1828—July 8—A tempest of considerable violence, during which the lightning struck a house in Newdix Court, High Street, Worcester, and a cottage near Merriman’s Hill—not, however, doing much damage in either case. Vehement gusts of wind stripped old roofs of their tiling, and blew down several trees in the neighbourhood.
1830—January 20—A very heavy fall of snow, blocking up all the roads, so that no coaches reached Worcester at all from the west, and the London coaches came in a day after their time.
1831—July 10—A tempest which raged throughout the county, doing much damage. The lightning struck Hales, a watchman of Worcester, while sitting at the door of a house at Spetchley, and he was for a time paralysed, while the blood flowed from his ears and mouth. At Wick a cottage was burnt down, and the nephew of the widow who occupied it was affected by the electric fluid, much in the same manner as Hales. On Defford Common the hailstones lay in hillocks nine inches high, and some of the stones were as large as pigeon’s eggs. A great deal of glass was broken, birds killed, crops destroyed (the heads of the wheat being separated from the straw, and the pods of beans laid open), and fencing laid low.
1836—December 28–30—An extraordinary snowstorm, which extended over the greater part of the country, and continued for several days, till all the roads were blocked up and communication almost at an end. The Worcester mail was blocked up in the snow at Enstone, and could not be got out. The mails for three days were thirty-six hours behind time. In some places the snow was said to have drifted to a height of twenty feet.
1839—January 9—A fearful gale of wind, general throughout the country, and doing great damage to houses and plantations in this county. At Burlish Common, near Stourport, a stack of chimneys fell through the roof of a cottage on to the bed where a young woman was lying, and she sustained such injuries as to cause her death shortly afterwards.
1839—June 13—A very violent hailstorm raged chiefly in the northern part of the county. At Hagley, several hundred pounds’ worth of glass were destroyed; and in Mr. G. B. Lea’s spinning mill, at Drayton, near Kidderminster, 580 small panes were broken. At Hartlebury, &c., great damage was done to the growing crops—many fields of barley being totally destroyed; and at Harvington the hailstones were reported to lie six feet deep on the ground: fifty rooks were killed in that neighbourhood.
1839—July 31—In consequence of unintermittent rains for several days together, a flood occurred in all the running streams, which rose higher than had been known for many years. Of course, great damage was done to the pastures and crops. On several roads communication was cut off. The Ludlow and Aberystwith mails to Worcester were both stopped. The guard of the Ludlow mail attempted to get on in a two-horse fly; but, at Newnham, the fly was fairly floated, and the guard himself narrowly escaped drowning. The Aberystwith coach was stopped at Knightsford bridge, and had to be lashed to a tree: the bags were brought away in boats.
1843—July 5—An alarming tempest visited Worcester and the neighbourhood, killing several sheep, shivering fine trees, and the subsequent hail destroying much glass in greenhouses.
1843—July 13—A very severe thunderstorm again occurred, igniting some farm buildings at Abberton, killing a mare at Redditch, and doing other damage. The wife of a labourer at Eastnor was struck by the lightning, and the whole of her apparel was reduced to tinder; the steel busk of her stays was heated to a red heat! and her body, in consequence, frightfully burnt—nevertheless she recovered. The wife of a gardener at Inkberrow, named Hopkins, was sitting at the fireplace, when the electric fluid came down the chimney, and striking the woman, passed along her spine, killing her on the spot. The damage done to the crops along the eastern border of the county was very great.
1843—August 9—A most violent thunderstorm, whose chief fury seemed to be spent immediately over the city of Worcester. Wind in S.W. For two hours the thunder pealed incessantly, and the electric fluid struck at least ten houses in the city, but without doing any material damage at either place. At one house which the lightning entered, in the Shambles, a boy was standing with an awl in his hand, and the electric fluid severed the blade from the haft, leaving the latter in the hand of the boy!