Even though we tried to keep the shop open after the water level fell it was just impossible

Even though we tried to keep the shop open after the water level fell, it was just impossible. The whole ground floor is having to be stripped out – shop units, floors, stud walls, kitchen, even the staircase – they say it’s all contaminated. And 10 weeks later we’ve still got dehumidifiers going every day. Our insurers wanted us to move out to rented accommodation in Battle but that would have been impossible. We would have to get our little boy up at 4am just so we could go to work. We persuaded them to make alterations so we could stay where we were.

We’ve now got a cooker and fridge in the upstairs living room and our bedroom is the office. We managed to keep the papers going by renting a room in the working men’s club and we’ve just reopened the shop in a Portakabin in the garden. It’s hard to say how much business we’ve lost because of the flooding. Seventy families have had to leave homes in the village, and Gray-Nicolls, the cricket bat factory, has packed up and moved to Rye Their workers all used to buy pies in our shop.. The Robin, traditionally depicted in Christmas cards as perched on a garden fence amid a white winter landscape, is flourishing because of a lack of that most seasonal of elements – snow. The Robin, traditionally depicted in Christmas cards as perched on a garden fence amid a white winter landscape, is flourishing because of a lack of that most seasonal of elements – snow.
Most people believe robin redbreast is happiest when the snow lies deep and crisp and even He is not.

Conservationists think the succession of mild winters has encouraged robin numbers to soar 12 per cent across the UK since 1994.In some areas, the rise is 30 per cent, shows a survey by the British Trust for Ornithology. There are thought to be 4.5m breeding pairs across the UK and a further 1.9m pairs in Ireland. “All populations of birds tend to bob up and down a bit but this is certainly a period of sustained growth,” said John Tucker, conservation officer for the Shropshire Wildlife Trust, where some the highest growth in numbers has been recorded.”We seem to have forgotten about hard winters which are what tend to clobber robins. The last really severe winter was in 1962 when robin populations dropped 80 per cent. Instead we’re getting mild winters, which may be part of a long-term trend in climate change.”The birds have also been helped by people putting out food for them. Species of small birds that visit gardens are generally doing a lot better than those that don’t.”The association of the robin with snowy winter scenes appears to be the result of the fertile imaginations of Christmas card designers rather than anything to do with nature.”Mild winters favour robins,” said Mr Tucker.

“If you dig a hole in your garden the robins will queue beside it. They prefer the soft ground because they can pick up worms and other beasties. If the ground is frozen hard they can’t do that.”But numbers of other birds with Christmas associations are dropping. The grey partridge has declined by 43 per cent in five years and the turtle dove by 18 per cent. Changes in farming methods, the use of herbicides and alterations in crop-growing routines are the main causes of their decline.Mr Tucker said: “Robins are not farmland birds, so they have escaped the effects of farming changes that have affected other birds: corn buntings and skylarks.”The robin’s association with the Christian seasons of celebration, though not with snow, goes back 2,000 years.Legend has it that the bird received its red breast from trying to remove the bloody thorns from Christ’s head at the Crucifixion, with a small drop of his blood falling on the bird which injured itself in the process of removing the thorns.. “Stop the fight! For God’s sake stop the fight!” Bobby Neill was on his feet screaming at the television screen as Paul Ingle returned to his corner at the end of the 11th round of his fateful world title defence against the South African Mbulelo Botile at the Sheffield Arena last Saturday night.