Water Butts!

The only solution I can think of is to have another water butt next to the first with a piece of hose from the tap of the first to the top of the next which you turn on when the rain's pouring down. Either that, or a double branched gutter pipe, one for each butt.

You can buy an attachment that (I think) has something like a ball valve inside - it fits to the down pipe with a side pipe that goes into the butt and when the butt gets full, the ball valve is pushed up or down or whatever it is and water is directed into the down pipe instead of into the water butt. I haven't a clue what it's called, but I've defo seen them at Wyevale and B&Q.

we just had our butts starting highest where the down pipe is then linked and stepped so would naturally fill the next ones,have got four linked up each end of the garden then we run a hose from the fourth one up the garden to syphon into the next four, works for us hope that helps,weve linked them with normal white waste pipe

Thank you for all your answers it is so frustrating having to empty a water butt! I think the problem comes that I'm attached to one other house and she doesnt have a down pipe at all so I guess I'm getting both houses worth - normally not a problem but obviously with the amount of rain coming down so quickly thats whats caused the problem - will certainly look into the ball-cock thingy. Thanks