Tony Casey: March 7th, 1962: The Great Ash Wednesday storm

This is an extract from our family history which I wrote (in the 1980s) describing the events of March 7th 1962 - The Great Ash Wednesday Storm:

During my seven years at the Humphry Davy Grammar School two major disasters occurred which affected West Cornwall - the Great Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962 and the wreck of the Torrey Canyon in 1965. Trouble was expected on March 7th 1962 when high winds were predicted to coincide with a phenomenally high tide. Being an inquisitive 13 year old, I persuaded my father to take me down to the harbour and the promenade to see what was happening. We approached the harbour from the direction of the railway station, along the Wharf Road, but were forced to turn back when we saw that the tide had risen so high that it was flooding over on to the road ...

 Determined not to be beaten, we retraced our steps along the quay. From what I can remember we must have gone up Jennings Street and made our way to Morrab Road. Here, once again, our way was barred - this time by the police and fire brigade.

Over twenty years later, I can still picture the scene - fire engines standing by the roadside, the waves breaking over the prom and the spray beating against our faces as far back as we were standing. I also remember the walk home equally well - the howling wind, swaying television aerials (the large, old-fashioned type shaped like a letter H) and the occasional crash as a slate slid from a roof and shattered on the ground. 

The resulting devastation along the seafront is best described by quoting a school essay that I wrote shortly after the event and following a visit to the promenade the next afternoon:-

"I was astounded at the devastation - massive holes torn in the sea wall, threatening cracks along the road, paving stones torn up and thrown into gardens, the Bolitho Gardens, opposite the bus depot, practically razed to the ground. The sea road at Newlyn had completely disappeared, there was a gigantic breach in the wall of the bathing pool and, worst of all, was the pathetic state of the houses along the seafront. hardly anything along the seafront had escaped the sea's onslaught".