The
Filkins-Broadwell Tornado
Click all photographs for larger copies
Beyond the eastern boundaries of the village, the suspected tornado now entered open countryside. This mainly comprised of grazing land, with some bare fields ready for sowing. Between each field however, were tall hedgerows comprised of trees. The aerial image below is zoomed out from previous images, in order to show the area of open countryside affected. Once again, each red circle denotes a fallen tree which we were able to view from the small lanes crossing the agricultural land.
Open
farmland east of Filkins, and west of Broadwell.
Image
from www.getmapping.com
(10)
In area 10, a small lane crossed through the fields, and was flanked by small trees. There was damage to these trees in the area noted, although no trees were actually uprooted.
(11)
Another small lane running south-eastwards through the farmland can be seen to the right of the image above. This lane took us alongside fields near to area 11. Here, several uprooted trees could be seen from the road, and these had fallen eastwards into the field.
(12)
Following the lane south-eastwards, we now neared the suspected tornado's path once again. Alongside the road, in area 12, several trees in the hedgerow were felled, including this large oak tree pictured below. We were informed by a local resident that this tree was far from rotten, and from this distance it certainly seemed to be in good health. In fact, the tree brought up its roots when it fell, rather than actually snapping. The tree fell in a south-easterly direction.
At this point, the tornado now encountered human dwellings once again, in the form of the small village of Broadwell. The village runs linearly along the small north-south orientated lane, and the tornado merely grazed the southern tip of the village. South of the lane on which we were travelling, three properties were affected by the vortex. We spoke to the residents of two of these, and are very grateful for the kind help we received.
Southern
part of Broadwell village.
Image from www.getmapping.com
(13)
Firstly, area 13 was affected, we believe, by the central and leading eastern edge of the vortex. Although the property was largely untouched, garden furniture and vegetation did sustain some damage. On the first page of this tornado account, we included a transcript from two neighbouring residents of the happenings during the tornado's passage. The residents of this first property, in area 13, witnessed the remarkable events involving the garden-based dog kennel, which was situated just south of the house. As explained earlier, the dog kennel was lifted into the air, past the house, over the wall onto the road in front of an oncoming car. The roof was lifted off the dog kennel, over the house opposite, and dropped into a field 200 yards (over 180m) away (shown by the green square on the aerial image above). The following photographs show this in more detail.
What
was left of the 10x6x4ft dog kennel, which was constructed of wood panels,
lead-lined roof and solid metal bars for the door. The roof of this dog kennel
actually passed over the house seen in the background, to come to rest in
the field behind.
An
interesting image of the kennel's first movements. The remains of the kennel
can be seen where it once stood intact, in the back left in this image. Its
first point of contact with the ground can be seen in the foreground, as scars
in the garden lawn.
(14)
Unfortunately, we were unable to obtain photographic permission for this location. However, a large shed/garage-sized structure, consisting mostly of wood, was totally levelled, together with several small garden trees.
(15)
Situated just south of the previous property, another house was more badly affected by the tornado's passing. This is the other house mentioned in the transcript on the first page of this tornado account, based on facts given to us by the residents. The garden comprised mostly of saplings, and thus tree damage was limited. However, the house itself lost tiles and masonery from the entire south- and east-facing sides of the roof, many of the tiles carried over 200 yards eastwards into a field. These were once again found drilled deep into the ground. A large, solid wendy house in the back garden was also lifted 5-8ft (1.5-2.5m) over a garden wall, apparently over a tree, and dropped without damage into the neightbouring garden. See the following images.
Part
of the roof badly damaged by the tornado, now covered by protective tarpaulins.
Slates,
which came from the house seen on the right of the image here, can be seen
littering the hedge and side of the road.
Tornadic
damage often seems to defy logic! This strong wendy house would require the
strength
of three men to move, such is the solid bulid-quality of the structure. However,
this child's house was lifted into the air, beyond the stone wall pictured
to the right here, and dropped onto the lawn of the neighbouring property.
However, in order to do this, it would have had to clear the tree to the right
of it, thus being lifted some 40ft into the air! This seems almost impossible
- and how was it left in one piece?