RESIDENTS in Horwich face a big clean-up today after their homes were hit by overnight flooding.

Heavy rain flooded parts of the town on in the early hours of the morning, washing out roads, gardens and even homes.

Longworth Road residents Gareth and Jean Pritchard woke to find their garden under a foot and a half of water and front drive covered in mounds of mud, washed in by the rain.

The couple have lived at the home for more than 20 years and Mr Pritchard, a 58 year old service engineer, says the flooding is an almost annual occurrence.

Mr Pritchard believes the problems stem from a lack of drainage on the road but argues Bolton Council has not addressed the problem effectively.

"All the mess has gone down into the garden and it's happened to the houses next door," he said.

"We are all down in the dumps today.

"It's been happening for years and we've been complaining and complaining but nothing is done.

"A few years ago a neighbour got flooded right up to the windowsill. It shouldn't happen, it just shouldn't happen."

Bolton Council has been contacted for comment.

Crews from Bolton North were called to a property on Brownlow Road, and found what was described as some of the worst flooding they had ever seen.

They were called at 3.15am to the large detached home, by which point the water had reached knee height. However, because of the volume of water, the fire service could not pump it out of the house without risking further floods as it ran downhill.

The residents, a married couple, were advised to switch off their electricity and stay upstairs.

Crew manager Mark Anderson said: “I have never seen anything like it — the place was flooded up to knee height.

“Unfortunately because of the amount of water, if we had tried to pump it out then it would have run down the hill and caused more flooding. There wasn’t much positive action we could take.

“I have worked here for many years and this is the most significant flooding I can remember.”

The Met Office has put a weather warning in force for the region, with more heavy rainfall expected today.

There are further reports of problems in Horwich this morning on social media with greengrocers The Salad Bowl tweeting that parts of Chorley Old Road are flooded.