THIRTY-FIVE years ago this weekend the Great Storm hit Jersey, sweeping away tens of thousands of trees and leaving a trail of devastation in its wake.
Winds gusting up to 100 miles per hour blew down an avenue of huge conifers ‘like a pack of cards’ and ripped the roof off buildings leaving residents exposed to the elements.
Staff at the National Trust for Jersey have vivid memories of the morning after the storm hit the Island in October 1987, changing the landscape overnight.
Describing the scene, National Trust marketing and events manager Donna Le Marrec said: ‘I remember walking down Mont Millais and literally climbing over trees on the way. A flat at the bottom of the road had its roof ripped off and it was like looking into a giant doll’s house.’
Tree expert Conrad Evans said: ‘When the great storm hit, it was all hands to the pump with chainsaws to help with the clear-up. Around 20,000 mature trees and lengths of hedgerows were blown down. Some people said the trees were torn out like a tornado. There was a row of 100ft-high conifers blown down like a pack of cards on Route Orange near Red Houses.’
Mr Evans, an arborculturalist for the trust, added: ‘Everything was haphazard with trees across roads, so buses couldn’t get through. There were shards of glass flying, toppled chimney pots and sheds lifted out of gardens.’
He explained that it took decades for the landscape to restore itself but some of the views in Jersey changed forever. Many of the huge beech trees in the grounds of the old D’Hautrée School and Government House were blown down and it now looks very different to how it did before the storm.
Mr Evans said some of the avenues of trees leading up to the Island’s manor houses, which had been preserved by German officers during the Occupation, had been uprooted by the storm.
‘It’s amazing how things grow back because nature doesn’t like a gap. Sycamores will blow in to fill any gaps in a canopy, changing the view very quickly.’
One silver lining for the trust was that they were asked to clear lots of old oak trees that fell in the grounds of a large house near the Methodist Church in St Martin. The huge trees produced eight million planks, some of which were used in restoration and refurbishment at Hamptonne Country Life Museum.
They provided authentic materials which would have been used to build the original long-house structure 500 years ago, meaning the recycled oak remains part of Jersey’s history, despite the storm.
