The mother of a woman who saw her home destroyed in a fire on Easter Sunday has thanked people living nearby for their help.

More than 50 firefighters were called to The Row at Weeting, near Brandon, when the blaze tore through three of the 10 cottages leaving three families temporarily homeless.

Debra Rackham’s daughter Kayleigh moved into her mother’s house on Hall Close with her partner Stuart Window and two sons, who are seven and nine-years-old, following the fire. They have since received “overwhelming” support from the villagers.

Ms Rackham said her daughter had chosen to live with her rather than be rehomed as she wanted to stay in Weeting, and added: “She wanted to thank everybody. Everybody’s been brilliant and so generous, even people we didn’t really know. It’s lovely of them and we’re very grateful.

“Everybody’s asking if we’re okay and bringing clothes - you don’t realise how kind and generous people are. She also lost a lost of photos which you can’t repace, but she’ll be okay.”

As well as donations of clothes and toys, a coffee and cake sale was held at Weeting Primary School on Thursday 5 and this, coupled with pupils from the school who paid �1 to wear non-uniform for the day, raised almost �200. The money will be split between the three families.

Chair of the Parents, Staff and Friends Assoiation which organisted the event, Clodagh Drewry, said: “We always have a coffee morning anyway and we though we’d do it for this. I’m over the moon with how many people have come along and I think it’s because of the cause.”

The fire is believed to have originated in number nine, The Row, but it is not yet known how it started. An investigation into the cause was held but it was not being treated as suspicious.

The Row, thought to be the longest continuous stretch of thatched housing in the country, has been hit by fire twice in the last four years.

Three cottages were destroyed when fire broke out on Easter Sunday 2007, just weeks after two homes were damaged in another blaze.