The Filkins-Broadwell Tornado
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With the time at around 1330 GMT, we headed into the western side of central Filkins, comprising numerous properties, an orchard, village green and several gardens. Once again, on the following aerial map, each red circle corresponds to a toppled or badly damaged tree. Yellow regions denote damage to property and structures. Those yellow regions not numbered in this instance apply to houses with damage to roofing tiles and and ridge tiles.

Central-western Filkins.
Image from www.getmapping.com

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In the centre of the village, an ancient Cotswold cottage is owned by an elderly lady, and the garden is awash with fruit trees. It was only a modest-sized garden, but one can imagine it would be quite easy to get lost in it, such was the density of the orchard. We spoke to the lady, still visibily shaken by the tornado, who explained to us what she saw and heard. Firstly she was taken aback by the size of the hailstones, and the sky to the north which was pitch black (see our images earlier). She recalled how everything went extremely still and quiet for a short time, before an almighty rumbling sound came out of nowhere. She saw branches and debris flying past her window, then her back-door suddenly blew in. No sooner had the noise arrived, it had gone, leaving deathly silence. This silence was broken however, as she recalls hearing the deafening screams of hundreds of distressed birds. She described the sound as "horrendously haunting". As the sun came out, she told us how she went out into the small garden to see what had happened. Over a dozen of the old-English trees had been ripped in two, hauled out of the ground or had been simply stripped to the trunk. Her once enchanting garden orchard now comprised of a grass lawn, numerous damaged trees, and debris.

A chunky apple tree is twisted like a twig, then snapped.

A large bow off another fruit tree is ripped off and dropped 12ft (over 3.5m) away. Note the blue tarpaulin over the roof in the distance, also in the path of the tornado - this will be discussed later.

At the bottom of the garden, she had a small summer house. It had two side walls, a rear wall, a wooden floor and a roof. The front of the 8x6x4ft summer house was open, without a door. The entire structure was picked up intact, lifted over 3ft into the air so that it passed over a garden fence, before being dropped back down into pieces on the otherside of the fence. The flimsy wood and wire fence was left totally untouched. A few tiles were also ripped from the roof of the house, such as they were from numerous properties in the immediate vicinity, although they tended to only come from the edges of the roofs. The following picture shows the demolished summerhoure, although by this point it had already been moved from where it came to rest.

 

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Next door to this cottage and its garden was the village green. Although mostly open, this small walled enclosure contained a very old Yew tree. Despite its age, we were informed by a local ground worker that the tree was solid, and that the snapping in two of this tree simply demonstrated the wind's strength. Just beyond the green was a small yard comprising a coal bunker and a couple of large trees. As the following image shows, the two trees were either snapped or completely uprooted, falling in a north-easterly direction, and the bunker lost some of its roofing material.

 

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Standing towards the eastern side of the village is the old schoolhouse. Now used as a nursery and playground, it is situated next door to the village green. Thankfully, it was Sunday afternoon when the tornado passed close to the school, and thus possible tragedy was avoided. As the funnel swung in from the west, it dislodged a heavy iron gate before rumbling into the playground. Here, it tossed play equipment, destroyed a wooden panel fence and left the yard strewn with debris. The school building was also damaged, so much so that by Thursday the school remained closed pending major repair. Damage comprised mostly of removed tiles and cracked roof frames, although some minor damge to the stone masonery could also be seen. The following images were all taken from within the sealed-off nursery grounds, for which we obtained entry permission.

Image showing the disloged iron gate, destroyed wooden panel fence and damage to the school roof. Note the damage to the distant roof as the vortex also clipped that building.

Tarpaulin now shelters the large hole torn in the roof. The yard lies covered with lead-lining, tiles and metal guttering, and damage can be noted to the Cotswold stone walls.

The tornadic winds were powerful enough to pick up objects and launch them as dangerous projectiles. This fence panel, from the wooden fence over 50m away, was hurled with such force that it lodged itself between the underside of a roof overhang and a stone wall. The impact managed to split the panel up the middle, and despite trying we could not dislodged it from its resting position!

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