Drains were not coping with the torrent and water was lapping against the wall of one house before the flow slowed down.

The force of water gushing from the burst on Monday afternoon broke up the road surface in the middle of Kempson Drive, Great Cornard.

Anglian Water has defended itself against claims it took too long to respond to calls for help, saying the situation was assessed within half an hour and a repair team was on site an hour later.

Engineer Graham Monk looked out of his window to find his front garden awash.

"I'm doing night shifts so I'd been asleep. I woke up, looked out, and saw this lake of water outside," said Mr Monk.

"The water was lapping against the house wall and almost coming in the front door. At the bottom of the drive it was more than six inches deep. It was very worrying.

"We have lived here for 30 years and nothing like this has ever happened before," said Mr Monk, who works at Delphi in Sudbury.

Another resident, who asked not to be named, complained Anglian Water had been slow to respond to repeated calls after the burst happened at around 2pm.

A company spokeswoman said they had been alerted at 3pm by the police and other calls made after that would not necessarily have been recorded because the situation was already in hand.

"The first thing we do is send someone to assess the situation. He was sent out at about 3.30pm but it is possible people didn't notice just one person.

"A repair gang got there about 4.30pm. The water was switched off at about 5pm, and was back on again by 11pm," she said.