The recent Storm Babet forced the vicar of St Alkmund's, Duffield, to move a wedding to a neighboring parish after river water innundated the church.

St Alkmund's, which is in the flood plain of the River Derwent, was one of many in the diocese affected by the storm.

This is the second time the church has flooded in the past four years and the third time the church hall has flooded.

The vicar, Revd James Hughes, said he had to move Saturday's wedding to nearby St Paul's Little Eaton: “By Friday, previous experience told me that flooding in the church was a distinct possibility.

"So I kept in close contact with the couple and we decided to delay the final decision until Saturday morning.

“With three inches of water in the church building on Saturday, it was a quick decision, not to mention the two feet of water in the church hall!

"When we did the wedding rehearsal on Wednesday, little did we know that things would not go according to plan, though the bride and groom were very understanding about the situation, even though it wasn’t quite what they had in mind.”

The clean-up operation is now underway, though it may be a week or two before services can resume in St Alkmund’s.

It is hoped that the local Church of England school can host the church’s services and there have been a number of offers of help with the clean-up.

Other parts of the village flooded too because the River Ecclesbourne also burst its banks, a scene that was repeated around Derbyshire and in Derby.

The Rt Revd Libby Lane, Bishop of Derby, said: “My prayers are with everyone affected by the flooding as once again so many lives and livelihoods have suffered.

"We give thanks for our local authority teams and emergency services who rose to the challenge of keeping us safe, and for the resilient partnerships across the city and county that facilitated such a coordinated and generous response to the crisis.

“The people of Derbyshire have an incredibly strong sense of community and I know that many neighbourhoods, businesses and individuals are rallying round to support those who need it most.”