A farmer is counting the cost of a fire which wrecked one of his barns causing more than £250,000 damage to the building and machinery inside.

Richard Ovenden was shocked to wake up on Saturday morning to find firefighters battling the blaze at his home, Green Lane Farm in Marshborough.

“I got up at about 6am for work and saw someone in a fluorescent jacket outside my window. I hadn’t heard a thing,” he said.

“When I went outside I saw all hell had broken loose and my barn was going up in flames.”

Mr Ovenden, who is a parish councillor for Woodnesborough, said a neighbour alerted the emergency services at about 4.30am.

Eight fire crews attended the scene including Deal, Whitfield and Eastry.

The barn was used as a workshop and storage for plant hire and farming machinery and about 75 per cent was destroyed.

“We believe the cost of replacing the barn will be about £200,000 and around £50,000 for the machinery,” said Mr Ovenden.

“It has left us in a real mess and is not the sort of thing you need at my age.”

Mr Ovenden said he does not know what caused the fire but the building was all locked up and secure.

“The fire crews had to knock a wall down to get inside to fight the blaze,” he said.

After farming for almost 50 years Mr Ovenden said the fire will not affect his business.

“It has made it difficult but I have been able to carry on supplying my customers with fruit and vegetables,” he added.

A police spokesman said the fire is not being treated as suspicious.