WILLIAMSON'S WEEKLY NATURE NOTES

THE hurricane 20 years ago this week on October 16, 1987 was the worst of at least six more in Sussex over the past 30 years. The '87 hurricane peaked at 4am with the barograph trough down to 958mbs at Bosham.

By The Newsroom

Published 11th Oct 2007, 16:48 BST

Updated 8th Jun 2018, 03:41 BST

Thirty boats lost their moorings and some were blown up on to Thorney Island fields from Hayling Island.

At West Dean 50 oaks were flattened in the nature reserve and a 30-year-old beech plantation was destroyed completely.

Slindon woods lost most of its giant beech trees and the clearance and re-establishment was estimated to be 5m which the National Trust could not afford.

At Kingley Vale National Nature Reserve 400 yews out of the 30,000 that grow there were toppled. Most today are still alive with leader shoots sprouting out of the trunks.

All over Sussex, great beech trees fell and their rotted trunks and ten feet high root plates are still there as reminder.

Some which were pushed flat made nice little homes for badgers, foxes and rabbits. The remarkable thing about the '87 hurricane was the speed with which air pressure rose again after the trough.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette October 17