10/02/2025

Susan and Helen have a nice chat at Bridge Farm about Neil’s recent trip to meet Nelly and Helen’s house plans. Then a shocking incident stops everything, as a tide of raw sewage comes spilling out of the brook. Pat, Tony and Tom are desperate to stop it from reaching the house and dairy. Pat goes to warn Helen and Tom says he’ll call David – they need Brookfield’s yard scraper - while Tony fetches the power hose. Meanwhile, Pat tells Helen to save what she can in the dairy with Susan, before the sewage reaches the storage room.

Ben arrives with the scraper while Tom explains there’s been a discharge from the treatment station into their brook and it’s overtopped the banks. Tom takes the driver’s seat in the scraper as Ben goes to help Helen at the Dairy. Susan and Helen work frantically to load cheeses onto trolleys and shift them out of the danger area, while Clarrie is sent to check on the Tearoom and Shop. Despite their best efforts many cheeses have already been ruined by the time Ben joins the fight to save as many of the rest as they can.

Later, Pat, Helen and Ben survey the damage. The shop and Tea room seem ok, although the stench has driven customers away. Henry’s planned carpark event is ruined, but Helen says he’ll have to deal with it. Helen tries to calm catastrophising Pat, who remembers the e-coli disaster. Pat reckons the water company has a lot to answer for - but how are they going to get through this?