25 Years ago THE GREAT STORM !!

[BIG"E"]

What was you doing,

Can you remember it?

I can I remember the noise of the wind and the whistling of the telephone wires on the pole outside my bedroom window (no double glazing then)

I thought the chimney was going to come through the roof (as it needed to be re pointed)
I woke Steve and his brother and went downstairs to the lounge.

Luckily we did not have any damage to the house at all, not even a slate off the roof, but we did end up with the neighbours shed in our garden.


25 years ago tonight. seems like yesterday I must be getting old

[Mortster]

I got up to do my paper round before school, battled my may on my bike to Dillons, then had to abort half way round. Trees were down blocking the little country lanes.

Then walking to school was fun, none of this lazy school run/lift crap, 6 mile round trip everyday, what ever the weather.

[Claire_PPP]

I remember it well! It should have been my 6th birthday party that afternoon, but it was cancelled due to a power cut and then the roof blew off the church hall where I was due to have my party! I spent my birthday night playing board games with my parents in the dark!

I also remember all the huge trees that blew down in Brighton - in Wild Park and Stanmer park partucularly.

[Bull]

i remember it well.Living in kilburn London ,100ft walnut tree landed outside my bedroom window .
But had been out to the local Inn that night so slept right though it.
Did not know a thing till i woke up looked out the window and found myself staring at the tree branches 3 feet from me.

Sounds like im in an episode of The Vicar Of Dibley..


what about the big heat of 76.......

[Steve_PPP]

I was only 6 as well.

Remember some apples trees blowing down near home, so we went out with boxes and picked the whole tree, had apple crumble for ages!

Also remember being without electricity for 13 days! The substation near where I lived was destroyed by a big tree falling on it!

[ralliart didz]

i was doing night shift at surrey roll leaf,due to power cut had to down tools. so went for a walk around hastings.(i was walking then too)

[Anger]

I loved it... Got a day off school and went around on my bike to see how many cars had been crushed by falling trees

[andy-m]

lived top floor, 5 storeys up at the time. lots of wind but nothing much else happened near where I lived at the time. went to school next day to find most of the bigger tree's had come down and crushed the school fences in places. inconsiderate bas***ds didn't close the school, not even for a day. I was gutted.

[Red Baron]

I was 15 and our neighbour was half way through building an extension, wind took the entire roof off which consisted of all the timber plus the roofing felt which appeared to act like some kind of sail, i guess if it had the tiles on there would have been enough wait to hold it on. Had a couple of days off school with no power, also remember going to the caravan park at Pett Level and seeing all the caravans upside down in a huge heap up against the trees.

[Banstead Stig]

I was also 6!

A tree fell and landed right outside my bedroom window, nearly flattened our rear porch... I didn't wake up though.

I remember being woken up by my Mother who was clutching a candle (why she didn't use a torch is beyond me!) and being annoyed at being woken up.

That annoyance was soon replaced with glee when it was announced on the radio, County Sound in those days, that my school was shut... better still, my sister's wasn't.

I spent the morning helping my Dad chainsaw up the trees and the afternoon playing footy. Not the most traumatic experience for me!

[BIG"E"]

Originally Posted by Banstead Stig

That annoyance was soon replaced with glee when it was announced on the radio, County Sound in those days, that my school was shut... better still, my sister's wasn't.

Thats brilliant.

[bigemp]

I remember it just a bit

we lived in a long bungalow about 3 houses from the cliff edge in peacehaven we had about a 30ft conservatory going down the side leading into a wooden summerhouse,remember getting woke up by my dad that the roof was lifting off the summerhouse and to help him tie it down.

i was 16 at the time lets just say by the time it was all over we had lost the whole roof,most of the ceilings had come down in every room,his car ended up with all the tiles coming off the roof into it.

That wasnt the worst bit one of the sheets of glass that was in the conservatory came down onto the top of my mums foot and she was bleeding heavily,we had no telephone so my dad went to phonebox to call for ambulance but they wouldnt send one out,so he had to drive the coast road to the hospital and she was lucky she lived as she had lost so much blood.

And i was left sitting in the dining room looking up with no roof holding onto the cat.


so yep Big E i deffo remeber it

[Steve_PPP]

That must have been some seriously scary poo mate

Top of Peacehaven cliffs are so exposed.

[bigemp]

Originally Posted by Steve_PPP

That must have been some seriously scary poo mate

Top of Peacehaven cliffs are so exposed.

Yes it was big time but the bungalow next to us which was nearer to the cliff edge had no damage at all,not even a tile off and the old dear got up in the morning with not a clue what happened,and my poor little yamaha dt was mullered as well.

It took us most of the day to get the whole roof covered in taurpalin which was so hard to get hold off as most people were after it and at a hefty premium,then months with accro poles holding up the ceilings in most of the rooms.(which we lived in and never moved out)

The old man said it was about £70k worth of payout(bet he was glad he was insured as im sure there was some who werent) in the end including the car getting wrote off,which he bought back and drove around for a while which was embarassing it looked like a hedgehog has attacked it.

[belliott]

I wasn't born but my Dad told me he had a good few days afterwards as he was a tree surgeon.

[ScoobyStu]

I remember it, was only 7. The wind was making the loft hatch bang and remember the thud as the side wall went down. My Dad had his own bakery at the time and was at work whilst my Mum was at home with me and my sister. Wasn't that worried as didn't really understand what was going on other than it was windy! Remember going to school the next day and seeing trees that had been blown over, roofs missing, chimneys missing and loads of debrit all over the place. We're fortunate it doesn't happen more often.

[Hongkongfooi]

I was sleeping through until my mum woke me. Then two weeks without power and road closed for at least a week

[XRS]

I slept through it, but my wife went to sleep with our son, who was 2 at the time. Woke up to find the only damage was a lost garden shed which ended up in a neighbour's garden. Next door lost most of their roof tiles, many ending up in our garden.
Loads of trees lost in our road, and a whole row of mature trees went down, blocking the road past the Royal Eastbourne Golf Club. Paradise Drive was closed for months due to fallen trees.
A couple of neighbours had those inflatable bubbles over their swimming pools. Never saw a trace of them again!
Not sure exactly when, but verysoon after (if not the next day) I went for an Atlantic Computers corporate day at Brands. They had lost a couple of trees on the GP circuit, but we were OK using the short circuit. My instructor was Ben Edwards, and I had a passenger ride with Yony Trimmer in a replica D Type. Great day

[Lucky]

I was 16. went to school at tideway to find there wasn't much of it left!!!

[Scott.T]

I slept through it when I lived at home in Grange Rd, Hastings whilst my parents were trying to tie the car port down (I was in those teenage years where you slept through anything)

A huge Oak tree came down outside the next bungalow and totally blocked the road. Thankfully it's sister tree outside our place still stands today.
The road in the morning was like a war zone and we couldn't go either way due to several large fallen tree's....several days followed with the background hummmmm of a chainsaw.