HUGHENDEN stream has run completely dry following one of the driest winters for decades.

The chalk stream which runs through the grounds on the National Trust site, Hughenden Manor, is suffering after the most barren winter in the south east since 1976.

The Environment Agency is warning a hosepipe ban is inevitable if the weather and current water consumption does not change.

However, Three Valleys Water says it has no plans for a ban and is continuing to extract two million litres a day from near its source.

A Three Valleys spokesman said: "We are monitoring across our supply but we do not think it is necessary to impose a hosepipe ban.

"If everyone saved a couple of litres a day it would have an effect on the environment."

The stream, where Benjamin Disraeli once caught a large trout, has suffered in the past from a lack of rainfall.

It is thought that the problem is caused by more than one bad winter.

Property manager at Hughenden Manor Nick Phillips told the Free Press what the source of the problem is.

He said: "It's the nature of chalk streams. They don't run from a normal spring, a lot of water is held underground. Hughenden stream fluctuates and that largely depends on the rain water that builds up beneath the surface.

Mr Phillips said rain from recent thunderstorms will be absorbed by trees and plants and that long periods of sustained rainfall will be necessary for the stream to flow again.

He added: "We are confident it will be back."

Letters at Hughenden Manor reveal that the same thing happened in Disraeli's time and he wrote to a friend bemoaning the fact that the stream was dry for two years.

One visitor claimed the trust were siphoning off the stream so they could bottle it and sell it as Hughenden Manor spring water.

A spokesman confirmed that there was no truth in this allegation.

The National Trust have also ruled out taking any action to pump water in because they believe it will have adverse effects in the long run.