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Neighbours have been rallying round to help a couple whose thatched home was devastated by fire just a month before they are due to get married.

More than 50 firemen from three counties spent most of Monday night damping down the remains of the Grade II Listed Elizabeth Cottage at High Street, Castle Camps.

Nick Totty and his partner Joanna Hambloch, who is recovering from a cancer operation four weeks ago, were able to save many of their belongings.

But they watched in vain as the thatched roof and the first floor of the home where they have lived for the past three and a half years was destroyed.

They are determined to go ahead with their wedding at the village church on November 12th, with the reception at the Cock pub, next door to their burned out home.

A neighbour alerted the couple to smoke and flames coming out from under the thatch not long after they lit a fire on Monday evening.

Nick, a scientist who works for Cancer Research UK in London, said villagers had immediately offered help, with Colin and Ann Lott giving them the keys to the empty cottage next door to move into while their home is re-built.

Nick said a man working on a new house opposite had even loaned him boots and trousers to wear while the fire was being tackled.

"We were very lucky because we had plenty of time to get out and managed to get about 90 per cent of our stuff out. I think there could have been a crack in the flue which let the fire get into the roof space. I rushed out with a garden hose and got up a ladder. But after 10 minutes I was overcome by the smoke and managed to fall off the ladder.
The firemen were fantastic, some of them came from as far away as Peterborough."

Mr Totty said there was 800 litres of heating oil on the ground floor and he had been concerned what might have happened if that had ignited.

He said: "It will probably take four to six months to rebuild the house, but after what we have been through recently as long as Joanna is all right that is all that really matters to me.
Everyone in the village has been offering to help, the man opposite plied me with cups of tea and we watched it burn together."