Sheffield gales 1962

[little malc 10]

It has been mentioned in another thread about the terrible gale that devastated Sheffield in the 60s, it sprang up in the mid afternoon, and carried on into the following day, an imense amount of damage was done, with the city centre looking like the night of the blitz. Does anyone have any memories of this, I was working at a shop on Glossop rd at the time called Sharmans, a slate from a property across the road smashed the main window and glass was scattered all over the shop, luckily, no one was hurt. Amazingly, the path of the gale seemed to hit Sheffield only, and hardly any surrounding town was touched.

[playman 10]

Yes we were living half way up gleadless road on the gleadless valley estate, all the housing had flat roofs and it lifted ours a little, but higher up on sands close they had their roof lifted off completely and it flipped onto the grass at the front of the houses.

I was only 6 at the time and never really realised what was happening other than the wind was howling and we all slept at the front of the house as the wind was blasting the back.

[Timbuck 10]

This is how I remember it ..I was 21 years old, and I had been out for a drink with the lads the night before, I was fast asleep in the bedroom I shared with my Brother Eric, when I was awoken by my Dad who opened the bedroom door and shouted "Gerrup yo'r two, thus elluva gale blowing art theea, thus slates off an all sorts of stuff"..I could hear the wind shaking the window frame very violently. My brother jumped out of bed got dressed and went off to investigate, (leaving the bedroom door wide open. Because I was a bit under the weather due to the 5 pints of Tennants that i'd drunk at the Warncliffe the night before, I decided to stay where I was in my nice warm bed.

I looked at the luminous alarm clock at the side of my bed ,it was 10 mins to six I didn't have to get up until six thirty, I worked at Brightside Foundry at Ecclesfield in those days...Anyway i'd just dozed off back to sleep when my brother, for some reason he decided to open the front door to see what was happening out side. as he opened the door the pressure in the house dropped and because he'd left the bedroom door open...there was a loud bang that shook the house and I was suddenly woken up again with the window frame and broken glass strewed across my bed and the curtains were flapping away violently horizontaly over me. I reluctantly decided it was time to get up.

 

(More to follow in the next episode "the damage and repair")

[Cycleracer 10]

I was only 3 at the time and our chimney collapsed and left a nice view of the stars according to my late mum.

We lived in Woodseats at the time over looking Millhouses park and Woodseats was one of the worse areas hit in Sheffield.

 

I heard that the pennines on the west and the flatter land to the east caused an unusual vacume and the gales just hit Sheffield.

 

can anyone take up on that.

Did anyone live in Rotherham or Chesterfield get the gales.

 

It did'nt help to have 1963 as the worse winter on record to follow it when 12 foot of snow fell causing chaos not long after the gales.

[PopT 10]

I remember one lad I worked with coming late to work during the gales. He came by bus down Prince Of Wales Road.

 

His excuse for being late was that the bus had to stop to allow somebody's sheet metal garage to cross the road.

 

Happy Days!

[coddy 10]

I remember it well. We lived on Granby road, which runs across the top of 3 roads all going up a hill. To the front of the house was a row of garages perched precariously on top of the bank, which was in other words nothing short of a cliff edge. To the rear of the house we just looked over the garden wall to see the houses and gardens descending below us down onto Firth Park road, and we looked directly across to Wincobank. Looking out at the front we could see straight across to Firvale Hospital (where I was born). Anyway, the garage which used to be opposite our house, disappeared on that windy day, took flight somewhere never to be seen again. It was good for a day off school anyway. Didnt the windows rattle in those days, with the curtains billowing out into the room. Getting dressed under the covers. Kids today with their central heating, they dont know they're born. I'm starting to sound like mi mom now.

[David Bowler 10]

Originally posted by PopT

I remember one lad I worked with coming late to work during the gales. He came by bus down Prince Of Wales Road.

 

His excuse for being late was that the bus had to stop to allow somebody's sheet metal garage to cross the road.

 

Happy Days!

 

I saw that garage, it was complete, just skating down the road.

[Sam Miguel 10]

I was six at the time and remeber going to school the next morning and witnessing the unbelievable devastation. Roofs torn off houses, trees ripped up etc etc.

 

I lived at Hackenthope at the time.

 

In the weeks after the gale, the blown-over trees became great things to play on.

[Damon 10]

When I was in the first year at secondary school ( 1978 ) we did a big project on this topic in geography - but it was referred to as 'The Sheffield Hurricane' which made it sound absolutely brilliant to an 11 year old.

[tiffy 10]

Another time when disaster loomed for Sheffield.

 

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/Misc/Transcriptions/WRY/SheffieldHurricane1873.html

[Timbuck 10]

Originally posted by Timbuck

This is how I remember it ..I was 21 years old, and I had been out for a drink with the lads the night before, I was fast asleep in the bedroom I shared with my Brother Eric, when I was awoken by my Dad who opened the bedroom door and shouted "Gerrup yo'r two, thus elluva gale blowing art theea, thus slates off an all sorts of stuff"..I could hear the wind shaking the window frame very violently. My brother jumped out of bed got dressed and went off to investigate, (leaving the bedroom door wide open. Because I was a bit under the weather due to the 5 pints of Tennants that i'd drunk at the Warncliffe the night before, I decided to stay where I was in my nice warm bed.

I looked at the luminous alarm clock at the side of my bed ,it was 10 mins to six I didn't have to get up until six thirty, I worked at Brightside Foundry at Ecclesfield in those days...Anyway i'd just dozed off back to sleep when my brother, for some reason he decided to open the front door to see what was happening out side. as he opened the door the pressure in the house dropped and because he'd left the bedroom door open...there was a loud bang that shook the house and I was suddenly woken up again with the window frame and broken glass strewed across my bed and the curtains were flapping away violently horizontaly over me. I reluctantly decided it was time to get up.

 

(More to follow in the next episode "the damage and repair")

With my bedroom window missing and a howling gale blowing through the house I some how managed to get dressed and went downstairs. My Father and Brother were outside the house inspecting the asbestos garage which had moved about two feet, and was stopped from blowing away by the car inside, the side of the garage looked like a porcupine with dozens of broken roof slates sticking out of it, the nearby houses had all lost parts of their roofs. The wind had now dropped a lot but was still gusting very strongly . It was agreed that I patched up the damage while my Dad and Brother went to work.

To get some material to board up the window I set off to Firth Park to "Richardson's" the nearest DIY shop,

On my way I passed "Hoskins chip shop" where the front of the shop was caved in with glass

everywhere...Further down Bellhouse Rd more roof damage..when I got to the bottom of Windmill Lane the Fire Brigade was sorting out a house where the whole gable end had fallen inwards, I later found out that some children had been Killed in bed in that incident.

I carried on down to Firth Park and I noticed that the sky was clear blue and high up in the air you could see items of building materials spinning around like straw in the wind, The radio had put out a warning to watch out for falling debri. When I got to Richardson's DIY shop, the owner was doing a roaring trade and had almost sold out of Boards nails and timber lats, but I was lucky enough to get some gear for my window repair.

A man who I knew, told me that the Vicar and his wife at St Hildas Church, had been killed on the settee in the lounge of the Vicarage, due to the chimney stack falling through the roof and bedroom floor and into the lounge.

When I got back home the Granada TV news was on, and I remember Bill Grundy (of Sex Pistols fame) standing on a hill overlooking Sheffield and saying that a Gale of 120 mph had hit Sheffield at 6 oclock that morning and it had now dropped down to a mere 80mph . I've seen a few storms since then but nothing like that one.

[sweetdexter 10]

It was reported that one in three house were damaged.

I was working on some new houses at Foxhill at the time and I remember it ripped the roof of some of the houses under constuction