300-year-old tree victim of Storm Franklin after Fountains Abbey flooding

• Video report by Adam Fowler

The water gardens at Fountains Abbey in Ripon have re-opened after being flooded following Storm Franklin.

Heavy snow on Saturday thawed on Sunday leading to water running through the 900-year-old estate.

High winds also brought down a 300-year-old beech tree, which the National Trust says will be removed once the gardens are no longer waterlogged.

Head gardener Neville Tate said: "That will take us probably if the whole team three days to clear the just the brush and then the trunk.

"We have to get contractors in the ship that we haven't got the equipment to shift that ourselves.

"You've got to search your soul. To be honest with you, to try and try and get your head around what weather can do."

The main reservoir at the estate is also thick with silt - the National Trust say it's putting more resources into preventing further floods.

Justin Scully from the estate said: "It's the frequency of storms that we're worried about.

"This is a manmade landscape and even back 900 years, you know, the monks were moving the way the river flowed. 

"But to see that floating happening more frequently is a real concern for us.

"There's two things the National Trust can do. Firstly, we can protect the abbey and the gardens themselves, and the other thing we can do is work with farmers upstream so that the water slowed down so it doesn't hit the abbey and the rest of our community so strongly."