Terrible power of the storms

The Sussex Advertiser reported: "During the whole of last Monday night the wind blew very fresh from the south west, and by ten o'clock on Tuesday morning it amounted to a complete hurricane, which raged with unremitting fury for about two hours, doing extensive injury to this town."

"The clock tower at the town hall was soon stripped of nearly all the slates, which did much damage to the windows in the immediate neighbourhood, indeed some were blown into Market Street, some little distance from the spot.

"The wall between the houses of the Steyne was thrown down, a house in the High Street was completely unroofed, several houses in Warwick Buildings lost their balconies, bathing machines were capsized and broken to pieces on the esplanade, several stacks of chimneys were blown down, the roof of one of the houses in Marine Place fell in, and one of the joists, we understood, dropped upon a bed in which there was a child, who providently escaped unhurt.

"Lead, chimney pots and tiles were blown about so as to render it unsafe to walk through the streets, numberless windows were broken, and it was shortly found necessary to close the shutters in various shops.

"A barn belonging to Mr G Newland was completely destroyed."

Towns and villages close to Worthing suffered similar damage. Several cottages in the parish of Heene lost their thatched roofs while cornstacks were blown in all directions.

A barn at Sompting partially collapsed while trees all along Sompting Lane and towards Offington were blown down.

Off Shoreham, a stricken vessel was seen being tossed in the waves with both masts down.

In 1850, a great storm claimed the lives of 11 fishermen as they tried to reach the stricken Lalla Rookh off Worthing.

In the same year, the Half Brick pub on East Worthing seafront, which historians believe was originally half a mile south of its present location, was destroyed by the sea.

An artist retrospectively painted a dramatic picture of the giant waves smashing into the building.

The Half Brick was rebuilt further inland but in January 1869 another tempest wailed into the town and the hostelry was dashed to pieces again.

One journalist recorded: "At noon on Friday, when the tide was at its highest, the sea washed into and over a block of houses known as the Half Brick, consisting of an inn and some houses occupied by coastguardsmen, destroying a portion which was used as an armoury.

"Still more damage was done by the night tide of Friday. At midnight, the bay being very full of water, the sea, driven by a strong south-west wind, dashed violently at the foot of the Half Brick.

"The destruction, once commenced, proceeded rapidly, and by the midday tide on Saturday four or five of the houses were completely washed away.

"The porch and area railings of the Half Brick was also knocked down and the scene when the spray dashed over and entirely enveloped the house was grand in the extreme."

A grave at St Mary's Church, Goring, bears witness to the lethal power of the weather.

On June 9, 1907, four farm workers were walking along what is now the A259 Worthing to Littlehampton Road.

It was a bright, clear day but a sudden squall sent them seeking shelter under an elm tree at the foot of a slip road to Highdown Gardens. Seconds later the tree was hit by lightning, killing two of the men.

The watch of victim Frederick Wady, 22, stopped at precisely 3.10pm, the exact moment the thunderbolt struck. His friend Sidney Orchard, 19, lay dead nearby.

Their clothes were ripped to shreds and the nails of their boots were embedded in their heels. Coins from Orchard's pockets were found buried six inches into the earth. Two were fused together.

The inquest was held at the Bull Inn, Goring, from where the bodies were taken by horse-drawn hearse to the graveyard.

A freak storm in January 1949 blew a Southdown double-deck bus off a bridge into the River Adur at Shoreham.

Remarkably, nobody was killed but the passengers had a miraculous escape.

The nightmare began at 6pm on a Saturday night when a whirlwind swept in from the Channel, leaving chaos in its wake as it blitzed through Worthing and Lancing.

More than 200 buildings in Lancing alone were damaged by winds gusting at 90mph and windows at Worthing Hospital were smashed.

The No 9 bus, on its way from Worthing to Brighton, was hit by the storm on the old Shoreham road bridge.

The bus, with 20 passengers on board, was toppled from the wooden bridge into the River Adur.

Fortunately, the tide was out, which saved many of those on board from drowning.

Firefighters lowered ladders from the bridge to the bus, which was lying on its side in the mud, the engine still running.

Some of the passengers were able to scramble clear unaided but 11 others had to be helped from the wreckage.

The driver, who said the steering wheel had been wrenched out of his hands by the gust, and several passengers, were taken to hospital.

Over the Easter weekend of 1913, a fierce gale, combined with a high tide, struck directly from the south, destroying Worthing Pier.

Wooden sea defences, designed to break up the power of incoming waves, turned out to be useless.

As the tempest reached its peak at about midnight, the pier bore the brunt.

The Argus reported: "It was a night long to be remembered, for the bright moonlight enabled the devastating work of water and wind to be seen by immense crowds.

"It took only about five minutes, just after midnight on Saturday, for wind and rain to sweep away the greater part of the structure of the Worthing Pier.

"A terrific gale sprang up with startling suddenness, early in the evening, and on the seafront it was difficult for people to stand.

"It was, however, a clear, moonlit night and hundreds of Easter visitors flocked to the promenade, heedless of the buffeting they received, to witness what was a magnificent, though awful, sea spectacle.

"Huge waves broke on the shore, and the sea swept over the asphalt promenade and roadway, causing an extraordinary spectacle.

"Soon after 12 o'clock the pier was seen to be moving at the sea end, and a gigantic wave crashing into the centre caused the structure to sway, and then the piles gave way, the decking, girders and everything collapsed and disappeared beneath the water.

"Only the landing stage and the pierhead and pavilion remained intact, and isolated, there being a huge gap between that and the toll house at the entrance.

"Finally, 600ft, or two-thirds of the entire length of the pier structure, was washed away. The force of the elements was revealed by the twisted girders and supports lying in a hopeless heap on the sand."

The Southern Pavilion became known as Easter Island and was visited by paddle steamers packed with tourists.

It took more than a year to rebuild the pier, which was finally reopened by the Mayor of London.

On December 1, 1915, Worthing was hit by a whirlwind which left a trail of destruction through the town.

It wrought havoc on a path from Worthing station to Sompting. At the station, heavy crates in the goods yard, requiring several men to lift them, were overturned.

Hailstones, an inch in diameter, as well as thunder and lightning, accompanied the whirlwind. A sitting of the town's magistrates was adjourned as hailstones and flying tiles smashed against the windows.

Dozens of trees were uprooted as the tornado veered across the town. In Reigate Road, a house had its roof removed while West Worthing station also took a battering.

In those days many market gardens were situated north of the railway line and glasshouses were shattered in the space of a few minutes.

On the Littlehampton Road a man was picked up by the wind and hurled into the air, receiving attention for cuts and bruises at Worthing Hospital.