Shrimpsvoices

Just read this on the BBC site, I was only 1 at the time so can't remeber it but thought may be of interest to the older readers?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/lancashire/ ... 002370.stm

Lloydie wrote:Just read this on the BBC site, I was only 1 at the time so can't remeber it but thought may be of interest to the older readers?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/lancashire/ ... 002370.stm

I think 1977 was worse, i seem to remember me dad telling me .

That was year my fishing boat decided to sit on the sea bed

parceldave wrote:

Lloydie wrote:Just read this on the BBC site, I was only 1 at the time so can't remeber it but thought may be of interest to the older readers?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/lancashire/ ... 002370.stm

I think 1977 was worse, i seem to remember me dad telling me .

I dont remeber the 1983 storm but i think it was 1977 when i watched on the prom as the West End pier got wrecked.

Richard Head wrote:

parceldave wrote:

Lloydie wrote:Just read this on the BBC site, I was only 1 at the time so can't remeber it but thought may be of interest to the older readers?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/lancashire/ ... 002370.stm

I think 1977 was worse, i seem to remember me dad telling me .

I dont remeber the 1983 storm but i think it was 1977 when i watched on the prom as the West End pier got wrecked.

After the 1977 storm which wrecked the West End Pier the beach under the pier was full of kids from Heysham High School at lunchtimes as there were loads of coins in the sand from the fruit machines that had fallen when the pier collapsed.

Heysham_Shrimp wrote:I dont remeber the 1983 storm but i think it was 1977 when i watched on the prom as the West End pier got wrecked.

After the 1977 storm which wrecked the West End Pier the beach under the pier was full of kids from Heysham High School at lunchtimes as there were loads of coins in the sand from the fruit machines that had fallen when the pier collapsed.[/quote]

I think everyone piled down there.

1977 is often seen as worse because of West End pier being destroyed and also the King Orry Isle of Man ferry that got ended up in a creek near Glasson Dock. In my view, for sheer damage, 1983 was much worse. A couple of examples:

A friend used to live on the prom near the Town Hall running a small B&B. Her mini was parked outside but in the morning it had gone out to see. It was though replaced with a boat through the front window.

The damage to the prom stretched from Hest Bank all the way to Heysham. I remember the next morning walking up the school fields at Heysham High and the front pitch was covered in thousands of dead worms. The sea had got into the sewage and draining systems and forced its way up a long way back.

the one in 77 i think did more damage with the wind then the one in 83 did damage with more flooding(higher tides)

the one in 83 i was living off the promenade when my mother woke me up and said look out of our bedroom window and it was like a river(well over knee deep to adults) i remember seeing a mattresses come down the street and the police were on loud speakers asking for volunteer's to help so my old fella and some of the neighbours went out to help the ground floor in our house was flooded we had to get the cellar pumped out

where in 77 we didn't get flooded but remember the day after part of the pier came back with the next tide and the size of the waves




and the difference between west end pier and central Pier the reason the central pier never got that bothered with bad weather is because the central pier had a 1inch gap between each floor board

where as the west end pier was like tongue & groove so the force of the sea took the front of west end pier up like a pack of cards

DawZi wrote: the difference between west end pier and central Pier the reason the central pier never got that bothered with bad weather is because the central pier had a 1inch gap between each floor board

where as the west end pier was like tongue & groove so the force of the sea took the front of west end pier up like a pack of cards

I wasn't even born at the time but I was told by my old man that the Central Pier was protected by the Stone Jetty which sheltered it from the worst of the waves.

Anyone got any pictures of either one as I remember how sad it was when the Central one burned down when I was a kid and was eventually pulled down.

Wild Bill wrote:Anyone got any pictures of either one as I remember how sad it was when the Central one burned down when I was a kid and was eventually pulled down.

There's quite a few piers and things here. Just click on the menu for the ones you like

http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/NorthWestPie ... chor379213

The power of the sea can be truly awesome.

In 77 we'd gone to Lancaster Uni for a gig. The weather was wild but there was no warning of the destruction that was to follow. Travelling back down the hill to Lancaster Bus Station we found the river Lune had burst it's banks and there was only about 2 feet of the bus station showing above the water line. There followed a wait of several hours for the water to recede when the tide went out and we got back into Morecambe in the early hours to find the West End Pier destroyed and massive damage to the sea front area.

A couple of things still stick in the mind. The twisted sea front railings and a skip full of rubble in the middle of Marine Road. It had apparently been on the Stone Jetty and the sea had washed it about 100 metres in land. Thats several tons of rubble and skip shifted by water!

The worrying thing is that it's inevitably going to happen again sometime.

Burnley Shrimp wrote:The power of the sea can be truly awesome.

In 77 we'd gone to Lancaster Uni for a gig. The weather was wild but there was no warning of the destruction that was to follow. Travelling back down the hill to Lancaster Bus Station we found the river Lune had burst it's banks and there was only about 2 feet of the bus station showing above the water line. There followed a wait of several hours for the water to recede when the tide went out and we got back into Morecambe in the early hours to find the West End Pier destroyed and massive damage to the sea front area.

A couple of things still stick in the mind. The twisted sea front railings and a skip full of rubble in the middle of Marine Road. It had apparently been on the Stone Jetty and the sea had washed it about 100 metres in land. Thats several tons of rubble and skip shifted by water!

The worrying thing is that it's inevitably going to happen again sometime.

we have a decent sea defence now to stop damage with gale force winds driving high tides over on that scale like in 77 and 83 happening again

however it wont stop the flooding becuase in a lot of parts of Morecambe it does come up through the ground etc