A family's £900,000 dream home is now "worthless" after being flooded with raw sewage - twice in the last three years. <br /><br />Helen and Ashley Northway’s 17th century stone farmhouse was overflowing with foul water after heavy rain swept the UK last week.<br /><br />The six-bedroom property was overwhelmed despite £230,000 being spent on flood defences and drain upgrades in their village in 2021.<br /><br />The couple’s home sits in a natural dip in the centre of Raunds, Northants., which has been hit with flooding in recent years. <br /><br />On Christmas Eve 2020 the family desperately tried to save presents and valuables after the entire ground floor of their home was under 3ft of water.<br /><br />Because of bad drainage and a faulty sewage pipe, foul waste swept into the house, leaving the family with a huge clean-up bill.<br /><br />The couple complained to Northamptonshire Highways and engineers repaired misconnected sewage pipes and built two soakaways to absorb surface water at a cost of £230,000.<br /><br />But just over two years later, the family’s property was once again submerged after last week’s downpours.<br /><br />After being exposed to raw sewage, the couple, their 10-month-old daughter Evelyn, <br />10-year-old disabled son Archie and Helen’s 89-year-old grandmother June, all fell ill.<br /><br />Helen and husband Ashley, 43, a veteran army bomb disposal expert with the Royal Engineers, bought the house in 2017.<br /><br />They spent £200,000 converting the 380-year-old building into a family home including a fully-equipped annexe for Helen's grandmother.<br /><br />The couple, who were childhood sweethearts, hoped the property would prove to be an investment for their children when they got older.<br /><br />However, they say it is now “worthless” and are unable to sell it or insure it against future flooding.<br /><br />Helen also blames a sprawling 400-home development which has been built at the end of her road for increasing the pressure on the drains.<br /><br />Since the road repairs were carried out the family have called out the fire service to pump water from the street outside their home into the nearby brook multiple times.
