Sheffield gales 1962

[Eater Sundae 12]

As a new user on this forum, I have some catching up to do, so please excuse me for bumping yet another thread.

 

My recollections are of a house on Heavygate Road (I'm pretty sure it was the road, or it could have been the avenue as they are pretty similar and we regularly used both) having the whole gable end blown off.

 

Also the roof came off the pub on Bole Hill Road (called Rivelin View Hotel IIRC). There were two or three houses next to the pub which also lost their roofs. The properties were left derelict (I remember playing in and around them) for a while before being pulled down.

[Mrs H Solo 10]

I was 4 years old and remember the night very well. My dad was on night shift at Arthur Lee so I was in my mum's bed keeping warm and we were both kept awake all night by the sounds from outside, dustbin lids and slates and debris of all kind. I lived on Craddock Road Arbourthorne and the prefabs at the top of the road took quite a hammering. I remember Bill Grundy from Granada tv, interviewing people who had been made homeless and I recognised some people on tv, which was quite exciting for a 4 year old. Also Norfolk school across from my house was used for the evacuees. I was not allowed to go to Nursery the following day (Friday) but spent it all looking out of the window at all the activity and the damage.

[soft ayperth 11]

I know this is an old thread but it's timely with regard to where I live. Last wk., here on Prince Edward Island, we've had a freezing rain storm that brought down over 100 utility poles and left most of the island without power. At one point 96% of us were in the dark. Some people are still without power after a week.

 

The point is: all of our transmission lines here are above ground, whereas in the UK, at least the neighborhood distribution lines are below ground. I think even some of the main high voltage power lines may be below ground (?). Some of us here are calling for the lines to go underground , so they won't be as vulnerable to storms.

 

I'd like to be able to cite the Sheffield gale (yes, I remember it well) as an example of how underground lines can be effective. I didn't notice anyone mentioning power outages resulting from the gale and I don't remember any.

 

Does anyone recall or know if there were any power outages associated with that gale? I'd appreciate knowing. thks.

[jeano 10]

I may have already posted this, cant remember, but I lived on Ravensworth Road at the time, Dad came home from work saying he had nearly been hit by numerous falling slates that were flying like frisbies (except of course that they didnt exist at the time) he and his workmates were watching out for each other and kept dodging into entries when the 'blitz' was at its worst.

The next morning when I went to school (Carbrook), at the end of Carltonville Road where it met Attercliffe Common the whole side of a house was blown down. Apparently the chimney on the gable end took the full force of the wind and took the whole gable end with it.

Anybody else remember this?

 

Reading through this thread, I remember this house ;it was the first house after the end of a row of shops on the same side as the conservative club. there was a road which led to houses which were on dunlop street . you could see the whole of the house -reminiscent of a dolls house with the door open.

 

I recall going to Carbrook school and having to walk close to the house wall because the slates were coming off the rooves of the houses into the middle of the road.

 

After making the effort of getting to school, we were all herded into Mr Wilsds class because only about 30 pupils had made it into school.

 

Full lessons ,which seeemed unjust given the fact that we were there at all, we were tough, we had to be dying to get a day off school!

 

I remember a similar scene of a row of houses on Tuxford Road at the side of the Filesmiths Arms. When they demolished them later, we watched the demolition from Cardiff Street and there was a load of rats fled the scene. Talk about Hamlyns Town in Brunswick! Scared the life out of me and I have disliked vermin in any form since.

[gatoruby 10]

I remember the gales well our family sat up most of the night I had just stood up when the window blew in allover the chair I had been sat in. No I don't remember any sort of power cut's ( would be these day's though ) and it was school as normal next day !

[gladys clark 10]

Its amazing the detail that can be remembered at a time like this. We lived in Holme Lane Hillsborough and I too remember the night before the storm, I said to my dad isn't the sky weird it was a bright lilac colour and it had gone very still and silent no birds singing. We slept downstairs that night, the next door shop 's kitchen chimney came down and when we did eventually venture out it was a hell of a mess. [it was very gusty and the wind howled last night here in swindon and as usual I did not get off to sleep till it had dropped ] I was nearly 15 in 62 and can remember 'The Moor' looking like a war zone

[Tooeg 10]

I slept through it all, although looking out of the bedroom window next morning there were still corrugated sheets blowing along like kites.

The roof of the Rivelin View Hotel landed on the Bole Hills, it must have been a north wind.

A couple of gable ends blew off the council houses on Heavygate Rd. or Avenue.

The roof blew off the House on the corner of Highton St. and Heavygate Rd The last time I looked it still had a reduced pitch, covered in mineral felt, I wonder if it had a fifty year guarantee.

Our terrace had some roof damage, the council came and laid an old barrage balloon over it. I can just imagine at the end of the war some council man saying, "we'll hang on to this, you never know."

Thinking back I can't imagine how they got it up onto the roof, it must have weighed a ton (figure of speach).

Edited May 6, 2009 by Tooeg

[hillsbro 32]

I also slept through it, but my dad was up late and watched the "action", being narrowly missed by our skylight window that hit the ground just in front of him. The following day I was waiting to cross the road at Hillsborough Corner when a Granada TV van stopped and Bill Grundy asked me for directions to Skye Edge. My aunt and uncle lived on Penrith Road, and several families whose prefabs had been flattened by the wind were moved into unoccupied houses nearby. The Telegraph & Star quickly produced a "Sheffield Hurricane" supplement with photos of the desolation.

[soft ayperth 11]

Hazel,

 

It was February.....I was 10 and my grandad died that night.

 

My grandad didn't die that night. He passed away about 4 months later. I remember after his funeral my grandma saying she thought the gale had brought about his death. They lived in a house on Talbot Place in the Park district which had slate roofing tiles. Of course many of those were blown off, so the roof leaked rain water into the attic and then through into the house itself. Day after day, my grandad would have to go up and down the attic stairs to empty bucket after bucket of water. Well, he died of cancer, so the gale itself wasn't the cause of his death, but it can't have done him any good all that climbing and heavy lifting. As I look back on it now, two thoughts cross my mind. What were all the other family members (yes, me included) doing to help? And, what the hell was the landlord doing taking his own sweet time to fix it or at least patch it up? My grandparents were the tenants. Makes me angry, reproachful, even now to think about it.

Edited May 6, 2009 by soft ayperth

[carosio 186]

The local paper - either The Star or that other one - published a 'Hurricane Special' edition. I suppose it would be a collector's item today but could be in a local library somewhere.

 

I have one, and the Sheffield Flood supplement too!

[jmdee 10]

My grandad didn't die that night. He passed away about 4 months later. I remember after his funeral my grandma saying she thought the gale had brought about his death. They lived in a house on Talbot Place in the Park district which had slate roofing tiles. Of course many of those were blown off, so the roof leaked rain water into the attic and then through into the house itself. Day after day, my grandad would have to go up and down the attic stairs to empty bucket after bucket of water. Well, he died of cancer, so the gale itself wasn't the cause of his death, but it can't have done him any good all that climbing and heavy lifting. As I look back on it now, two thoughts cross my mind. What were all the other family members (yes, me included) doing to help? And, what the hell was the landlord doing taking his own sweet time to fix it or at least patch it up? My grandparents were the tenants. Makes me angry, reproachful, even now to think about it.

 

 

I know mine wasn't an emergency situation, but at this time I worked at Wigfalls. A whole crew of workers were hired to reinstall all the TV aerials that had blown down. It took six weeks of seven days a week, until the situation was corrected. So I imagine all related trades, roofers, brickies etc. were similarly stretched. This could account for the delay in getting work done.

[carosio 186]

The roof of the Rivelin View Hotel landed on the Bole Hills, it must have been a north wind.

 

Interestingly, this is I think is the only mention of the general direction of the gale.