LUDLOW grandmother Joan Tisbury may have to spend Christmas in rented accommodation while her house is rebuilt after a 26-tonne articulated lorry smashed into it.

Mrs Tisbury, aged 76, and her sister-in-law Doris Freeman, 70, had a narrow escape just after 11pm last Thursday when the lorry ploughed through reinforced concrete posts and a boundary fence to hit the side of the house in Dahn Drive.

The lorry was making a routine delivery of pallets to the Aquila electricity group's depot next door in Riddings Road when the driver experienced mechanical difficulties.

Aquila spokesman Beverley Harrington said that while the lorry was being reversed towards Riddings Road the driver lost control.

Mrs Freeman, who was on her first visit to Ludlow, said: "We had gone to bed and I was woken up by a loud bang. I thought something had fallen on the roof.

"I saw the door to the loft was open and I tried to shut it. Then I realised there was plaster all over the floor. I went to check that Joan was all right. Then I looked out of the window and saw the lorry."

The two women went downstairs to find the front and back doors were jammed by the impact.

Emergency services were on the scene within minutes. Firemen from Ludlow let Mrs Tisbury and Mrs Freeman out through a patio door and took them to a waiting ambulance.

After a precautionary check, they were wrapped in blankets and taken to the nearby home of Mrs Tisbury's daughter, Janice Dell.

Mrs Dell said: "One of the neighbours fetched me because I live just around the corner. They were both very shaken and damage to the house looks very bad. We are all very grateful to the emergency services, who did a splendid job."

Next morning, lumps of concrete and four fence panels lay scattered around the scene. A large crack was visible down the side of the house.

Aquila immediately launched a full investigation and ordered an assessment of the damage to Mrs Tibsury's two-year-old end-terrace house. Mrs Tisbury was allowed back into the house to collect clothes and other personal possessions.

Later, Beverley Harrington of Aquila said: "We are taking care of the two ladies and doing everything we can to support them."

She added: "The house needs to be rebuilt and it looks like it will be a major task. We need to have our structural engineer look at the property. The job will go out to tender and it could take up to six months."

Mrs Tisbury's granddaughter Philippa Dell said: "We don't know what the situation will be over Christmas. Gran is still looking for accommodation to get herself settled in. Obviously it has shaken her a bit."