A FAMILY had a lucky escape after a car smashed into an outbuilding next to their home.

Gillian Noble was bathing her two children on Monday evening when she heard a noise at around 7.15pm.

She said: “I thought it was in the house. It was a loud bang and I thought something had fallen downstairs, and I shouted down to my husband David but there was no reply. David goes into the study and uses headphones. I then looked out of the window and I saw a car with the side dented.”

The couple went out to see what had happened and discovered the car was lodged in the side of their outbuilding in The Street, Old Basing.

It is thought that the young female driver, from Basingstoke, who was driving along The Street, may have swerved to avoid hitting a car coming out of Milkingpen Lane.

Mrs Noble, who works for her husband’s financial services business, said the family were lucky that no one was in the building, which they use for hobbies, at the time of the accident.

She added: “We were lucky that it didn’t come into the house.”

The outbuilding used to be a stable block. It dates back to the late 1600s to early 1700s and was built using bricks from Basing House.

The car is currently wedged into the building, and will need to be carefully removed to avoid further damage.

Mrs Noble said the accident highlights traffic problems in Old Basing, which is used as a rat-run by drivers using it as a cut through, as reported by The Gazette last week.

She added: “It’s a busy corner and especially at that time of night, cars always cut through from the A30 if they are going to Chineham.”

Although there is no indication that either of the vehicles involved in the crash were speeding, Mrs Noble said: “The road is meant to be a 30mph limit, but as soon as they get to the bit where there’s nothing to slow them down, they speed up round the corner.”

She added: “This is a village junction which requires full attention when coming out on to The Street. It was in fact created by the Old Basing Traffic Calming programme installed in 2002. However, this becomes a notorious rat-run especially at peak hours and there have been many close shaves.

“At the time families were taking children to and from The Beddington Centre where the Rainbows and Brownies have their meeting and one pedestrian also luckily just missed being injured.”

Mrs Noble said the driver was shaken, but thankfully no one was injured in the crash.

The police confirmed that they were called to the crash at 7.19pm on Monday. A spokesman said no one was injured and no arrests were made, but an investigation has been launched to find out what happened.