The aftermath of the 1987 storm in Sternfield – all images courtesy of Pat Robbins
The storm struck the South East of England on the night of 15th/16th October 1987. Some slept through it, others could not. It was said to be the worst storm since 1703 as it caused more damage to woodlands and trees than any other gale recorded in England.
Gusts of up to 100 mph were recorded by the Met Office. The storm had been tracked for several days and it was thought it would skim the South Eastern tip of the UK and pass on. A bbc weather forecaster famously stated that we were not to worry even though a woman had rung the bbc as she had heard a hurricane was on its way!
From Oral Recording with Pat Robbins, October 2021:
I was woken up in the morning, early hours, about 2:30 am with flashes in the sky. I got up and could see there was more than lightning, really howling winds. I looked and could see that the flashes were the electricity pylons from Sizewell, the winds were blowing so much they were arcing. I could hear the storm when I got to the end of the house and there was a big fir tree near the end of the road and I could see it swaying. I got my son James out of his bed and got him to sleep in a bedroom further away from the road and the tree as I thought it would come down.
I saw someone stirring across the road, it was Jack, so I went out and spoke to him about the tree and as we stood there a car came down Red Lane and it was an American from the base. He said, “Can you help me?” He was trying to get back to Bentwaters from Saxmundham but all the roads were blocked. However, we could see by this time that the trees were down on the Ford and I knew that the other end of Sandy Lane, Benhall Bridge, was out as that was being reconstructed so I said, “You better go back to where you came from!”
We had a big Ash tree at the back of the garage on the river bank and that brought down the garage. My car fortunately was not in the there because of the rains the day before. I couldn’t get passed Bigsby’s Corner, I couldn’t get to go through Friston as that was flooded or the Ford which was too deep to get across so I had to park at the bottom of Benhall Green!
After the storm I couldn’t get to work in Ipswich. I was on call but the phones were down so I walked into Saxmundham walking over trees and round trees and it was quite a trek. There wasn’t any power either, we were using tilly lamps and generators and we needed to get farmers and tree surgeons out to clear the trees.
The most spectacular trees down locally was a tree down through a cottage in Friston and the big oak tree at the bottom of Grays lane.
Our power was off for 8 days in Sternfield. Luckily neighbours had bottled gas and we had a camping stove but that was a tough 8 days!
The Feakes family had just moved into Sternfield. From oral recording in September 2020:
We moved in during the hurricane of 1987 which was a bit of an experience! Our first night after moving in the wind got up and it was absolutely noisy and as a result our son, who was 9 months old, kept waking up. We woke up in the morning to no electricity and no telephone. We had the baby and elderly family with us and we had only brought enough food for breakfast as we thought we would go shopping the next day. We got in the car but the roads were blocked because there were trees everywhere so we walked to Marsh Farm to ask where the shops were. There was a little shop in Benhall at the Post Office so we could get just enough to see us through but we didn’t have electricity for 2 weeks or a phone for 3 weeks!
