said.

"There's a couple of staff who got bruised but quite frankly it's a miracle that no-one was severely injured."

Mr Docherty said he was initially concerned the business would have to close for a long time but they managed to have the kitchen open by 18:00 the following day.

He said it was an "amazing team effort" of the freeholders Brakspear and construction company Turvey's which built a temporary stud wall in the kitchen.

He added: "The kitchen could go back to normal operation and the builders could work on the other side of that wall to repair it without interfering with the kitchen."

When asked how much the repairs might cost, Mr Docherty said: "I haven't even considered it."

He said he hopes the police will catch the driver so that the cost goes on their insurance rather than the pub's.

He continued: "How do you face adversity? Some people roll up their sleeves and take on the challenge and others don't, so we had no option, there's enough staff that rely on this business to live so we just needed to get it open again."

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