DOZENS of homes were left without water for more than 36 hours, with disgruntled residents blaming the situation on heavy goods lorries trundling through their historic streets.

DOZENS of homes were left without water for more than 36 hours, with disgruntled residents blaming the situation on heavy goods lorries trundling through their historic streets.

More than 40 properties in Lavenham were starved of water after officials struggled to locate the leak following problems on Sunday morning.

The trouble came just 48 hours after a high number of HGVs were diverted through the ancient village streets after an accident on the A14 on Friday, with residents believing the two incidents were linked.

Properties in Water Street, Brent Eleigh Road, The Common and Bears Lane were affected and officials at Anglian Water admitted the unusually high number of lorries was one possibility for the problem.

Lindsay Warden, who lives in Water Street, said: “The road is lined with historic Grade I listed houses and I don't think it was designed for such heavy traffic.

“A lot of people feel there should be some weight restriction while another problem is the satellite navigation systems these lorries have - they find the quickest route but it is not always the most appropriate. You can often feel houses shudder when the lorries go past and it is a worry.”

Robert Holmes, who lives in Brent Eleigh Road, said: “I sat outside my house on Friday and couldn't believe the amount of lorries which came past.

“We had some huge great vehicles on the roads and I wouldn't be surprised if the water main problem was something to do that.

“It has been a little inconvenient but we are coping. My main criticism is the time it took for us to receive some bottled water from officials. There are lots of young families here and Sunday was very hot.”

A spokesman for Anglian Water said the problems began on Sunday morning when engineers were called out to deal with a burst water main.

They remained at the scene last night after finding a blockage about 5ft under the ground and water was restored to the homes shortly after 7pm.

The spokesman said: “There was no puddle or surface water so we were unable to locate the burst water main.

“Our engineers worked until 1am on Sunday night but then we had to stop because we did not want to disturb any residents.

“Bursts are usually caused by ground movement of some description. It is possible this could have been caused by lorries - but to say for certain is impossible.

“We would like to apologise to residents for any problem but we did all we can do restore the water supply as soon as possible.”