Charles Spencer has revealed how a 'tornado' tore through his estate of Althorp House, leaving devastation in its wake. Earl Spencer, 56, shared a glimpse of the carnage at Althorp House in Northampton, where he grew up with the late Princess Diana, posting a clip to his Twitter page.

He commented: 'We’ve just had a tornado rip through the Park at ⁦Althorp House ⁩ - dozens of trees badly hit, and an iron lantern torn from the side of one of the lodges.'

He continued: Luckily, no animals hurt.' 

His comments come after storms lashed the UK, with 'extreme' downpours with more than a foot of rain falling in certain areas just 36 hours, blocking roads, disrupting trains and flooding homes and buildings. 

The estate, which has been the Spencer family seat since 1508, usually welcomes visitors to its grounds, but has been closed for parts of the past year due to the coronavirus pandemic. But Earl Spencer has been keeping fans interested by sharing glimpses of the home and its grounds on social media. 

His video comes after spells of sustained rainfall fell over the weekend, with a yellow warning issued for heavy rain to spread across South East Wales before clearing to the east through Friday, the Met Office said. There were also yellow weather warnings in place for parts of Yorkshire, County Durham and Northumberland – and Wales also has the same warning for rain across most of the country. 

The rain has raised fears of travel delays and communities becoming cut off amid the 'persistent and heavy downpours', the Met Office said. It also warned of power cuts as well as properties being flooded. 'These are exceptional rainfall totals for even the wettest part of the UK, which is Cumbria on average, and for the wettest part of the year,' Met Office meteorologist Aidan McGivern said in a forecast video. 

The rain lashing the UK is due to a stream of warm moist air that has moved up from the tropics. Up to ten inches (250mm) was expected to fall in Cumbria – almost twice as much as in a typical October. Ben Lukey, flood duty manager at the Environment Agency, said: 'A slow-moving band of heavy and persistent rain could bring surface water and river flooding and disruption to travel, to communities in Cumbria and parts of the north of England from today (Wednesday) through to Friday and Saturday.

'Working with our partners in local resilience forums, Environment Agency teams have been out on the ground clearing waste grilles and screens, and stand ready to operate flood defenses if needed,' Lukey said.'They are also ready to support local authorities in their response to surface water flooding.'