DOZENS of businesses in Marlborough, including the town's main post office in the High Street, were forced to close yesterday when contractors at the college struck a power cable.

Contractors working on Marlborough College's new art school building in Bridewell Street sliced through an underground electricity cable.

The 11,000 volt cable provided power to most of the east end of the High Street, virtually all the lower side as far as the Bear Hotel, to Hyde Lane and Kingsbury Street.

Because of Marlborough's archaic power system some premises found themselves without power while neighbours on either side still had electricity.

The public school, where the Queen's granddaughter Princess Eugenie is a student, did not suffer too badly because Wednesday afternoon is half day.

But in the High Street some businesses were forced to close including the town post office in the One Stop shop.

A spokeswoman in the post office said: "For safety reasons we had to close as soon as the power went off and we remained closed until it came back on."

For many premises the electricity, which went off at about 1.50pm, was back on within 75 minutes.

Waitrose lost its mains supply but was able to continue with its own emergency generators powering the lights and tills.

In the Polly Tea Rooms, one of the country's most famous restaurants, the good old British stiff upper lip prevailed and it stayed open without power throughout the cut. A member of staff at the Polly said: "We carried on serving cold drinks," and added that the tea rooms famous cakes continued to be served.

The Polly staff member said: "We managed to get by for about an hour and we were just thinking that we might have to close because it was getting darker but then the power came back on."

The Royal Oak was unable to serve any meals while the power was off. A spokesman for the pub said: "We lost a shed load of food trade."

It was the same in the Bear Hotel and it was drinks only for the hour and a quarter it was without power."

One of the staff in the Bear said: "We lost probably about £50 in food trade. If it had happened an hour earlier it would have been a lot worse."

St John's upper school in Cherry Orchard was left without power but lessons continued largely as normal, said a spokeswoman.

A spokesman for Southern Electric, part of the Scottish and Southern Energy Group, said about 1,500 premises, both commercial and homes, were affected.

He said: "It happened at about ten to two when contractors' workmen at Marlborough College struck an underground cable."

Electricity board controllers were able to re-route power to most areas quite quickly, said the spokesman.

He said the power cut not only affected homes in Marlborough itself but also in Manton and Rockley.

Speaking 90 minutes after the disconnection, he said: "All but about 500 properties have now been re-connected."

He said the power was being restored in phases from other supplies into the town and added: "It may be that a few properties close to the area where the cable was damaged may have to stay without power until the repairs can be carried out."