On this day – record hailstone falls at Horsham in 1958

September 5 1958 was a day that many Horsham folk still have ingrained on their memory as a violent storm brought a trail of damage, along with a remarkable record!

It was on that day that the heaviest hailstone ever recorded in the UK fell on the town – a massive 141g – a record that still stands today.

The West Sussex County Times heralded the day as ‘The storm Horsham will never forget’ and, harking back to only a few years before, quoted one resident who said at was ‘just like an air raid’!

The paper’s report continued: “This awful and magnificent storm with its hurricane force wind, tropical rain, and hailstones two and a half inches across, smashed into homes and other buildings, uprooted and snapped hundreds of trees and turned the area into a battlefield.”

Thankfully, though, no one was seriously injured.

Strangely, the worst weather only struck a narrow strip around six miles wide, crossing the Horsham district.

For two days up to the storm, the air was oppressive with an almost tropical heat. However, on the day itself, a Friday, the storm clouds started to build up.

It became quite dark and suddenly the sky was lit up with lightning; then heavy rain fell mixed with large hailstones.

A fierce wind struck Queensway in the town where new houses were being built. Tiles were ripped off and chimneys toppled and the nearby 100 foot wooden roof of Horsham Football Club stand in Queen Street ended up in one of the new gardens.

Over in Roffey a lady was alone in her cottage when the front door was flung open and in flew apples and bits of tree. She was flung against the wall, bruising her arm.

A short distance away two young children had glass fragments shower over their head when the windows burst in.

Trees were uprooted or saw their trunks twisted in the space of a few minutes.

To make matters worse the hail was falling in dramatic fashion. One observer said he saw a hailstone ‘the size of a pullet’s egg’!

Other damage recorded were caravans thrown onto their side, a bus shelter flattened like a matchbox and at Horsham railway station a goods shed badly damaged and a tree blocking the line.

Reports of further damage came in from Wisborough Green, Henfield and Billingshurst.

There was one fatality, though. A budgie being looked after by a woman in Horsham died of fright!

People most affected by the storm appeared to be nurserymen as crops and flowers were flattened and greenhouses lost all their glass.

Local builders were inundated with phone calls as hundreds of people tried to get homes and workplaces repaired. One builders’ merchants had a queue of folk looking for glass and four men were employed all week cutting it to replace people’s windows.

Apparently, way back in 1839 Horsham suffered another severe storm, with hailstones the size of walnuts. It happened in July and virtually every pane of glass was broken.