A pensioner whose wife suffered a stroke after their house was flooded has moved back home for the last time.

Peter Mooring, of Welham Road, has vowed that if there is any repeat of the floods which struck twice in 18 months, he and his wife Phyllis will never return to their house.

Mr Mooring says the stress of moving back in this week has caused him to fall ill.

"We've been shifting stuff all week and I've caught a bad case of flu," he said.

"But we're back in now and I'm just concentrating on getting better and getting used to being back in my home."

The 81-year-old Second World War veteran and his wife were forced to leave their home in a boat in October last year when the floods struck.

Last year's floods struck just 18 months after their home had last been flooded in March 1999.

Just a year later the stress of their ordeal proved too much and Phyllis suffered a stroke.

"I fought in Syria, Palestine and El Alamein so it (the flooding) didn't bother me too much," said Mr Mooring.

"I thought Phyllis could cope but the stress must have been too much."

The Evening Press visited the couple's home in October last year, on the morning Mr Mooring and his wife were taken from the first floor of their home to a waiting boat to be carried to safety.

Then, furniture and other household items were floating around the ground floor of their home in more than a foot of dirty river water.

For the last five months builders have been stripping the floorboards and walls and putting their flood damaged house back in order.

Walking back into that same house more than five months later, you'd be hard pushed to guess what had happened there.

"This has been our home for years but if it happens again we'll never come back," said Mr Mooring.

"We were lucky to have found a nice house in Norton to live in over the last five months but I don't think we could cope with the stress of having our home destroyed again.

"The builders have put in solid walls so my only complaint is that we're struggling to put pins in them to get our pictures and ornaments back up.

"It all looks very nice now - they've done a good job, but I would have preferred it the way it was before the floods."

Updated: 08:29 Friday, April 20, 2001