Phyllis Mendenhall thinks the scaffolding truck driver was trying to do a three-point turn in Nelson Road when it crashed through the pillars and the window frame of her house on Tuesday evening.

Mrs Mendenhall, 66, said: "We were down in the basement at the back of the house and all the stuff came crashing through the window.

"I didn't hear it because I'm a bit deaf, but my husband Dudley and daughter Lianne ran upstairs and my daughter came back and said, oh my God.

"I normally go out and water my plants, and I would have been killed, but luckily it had been raining all day.

"Then the lorry just drove off.

"It was pretty traumatic, I can tell you - seeing the front of your house smashed in."

Mrs Mendenhall and her family have lived in the house for over 30 years, and she said that there have been ongoing problems in the street.

"Some nights I lie in bed and I hear cars screeching around the corner. I always said, one day we're going to get a car in our window."

Unfortunately Mrs Mendenhall and her family did not get chance to take down the registration number of the truck.

She said: "The chap across the road saw the lorry as it drove off, but there was a parked car blocking the number plate.

"If anybody saw what happened, or knew of any scaffolding being don in the area, or saw the truck, we just want to know."

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 0845 607999 quoting reference 1522 of August 19.