RESIDENTS of an historic market town have hit out after learning their water supply will be cut off to create a £14m water garden for a Duchess.

Work has already begun on the Duchess of North-umberland's ambitious project in the grounds of Alnwick Castle.

But some homes, businesses and tourists could be left high and dry because water pipes along the route to the castle have to be replaced.

The 3in pipes need to be replaced with 6in pipes and the supply will have to be cut off among the mostly commercial main street while work is carried out.

Traders say tourists staying in the town will have to use buckets to flush toilets and will be unable to wash while the work takes place.

The new water supply is being put in on land behind the garden as part of the project to turn it into the "Versailles of the North".

The work will begin at the end of this month and finish in late August.

The water garden project is a charitable scheme organised by Jane Percy, the Duchess of Northumberland.

It is her dream to restore a 12-acre 18th Century walled garden that borders her ancestral home at Alnwick Castle.

Part of the scheme includes a grand cascade of 21 weirs with thousands of gallons of water pouring down into pools below.