Gift and homeware firm The Herdy Company has celebrated the refurbishment of its Keswick shop after it was damaged by flooding.

It hosted a special re-launch party last night at the store on Titehbarn Street.

The ground floor of the store in Tithebarn Street was under more than two feet of water after Storm Desmond hit Cumbria in December.

This took a week to clean up, after which the damaged store opened for business again.

Repair work has carried on since then, which forced the store to close again, and it is only now that things are back to normal.

Spencer Hannah, one of the business co-founders, estimated that the shop had lost about £50,000 as a result of the storm and pointed out that a large number of volunteers had helped with the clean up after seeing the shop’s plight on social media.

He added: “We are all carrying on but it is only when you stop and think that you realise just a few months ago everything was shut down.”

The event last night was designed to let the town know that the shop had been revamped and encourage people – both local and visitors – to make use of it.

“We are a thriving retail business, which is quite a difficult thing to say in the current retail market.”

Diane Hannah, the firm’s other co-founder and director, said: “We are delighted that the revamp of our Keswick shop is now complete and the shop is once again looking at its best.

“I would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to all the local volunteers who helped us clean up the shop once the flood waters had subsided.

“I also want to thank our customers who have continued to visit and support the shop until we have been able to carry out the refurbishment.”

Local firm Keswick Joiners were employed to carry out all the refurbishment work.

The shop in Keswick is one of four operated by Herdy, which has its headquarters in Kendal.

The others are in Grasmere, Bowness-on-Windermere and Hawes, Yorkshire.

Herdy also sells its goods online.