Local History

Where were you when the storm struck Hampshire? Tell us your story.

Sarah Powell
I was 13 years old and at boarding school in Littlehampton. We were woken in the night and moved downstairs where it was presumably thought to be safer. The roof above our dorm was being repaired at the time and I remember hearing the tiles flying off and smashing on the ground. The next day we walked to the seafront and saw all the damage that had been done. The following week was half term so I returned to Standford, near Liphook in Hampshire where we had no electricity for the entire week I was home.Sadly on our return to school it was announced that the school was to be closing. I think the great storm was the last straw and financially the school couldn't recover.

Kevin Palmer-Gosport
I remember cycling against the strong winds to work in pitch black with no street lighting and hearing tiles being pulled from roofs, wondering if one would hit me? happily none didn't.

Abbie Gerrard
We lived in Purbrook at the time, I was 6 months old and slept straight through the entire storm, despite walls being blown over and tiles flying off the roof!

lin Mc Dermott
I was in a night club in Southampton that night with a friend. When we came out it was windy the bouncers on the door didn't say any thing. It was bad. I had a mini when i drove the car felt like jelly. Parts of trees were flying at us. It was awful i'll always remember that night. The next day had to climb over trees that was down and over the road. Like you say there was no warning.

Angela Lewis
17th October 1987 I got married for the first time in East Meon, we were woken by the herdsman at 4am banging on the door asking my husband to help him move the generator to the milking parlour so he could starting milking, we spent the morning clearing trees and making desperate phone calls to people seeing if they were alright and still able to make it to the church, I was very upset with good reason this was meant to be my day. No electrity, no lights so the congregation clapped us in, the vicar said "I hope this is not a sign from God that these two people should not be together!" (and afraid he was right it didn't last). The Wedding Reception thankfully was a cold buffet, but despite everything that was sent from Heaven above! everyone had a great day a real community atmosphere, people had made a fantastic effort driving from afar doging trees, power cables etc to make it for the wedding. Fond memories of a very unusual day.

Jane Sinclair
I was working on night duty at the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar on the night of the storm. My ward faced the sea, and as the storm became fiercer we were worried that the windows would come crashing in. The nurses moved the beds away from the windows and draped blankets down from the back rests to protect the patients from any flying glass. The noise was incredible and in the middle of the night we turned the little lights on and pulled the trusty old tea trolley out and did an impromptu tea round as most patients were awake. In the morning those who had slept throughout were more than a little put out to have missed such a storm and an extra tea round!! Driving home the next morning was shocking to see the damage caused by the storm that we had listened to during the night. It was a night duty that will never be forgotten!

Sarah Chase
I was living in Swanmore at the time. October 16th 1987 was my 9th birthday. When we woke early in the morning following the overnight storm we had no electricity. The house was pretty dark, I couldn't see my birthday presents! I walked straight past the new bike that was propped up against my parents' bedroom wall! I did get the day off school though as there was no power there either.We ended up having no electricity for 5 days. My birthday party where we were going to watch a video was held by candlelight. It was one of my best parties ever!

Jackie Jones
I live in Hammer Vale, a small community between Haslemere and Lipook. I woke up to the sound of the wind and flashing lights as the electricity cable outside our house came down. I also heard a ping as the telephone went down.Our son who was 3 slept through it!. My husband left for work with the instructions to contact the electricity board and the phone company. 5 minutes later he was home as there were trees down at either entrance to the dirt track we still live down.There was a fantastic communtiy spirit as there were about 10 families all with young children. Two of the households had Agas so we communally cooked and were able to wash in warm water. The worst thing for us was the fact that after about a week of no electricity we then had anothe 4 weeks without the phone. I was 7 months pregnant at the time and also my grandfather died. It was uncanny that on the one occassion the phone staggered into life before being fully restored was when my mother called to tell me that news.We also oraganised tree clearing parties before the main diggers etc arrived. the Irish Elctricity Board sent workmen to our area to mend the cables. The local pub, the Prince of Wales, did a roaring trade.

Ken Johnson
I was serving on HMS Nottingham in 1987 and we tried to take shelter on the Thursday evening in Portland Harbour. After bouncing off the wall a couple of times the Harbour Master advised us to put back to sea, as we would be safer out there! That evening the gale developed into the hurricane force winds that most people experienced, but we were in the English Channel where there was absolutely no shelter from the storm coming up from the south west. There was a yacht just south of Portland and I remember it somehow making it to safety with the help of the coastguard and a Royal Fleet Auxilliary ship, what were they doing out there? I remember getting ready to go on watch at 0200 on the Friday morning, below our mess deck was the magazine for the ammunition to the ships main gun, about 200 4.5 inch shells. We opened the hatch to see what the banging was, about 25 of the shells had broken free in the turbulence and they were bouncing around of the ships bulkheads (walls). I went down with a couple of mates to 'secure' them but it was a lethal job in those conditions, how we didn't get clobbered by one of them I don't know. Anyway I went up to the bridge to look out of the window. It was like looking into a washing machine what with all the spray and foam constantly hitting the windows, there was no let up. It felt as though I was actually in the washing machine I was being thrown around so much. We had to steer a steady course because if we'd altered direction we would probably have capsized due to the size of the swell! Exercises apart, it was the only time I ever saw a ships crew carry their life jackets with them everywhere - whilst still in the English Channel! We ended up off Alderney the next morning when in fact we wanted to be in Portsmouth. We got there mid afternoon. Usually when there is a storm at sea I get the impression that those on land have no inclination as to how bad things have been. However, as we pulled into Portsmouth (weather was fine by now) we could see dockyard cranes that had been blown over. I got the first train available back to Fareham at about 4 pm, and when I walked from there up The Avenue there were huge oaks crashed out across the road near the college. When I got in I got a telling off from my (ex) wife because I had got home late. (well it was her birthday!)

Lyndsay Henderson
We were on a Brittany Ferries car ferry between Portsmouth and St Malo between 1lpm and 6am on the night of the Great Storm. During the worst part of the storm the ferry just rode the waves out head to wind. The curtains in our cabin flew out at at least a 45 degree angle and waves were breaking over the bridge, we were on the deck below. my husband swore he could see fish swimming passed the porthole! when we arrived people were taken off with broken legs etc, the boat was awash with people who were sea sick and a cattle truck had turned over and blocked the ferry doors so we had to back the car off. we spent ages trying to find the walled city of St Malo only to discover that we were in Cherborg and had not heard a single announcment over the tanoy. It was all pretty frightening and the devastation on the Cherborg Peninsular was worse than here. It took ten hours to drive to the Loire because so many roads were blocked and there was no power. He was a good captain on that Brittany Ferries boat and we rode out the storm well. I have never been as frightened on a boat since!

Richard Dawnay
Normally I park my car on the hardstanding in front of my house. For some reason that I still cannot explain, that night I parked it on the road instead. In the morning, and where the car would have normally been parked, was one of the ridge tiles from the roof, smashed to pieces. The car - unscathed.

Cathryn Elliott
I was 5 years old when the storm hit and it is a part of my life I won't forget. We lived in a village near Winchester and we had to move out of our house for safety. We stayed with my nan and grandad next door for a few days in case one of the Yew trees fell on our house. We had no power for over a week and I don't think we had a phone then either. The only way we could find out what was happening was by radio. We escaped any serious damage though. My dads greenhouse and anything else left outside went for flight! I just remember the most awful sound of the wind like nothing I have ever heard and it didn't seem to relent. I was so worried about our cats because we couldn't keep them indoors all the time but they looked after themselves. One of the Shetland ponies in the bottom field was crushed by a tree though and it nearly broke my heart. Once the storm had passed we were a bit stranded because there were trees, branches and debris all over the roads. It was a devastating scene in our area. If I drive round there now I can still see the odd uprooted tree which reminds me.

Bill Pearce
At the time of the great storm I was working for the Southampton wholesale newsagent Surrudge Dawson, Delivering newspapers & magazines to shops in Southampton city centre. starting at 3 o clock in the morning, I new as soon as I opened my front door I was in for a different kind of morning when my cap left my head flew into the air and lodged itself into at roof level in a climbing rose bush that graced the front of our house. During the course of my delivery run Ihad to dodge all maner of fallen debrie I.E. branches, roof tiles,but when I turned into commercial road the police were diverting taffic around a huge plate glass window lying in the road which had been sucked out of a furniture shop window, I was told that as the police arrived they had seen two men making off along commercial rd with a sofa taken from the said furniture store. my delivery was to the central railway station But I was prevented from leaving the papers at its usual dro point by more policemen telling me that "its raining glass over there mate",at that time the station was undergoing refurbishmentand there was a portakabin outside housing the ticket office this is where i decided to leave the papers, this portakabin had a sign above the doors saying Network South east, the sign was about 30 feet long by 3 feet high as I placed the delivery down at the doors there was a loud noise almost like a Rolf Harriswobbely board but very much louder I looked up shielding my head and watche the sign dissapearing into the dark sky, very scary. But my mood was changed having returned to my van when I heard on radio solent news that the tennis dome at lordshill had blown away and that if any one found it to contact them, I laughed for the rest of my unusual and rather scary round

Paul Waits
Here's my story...Althouth actually living with in a half mile of Southsea front in a basement flat, my then wife and I heard the noise of the rain and some wind, but ironically it didn't really sound too loud to us. We only really found out about what the damage of the storm was like when we went to where we were then working, Clarence Pier, which was somewhat devistated. We had SLEPT THROUGH THE GREATEST STORM THE SOUTH HAD EVER SEEN........even we couldn't believe our eye's after what we thought was just a heavy rain storm.

ANN LEFLEY
We actually were living not in Hampshire, but in Lancing in West Sussex.I spent the greater part of that night, sitting on the stairs with the dog listening to all the chaos happening around.In the morning I went to get my son up (He was then aged 18) and I found that both he and my partner had slept through the whole thing. In fact, my partner, when looking out of the window said "Oh, all the apples have fallen off the tree", completely missing the fact that all the fences in surrounding gardens and trees in the recreation ground at the back of us were all completely demolished, until I pointed it all out to him. "What storm"? they both said!!!!!!!!!!

Stan Hider
At about 3am my wife and I were awakened by the noise of the wind and moments later the wall between our rear passage and the street colapsed into the road. We both went down in dressinggowns and started to clear the road and the pavement while debris of all kinds whirled through the air. In the meantime one of our daughters had phoned the Police and while we were clearing the road and pavement a police van turned up. While we were talking to the constable he got a call on his radio that the roof had been blown off of a block of flats at nearby Oakfield!As my car had escaped any damage I drove into work at the usual time. My route from Ryde to East Cowes was littered with tree branches, tiles and other debris and on the road from the Cremitorium roundabout to Whippingham there was an articulated lorry and a Luton Van blown over, but not blocking the road. At work one of the roofs in our section of the factory was actally doing a ripple effect and during the morning it was to dangerous for the maintainance department to put it right. When I contacted our daughter in Sailisbury she said that there a few dustbins had lost their lids but that as all! Her friends at work shoed her the pictures of Shanklin Pier and she could'nt beleive it.

Christopher Stanley
I was the local Police Sergeant on duty in Hartley Wintney and surrounding area when the storm hit us. I worked throughout the night receiving and attending many calls of distress but perhaps for me the worst call was to the famous Hartley Wintney Cricket Club of which at that time i was the Club Captain. When I received the call to attend I could hear the laughter in the background at Force Control Room when they queried my role at the Club. I proudly announced over the air that I was the Club Captain and ops told me that I had better get round to the Club as there was a huge tree on top of it, This came almost two years to the day that half of the Club had been destroyed in an arson attack and we had only recently rebuilt it. Incidently I did 30 years in the Force and can genuinely say that i had never been as frightened as working during that storm, it was horrific and will remain with me for ever

Lester Phillips
I was a Police Sergeant in Waterlooville. I finished work at 10 pm and was scheduled to return at 6 am, but by 1.30 am the house was shaking in the wind, so I rang work and asked if they wanted a hand - next thing I knew I was back at work. In Stakes hill road glass from a house porch flew across the road just in front of us as we got out of the police van, and narrowly missed my colleague. at dawn a tree was about to come down on the A3 near the town, and I had to stand in the middle of the road to stop oncoming traffic - I could hardly stand in the wind and doubt if I could be seen until the last minute - it was quite scary! We had to perform many tasks, including helping to saw up tree trunks with borrowed bow saws, to remove from the road. We did not stop until 11.30 am. funny enough I did not feel in the least bit tired, and could not sleep even when I did get home! too much adreniline I should think.

Phil Marlow
It was the day I was born! Friday October 16th 1987 while the storm was going on outside, my mother was undergoing an emergency caesarian after the doctors discovered a problem. Fortunately I survived! Next Tuesday 16th October I will be 20 years old.

Mike Hall
I lived on the Hampshire/Surrey Border at the time, and remember utter, unmitigated chaos!I was 17 years old, at six form college and there were just trees down everywhere. The Horse Chestnut trees I’d plundered in my childhood were lost; we had no water at home for about five days because the pumping station had been knocked out during the power failure, wrecking the pumps when they were running at full capacity and as for my trip to college, well, there was carnage…On the way into Farnham College, the whole of Morley Road was littered with trees down, over cars and into houses. A huge Oak had crashed through the temporary classroom I used for my sociology lessons, cutting it in two. The Hogs Back from Farnham to Guildford was closed for nearly 3 weeks due to the number of trees down! We were sent home at 11am so the lecturers could start thinking about what to do about the mess. There were no trains, hardly any buses running and I had a four mile walk home, on a very gusty day.No where around us really escaped! Aldershot, Farnham and Farnborough all took a real battering.

Ian McLean
My wife and I were living in Torquay at the time.I was at work and I knew that at 10 o'clock Barbara was having a driving lesson.I felt sure it would be cancelled.When I got home at lunchtime she had just about recovered.Her instructor had proceeded with the lesson.All my wife seemed to do during that lesson was dodge fallen trees around the village of Cockington.She has never driven a vehicle from that day to this!