1807—November 10—A violent storm occurred, which raged pretty generally over the whole country. A barge laden with coal, moored near Worcester bridge, was sunk. At Hanley Castle, and Stanford Park, a great many trees were blown down, and several houses unroofed.
1808—July 15—A most awful tempest from the S.W. The thunder continued in one unbroken roar for an hour and a half; and the hailstones which fell were like fragments of a vast plate of ice broken into pieces, being broad, flat, and ragged. Many of them were perfect and unmelted the next morning.
1809—January 29—Great flood upon the Severn, the water rising to within nineteen inches of the level of the extraordinary flood of 1795.
1810—September 22—A storm, described as “a dreadful whirlwind,” commencing at Fearnal Heath, and taking a direction due north, through Salwarp, Ombersley, Doverdale, and to the extremity of Hampton Lovett; and its effects were felt as far as Chaddesley Corbett. The principal sufferers were Sir John Pakington, Mr. Silvester of Doverdale, and Mr. Saunders of Mayeux. Mr. Silvester had two hundred trees on his farm, either torn up by the roots, or shattered at mid-trunk. Most of them were pear trees in full bearing.
1810—November 10—A tempest from the N.E. visited Worcester and its environs. Great numbers of trees torn up by the roots. The lightning struck the house of Mr. Harris of Edgar Street, came down the chimney of the room in which he was sitting, burnt his hand and eyebrows, his stockings and papers, and tore down a wainscot on the opposite side of the room.
1811—May 27—The famous Worcester hailstorm happened this day. It was indeed a tempest, such as had been scarcely ever known in this country before. Between four and five o’clock p.m., clouds of a horrible blackness came up from the S.E., accompanied by a hideous noise. Shortly hail began to fall, which almost immediately became a storm of ice, and fell furiously in flakes of about five or six inches in circumference. The windows of almost every house which faced the S.E. were wholly demolished in a few minutes—gardens were laid utterly waste—and fields, both of grass and corn, sustained irreparable damage. The ice-storm was succeeded by heavy torrents of rain, with all the terrors of a tropical tempest. The river Severn in one hour rose six feet, and continued gradually to swell its torrent till it had reached the height of twenty feet; and the flood, rapid and wide-spreading, swept away in its impetuous career whole herds of cattle from the adjacent fields. 1,200 panes of glass were broken in Messrs. Barr’s china manufactory, 500 in the Workhouse, and 2,000 in Messrs. Chamberlain’s factory. Messrs. Freame’s cabinet warehouse, Goose Lane, lost 1,000 panes, and all the public buildings suffered severely. 150 rooks were killed in the rookery at the White Ladies, and a vast many other birds were also afterwards found dead. At Henwick and Hallow the crops were miserably injured. The cost of replacing the glass broken in the city, alone, was estimated at £5,000; and there being neither sufficient materials nor workpeople at hand to repair it, the inhabitants for weeks had to suffer the inconvenience of exposure to the weather. One glazier, who started off to Stourbridge and purchased all the glass he could lay his hands on, is said to have laid the foundation of a fortune by this calamity. We have no record of the state of the atmosphere previous to this storm.
1814—January 12—The Severn frozen over at Worcester, so as to admit of parties walking across it, and the weather in every respect most severe. January 20—The frost continued with such severity that the Severn was frozen over at Tewkesbury, and several persons going to Tewkesbury market rode over it at the Lode. The roads, also, were so blocked up by snow as to render traffic of every description almost impossible.
1817—June 21—The neighbourhood of Stanford visited with a tremendous tempest. From seven to ten p.m., the roar of the thunder was incessant; the lightning one continued sheet of fire; and the rain descended in such torrents that the whole country was inundated. The brook running from Hanley William through Orleton rose to an enormous height, and carried away fences, trees, and other obstacles, lodging them at great distances. Many hop yards destroyed, and the soil almost wholly washed away. The thermometer stood at 112° Fahrenheit in the sun, on the day before this storm, and at 82° in the shade.
1818—March 4—A very furious storm from the S.W. experienced at Worcester, continuing for about six hours. A great deal of damage done to the roofs of houses. The Bristol mail was detained eleven hours by the floods.
1818—April 11—Great flood on the river Severn, the water rising to within three feet of the height which it reached in February, 1795.