The Great Storm struck on the night of 15/16 October 1987.

With of winds peaking at 106mph the noise of the wind and the sound of falling trees, (and also tiles and masonry) woke almost everyone. Powerlines were brought down creating flashing, sparks and small fires in the night sky.

In the morning it became clear that the skyline had changed overnight to a quite shocking extent. All the roads were blocked and the power was off (and stayed off for 5 days for some).