The Worst Gale Of The 19th Century In The Midlands

[Weather-history]

For parts of the Midlands, the Great Gale of 24th March 1895, was at the time described as the worst gale of the 19th Century to hit the region and the damage done, the worst since the 1703 storm

Reports

Middlesex

Harrow: A man was blown under a passing vehicle and killed

Berkshire

Windsor: 6 large elms blown down in park

Buckinghamshire

Newport Pagnell: Three pinnacles blown off the church tower, one pierced the roof of the nave. Trees and chimneys have suffered severely.

Oxfordshire

Banbury: Chimney blown down and woman killed.

Northamptonshire

Fawsley: Thousands of trees, chiefly elms, torn up by the roots and snapped off.

Northampton: A child killed by a falling wall, many roofs damaged, three churches and five chapels injured.

Althorp House: The gale lifted the lead of the roof over two of the high chimneys.

Boughton House: About 1000 trees.

Wellingborough: Lowest estimate of damage: £5000. The bell turret at St Barnabas blown down on schoolroom. Damage in nearly every street. In the fens, hardly a straw stack is left.

Hargrave: Phenomenal hurricane, 1.30pm to 2.30pm

Raunds: The streets were strewn with thatch, slates, ridge-tiles and chimney pots. The wooden pavilion in the cricket field was blown to atoms.

Kettering: About 2pm, the town was a veritable pandemonium, the streets being thickly strewn with tiles and chimneys pots. All the roads out of the town were impassable account of fallen trees.

Oundle: Nearly every house suffered. 6 large chimneys went down about 2pm

Peterborough: Three pinnacles on the west front of the cathedral were blown down with considerable damage.

Several factory chimneys were overturned. Many house gable ends were forced eithr in or out.

Milton Park: About 400 trees blown down.

Eye: At least 50 houses were damaged.

Barnack: Many hundreds of trees uprooted.

Huntingdonshire

Scarcely a house or building escaped damage.

Huntingdon: 6 boys were standing under the shelter of a fence watching the tiles being stripped off the house, when an elm tree belw on them killing one and injuring the others.

Every road blocked by fallen trees.

Cambridgeshire

Cambridge: Many chimneys blown over.

Bottisham: Many gables and chimneys, trees etc blown over.

Chatteris: Many large chimneys collapsed. The soil was blown up from Acre Fen in tremendous clouds. Tons of straw are floating down the river in such masses as to impede navigation.

March: Streets covered with broken tiles and hardly a house left undamaged.

Wisbech: Scarcely a house escaped.

Suffolk

Lowestoft: Houses unroofed, trees blown down

Norfolk

Yarmouth: Much damage to property. A roll of lead was blown at about 25ft above the ground and demolished an upper window.

Norwich: The roof of the Norwich Workhouse was lifted 4ft and dropped crashing through the chapel and wrecking the entire building.

King's Lynn: 3000 trees blown over

Sandringham: 2000 trees blown over

Gloucester

Bristol: Trees blown down, chimney stacks collapsing into streets killing two children.

Gloucester: Trees uprooted, roofs blown off.

Staffordshire

Lichfield: Many houses damaged

Worcestershire

Spetchley Park: 50 elm trees overturned.

Droitwich: Hundreds of trees blown over

Bromsgrove: Every road blocked by fallen trees.

Warwickshire

Sutton Coldfield: Many trees down

Stratford-upon-Avon: Nearly all roads blocked by fallen trees.

Rugby and Kenilworth: Hundreds of trees down

Coventry: Many trees uprooted.

Birmingham: 3 deaths, many fallen chimneys

Leicestershire

Leire: Many trees down, several houses unroofed

Frolesworth: Farm buildings demolished, many trees down

Broughton Astley: Trees torn up in great numbers, many buildings damaged, a newly built shed, 120 feet long with slate roof was lifted bodily and carried several feet.

Hinckley: Isolation hospital blown down, patients wrapped in blankets and laid under hedges for protection.

Enderby: Rows of chimney pots swept away like skittles., roads blocked by fallen trees.

Aylestone: Two men killed by a falling tree and a girl killed by a falling wall.. Many gable ends gone.

Skeffington: Several roofs lifted off bodily.

Leicester: Dozens of chimneys and walls blown down.

Syston: Factory chimney 75 feet high collapsed.

Ashby-de-la-Zouch: Hundreds of trees uprooted

Melton Mowbray: Brewery chimney blown down, The street strewn with tiles and skylights.

Wymondham: Many chimneys blown over.

Sheepshed: Streets littered with tiles, slates and spouts.

Loughborough: 114ft chimney collapsed.

Rutlandshire

Barrowden: Chimneys, roofs and stacks damaged, spray from river carried into village

Uppingham: Town strewn with slates, chimney pots etc, Many trees across the main road

Ketton: Many chimneys blown over and roads blocked by fallen trees.

Lincolnshire

Stamford: Water of the Welland was blown into waves and the spray carried over the bridge. A 65ft chimney was seen to oscillate and at 2.15pm brought down.

Market Deeping: Houses unroofed and chimneys blown down in great numbers.

Crowland: Windmills lost their sails and nearly every large chimney is gone

Long Sutton: Enormous damage, houses unroofed, chimneys blown down.

Spalding: House ends were blown in and roofs removed in whole or in part.

Surfleet: Many chimney stacks overturned.

Grantham: Street lamps blown down and many roofs stripped.

Boston: Most of the churches and schools were damaged.

Sleaford: About 6ft of the top of the Handley Monument blown off.

Louth: Between 3 and 3.30pm, it was not safe to be in the streets, not merely owing to falling masonry but it was hardly possible to stand.

Brigg: Children were lifted of their feet and blown down, many stacks of chimney fell.

Grimsby: Considerable damage, one fell through a roof of a hospital and killed a patient.

[Terminal Moraine]

Very interesting as usual Mr D. We were just outside the worst of it according to the map, some things never change it seems, or does it just appear like that regardless of your location?

[Summer of 95]

Looks like Shrewsbury missed out by a few miles- well they say some things round here haven't changed since the 1800s

[Cookie]

Hargrave: Phenomenal hurricane, 1.30pm to 2.30pm

so it was hurricane force winds for a whole hour.?

[Terminal Moraine]

so it was hurricane force winds for a whole hour.?

I think the words ' hurricane force' in these old accounts have to be treated with a good deal of caution. There may well have been a period experiencing hurricane force gusts, ie over 73 mph, but I very much doubt that anywhere away from exposed coastal or upland locations would experience hurricane force winds as in a mean wind speed exceeding 72 mph.

I have a lot of ancient copies of British Rainfall and in the station notes section of these volumes the word hurricane is often used when an exceptionally severe gale occurs, even though at inland locations the mean wind speed probably wasn't much above 50 mph.

Even more recently 'hurricane' tends to be used as loosely as the word 'blizzard', the Ocober 1987 gale in southern England being a prime example.