HUNDREDS queued for up to an hour to pick up bottles of water delivered by Thames Water after a burst pipe drained the reservoir in Royal Wootton Bassett.

Residents in the town were among the thousands of people across Swindon and North Wiltshire who woke up without water this morning after a pipe burst in Braydon.

Thames Water engineers spent the day attending the leak and water was re-routed around the network, with Thames Water aiming to bring supply to most residents back to normal levels by this evening.

Meanwhile the company shuttled several emergency bottle runs to affected customers at the Lyneham Express shop, the Sun Inn at Lydiard Millicent and Borough Fields Car Park in Royal Wootton Bassett.

Bottled water ran out twice in Royal Wootton Bassett, with the pick-up point having to be re-serviced by a lorry from Water Direct.

Town councillor Chris Wannell said: “There are a lot of elderly people in the town who aren’t computer literate and a number of care homes. How are they faring?

“I don’t think it’s been handled very well and there’s clearly no management or organisation. I’m disgusted and disappointed.”

Royal Wootton Bassett schools closed as a result of the ongoing water pressure problems, with Royal Wootton Bassett Academy, St Bartholomew’s Primary Academy, Lydiard Millicent Primary School, Longleaze Primary school, Noremarsh Junior Community school, Wootton Bassett county infants, Old Court community preschool, Longleaze pre-school, and Allsorts pre-school all suspending classes.

George Croxford, head at Royal Wootton Bassett Academy, said the water supply cut came at a critical time for the school’s 1,800 pupils.

“It’s affected the students who are sitting A-Levels and GCSE exams in the coming weeks,” he said.

“The first exam is on May 7 and we hope that the pupils are taking the day to study but it can be more difficult at home.”

Liz Radford, business manager at St Bartholomew’s, said: “We have about 240 pupils here and with no water the toilets won’t flush.

"The parents have been very understanding and supportive of our decision to close the school. They know it’s the right decision because we don’t have the facilities to look after the students.”

Ellen Woollaston Cooper, chair of the governors at Noremarsh school, added: “When I realised the water was off I knew there was no way the pupils could go to school. There would be no flushing toilets or water to ensure their hands are clean so it is not feasible.

"If the water comes back on tomorrow which I hope it does, then they will be back in.”

Businesses were also hit by the water shortage, with the Sun Inn in Lydiard Millicent closing for business.

Landlord Howard Taylor took charge of the Sun’s bottle drop. Supermarkets also saw their water stock vanish throughout the course of the morning as residents bought up supplies.

Levels at the Flaxlands Reservoir in Royal Wootton Bassett, which can hold 15 million litres of water when full, started to fall just before midnight on Monday as a result of the burst pipe.

Thames Water said an estimated 900 customers in the SN2 and SN4 postcode areas reported a loss of water supply with thousands believed to be affected, including in the SN5, SN6, SN15, SN16, SN25, SN26 and GL7 postal code areas.

Teams were dispatched overnight to diagnose the problem and, just before 7am, engineers found the cause to be a 16-inch diameter burst pipe in woodland near Purton.

While the cause remains unknown, Thames Water launched an investigation into the incident, with engineers hauling in specialist excavation equipment to the site in Braydon.

By late afternoon a spokesman for Thames Water said water pressures were improving as a result of the work but a complete water supply was still some way off.

“We’re sorry to those customers who’ve had no water or low pressure," he said.

"The work we’re doing to re-route water around our network is having a positive effect so we’re gradually seeing pressures improving. It will still be some time before things return to normal.

"We’ve got tankers full of water in the area ready to go to schools and vulnerable customers to make sure they stay in supply.”