A ROOF buckled at Dean Prior Garden Centre after its steel structure gave way under the weight of snow.

Owner Richard Christy woke up on Monday to find the polytunnel undercover shopping area, veering drunkenly to one side.

'We're still open. We are selling Christmas trees and wreaths outside but we can't let people into the building, we can't take the risk,' Richard said.

'Obviously we were hoping there was going to be a last-minute flurry. We had been doing fairly well up until yesterday. It's very damaging.'

Luckily none of the stock was damaged.

Worse case scenario? He could be looking at replacing the whole 40ft x 20ft structure at a cost of £20,000 plus.

He's insured with the National Farmers' Union and was expecting the loss adjustor on Tuesday.

Richard said he's been overwhelmed at people's kindness.

He called in Neil Wells and Louise Barber, of Dart Property and Gardens Services. The couple spent around five hours clearing around eight inches of snow from the roof with brooms.

Neil, a retained firefighter, had to dash off on his bike after being called out to a road traffic accident, leaving Louise to work on in the dark.

Another Buckfastleigh friend, Roger Hopper, appeared with wood to shore up the roof and strapped the sides of the building together to stop it collapsing.

None of them would accept payment, Richard said.

'I've got to sort them out, I can't accept that. It's very generous, but they worked so hard.'

l It was Roger Hopper's second good deed of the day. Early Monday morning he got a distress call from none other than Santa himself, who had got stuck in his car near Buckfastleigh quarry, on his way to put the 'Santa' into South Devon Railway's Santa Special.

'My child and I jumped into the Land Rover and towed him out,' he said.