First Winter storm at Wandlebury

A damaging Winter storm struck Wandlebury on Friday 2nd January 1976. All night trees were crashing down, causing flare-ups where electric cables were damaged. Bill checked and fought fires through the night, wherever they arose. The following weeks were spent clearing up the damage.

Iron age skeletons revealed under the roots of a fallen tree in the 1976 storm.

Readings by Chris Thomas of Route and Branch, the autobiography of Bill Clark, former Warden at Wandlebury. Extract from chapter 8. Full reading available in podcast at:
https://archive.org/download/first-storm/Ch8a-First-storm.mp3

....I decided to take the family on a break on the 5th of January 1976. With the weather forecast predicting a gale for Friday the 2nd, I spent Thursday nailing the rest of the tile battens over the roofing felt on the workshop roof. By 9.20 pm Friday, the noise was unbearable. Numerous fires glowed, as tree after tree was thrown through the 11,000 volt cables strung through the estate; cutting off our power, and in consequence, the well-water pump, then next the phone lines went – we were to remain in the ‘dark ages’ for five days. I laboured back and forth checking every new glow, to ensure it was a tree, and not one of the buildings – though how fire engines would have got to them I do not know. One did arrive at one point, for a concerned passerby had phoned them, but even as I explained the situation, a house fire call came over their radio, and off they dashed. Looking at the devastation in the light of day, I realised that I had been very lucky to survive the night! Over one hundred trees uprooted – and of the 58 large beech down, only two had my red ‘felling,’ numbers painted on the trunks!...