A historic thatched cottage in Shropshire suffered major damage in a blaze which closed a main road for almost five hours.

Flames totally destroyed the roof of the house on the A528 Shrewsbury Road in Cockshutt, near Ellesmere, during a fire which started at about 4.20pm yesterday.

Severe damage was also caused to the first and ground floors of the grade II listed Rose Cottage which believed to date back to about 1460.

Neighbours passed watering cans, buckets and washing up bowls full of water along a line in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the initial flames.

A short section of the A528 was closed until 9pm while 30 firefighters used four engines, an aerial ladder platform and a water carrier to tackle the flames.

Fire chiefs were scaling down their operation at 9pm, but one crew remained at the site to guard against the house reigniting.

The cause of the blaze is yet to be identified and firefighters are due to continue their investigations tomorrow.

Area manager Martin Timmis, from Shrewsbury Fire Station, said: “This is one of the hardest types of fire to fight.

“Because of the roofing, which includes straw, we knew it was obviously going to be very hard for us to save the building.

“So for the first half hour, while we also put water on the flames, we emptied the entire property of all the occupier’s personal belongings to the best we could. Our firefighting activities have been centred around saving the structure but not the roof, which was too badly damaged.”

Neighbour William Farrell said: “We had been up on ladders and had buckets going. There were about 12 of us all lending a hand before the fire brigade arrived.”

Villager Mark Batho said there had been chaotic scenes in the village before fire crews arrived.

He said: “We had about a dozen of us in a line using buckets of water, watering cans, washing up bowls and anything we could get our hands on, but sadly it looks like it was too late.”