FROM THE ARCHIVE: FREAK STORMS LEAVE TRAIL OF DESTRUCTION IN WINTON

You may have noticed we are expected to experience some rather windy weather over the next couple of days due to the now Ex-Hurricane Ophelia, but if you lived in Eccles in January 1965 you would have experienced a whole lot more.

The Eccles Journal reported that on Friday 5 January, the residents of Eccles had a series of narrow escapes from serious injury as a whirlwind swept across Winton and Ellesmere Park, rippping slates from roofs, demolishing garden fences and causing havoc. 

The most serious damage was in the Welbeck Road area where a sight screen was torn from Monton Cricket Club and hurled several yards away onto the tennis courts. 

Mr Gordon Lowe who lived at 6 Welbeck Road returned home from shopping in Manchester to find part of his roof missing, with bricks and roof tiles that had crashed into his front bedroom. 

Mr Lowe, a chief accountant at Lankro Chemicals in Eccles, told the newspaper:

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"There are two gaping holes in the bedrooom ceiling with bricks and rubble everywhere, if it had been dark our difficulties would have been much worse". 

Mrs Boardman of Breck Road had a narrow escape from death when she was taking washing in from the garden and seconds later a chimney pot came crashing down from her roof and shattered on the spot where she had been standing. 

The trail of destruction carried on in Welbeck Road with one resident Mr Hanlon telling of how the sky suddenly went black, followed by terrific gusts of wind which lasted for up to two minutes and he felt his house shake. 

Ridge tiles were ripped from his roof and had smashed through his garden fence, demolishing it completely. 

Mr Stanley Cooke explained:

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"The sky turned black, then the leaves in my garden were whipped into a mini-tornado, then my new wooden garden fence was ripped from its foundations. 

"It flew 40 feet into the air and landed in a neighbour's garden some 50 yards away, where a piece of the wood smashed a neighbour's kitchen window, fortunately nobody was hurt." 

Dozens of homes on Rocky Lane lost roof tiles and television aerials were thrown into the road such was the force of the storm. 

It appeard to blow itself out shortly after but not before gusting through the council estate at Ellesmere Park where once again it caused damage to roofs, demolishing chimneys and skylights. 

Does anybody remember this happening? It sounds a pretty severe storm and especially as it happened in the early afternoon when the sky suddenly went black, which in itself would have been quite disturbing I should imagine. 

This article first appeared on SalfordOnline on the 12th of January 2015, it is reproduced here with the blessing of Tony 'The Tornado' Flynn.