No wind-up, I was ready for flooding (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

No wind-up, I was ready for flooding

12:38pm Saturday 28th July 2007

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A famous borough resident used his aptitude for inventing to stay home and dry in his flood-proof riverside house.

Trevor Baylis OBE, wind-up radio inventor and Eel Pie Island resident, created his two storey house with built-in defences against the water damage inflicted on borough homes over the last two weeks.

He said: "I knew there was likely to be a problem with flooding here because it was at the time they put the Thames Barrier in."

When Trevor dug the swimming pool in his back room in 1970, he used the earth from the hole to create a barrier between the house and the River Thames. Covered in tonnes of concrete, the mound took shape as a garden raised 2ft higher than the riverbank.

There would be no soggy floorboards in Trevor's home if the Thames bursts its banks in the face of the additional rain forecast for London. "Even if water got past the barrier, all of the floors are concrete," he explained.

A seasoned aquatic adventurer, the 70-year-old was an underwater escape artiste with the Berlin Circus, a factor in his understanding of the way water behaves.

But although water may be Trevor's element, he took no risks with his power supply in the event of a flood. He said: "All of the plug sockets are 3ft from the ground and the wires come down from the ceiling. I have been flooded before many years ago, but my defences held."

Trevor is backing a new invention he hopes will take the flood clean-up industry by storm. The Direct Air Drying system (DAD) is an inflatable dryer that hovers above flood sodden floors and cuts drying out time by 50 per cent according to inventor David Elliot.

David, who's invention is based in Richmond, said: "One problem with drying properties out is that dust can be blown all over furniture and cause a second claim on the insurance. So I decided to come up with something that took care of that as well."

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