A 41-YEAR-OLD man has been charged with dangerous driving after a house was destroyed by a timber lorry shedding its load.

Bryony Francis had a lucky escape when around 40 giant tree trunks smashed into the front of her 200-year-old Llangua cottage on Saturday lunchtime, May 15, 2021, while she was sat in the back kitchen

Her partner John Clark’s snug office was completely wiped out in the collision, but luckily he was out at the time.

The relieved couple later said they had been calling for years for road improvements beside their house on the A465 Abergavenny to Hereford road, as it was an accident blackspot at a point where the road suddenly narrowed.

Gwent Police have confirmed this week that a Cardiff man, who has not yet been identified, has been charged with dangerous driving in connection with the incident and bailed to appear at court at a future date.

They said there was “substantial damage” to the house at the time of the crash, which happened around 1.20pm, and neighbours had been evacuated from their homes as a precaution.

The cab of the Karl Jones and Sons lorry was wrecked and the driver taken to hospital with head and leg injuries,

A Ewyas Harold Fire Station spokesperson said at the time: “Supporting our colleagues from South Wales Fire and Rescue the crew was faced with an articulated lorry that had left the road and collided with a house, losing its loads of timber logs and severely damaging one house and the fronts of the adjoining two properties.

“The cab of the lorry also had significant damage.

“Thankfully the occupant of the house that took the initial impact, who was home at the time, was unhurt and able to get out of the house.

“The driver had self-extricated from the cab and was managed by the ambulance crews before being taken off to hospital thankfully without life threatening injuries.”

After the crash, Bryony Francis, now 52, told the Chronicle she was in her back kitchen when she heard a “massive, massive bang” and the house shook.

Bryony, who bought the 200-year-old home beside the A465 Abergavenny-Hereford road some 15 years ago, said she and her partner were “thanking our lucky stars…

that neither of us was in the front of the house”.

When she went to the front and tried to open the door to the snug room it wouldn’t budge.

Upstairs she turned into the bedroom to the sight of most of it missing, with just the floor still intact.

She then found a giant trunk blocking her way at the back and their van written off on the drive, and had to climb “very carefully” over a pile of giant trunks strewn beside the house. The couple said the house was uninhabitable and they would have to relocate for rebuilding work to take place.