Worthing is periodically visited by incredible weather which never ceases to fascinate and amaze.

As far as living memory is concerned, none of us will forget the 1987 hurricane, hopefully a once-in-alifetime disaster.

Our ancestors looked back on July 7, 1853, in much the same nervous and awestruck fashion.

The Brighton Guardian and the Sussex Weekly Advertiser both carried fascinating accounts of the terrible damage inflicted on the town by one of the most violent hailstorms ever to burst over southern England.

The Guardian reported:

"The town was visited on Thursday evening with a storm and tempest, which happily very rarely occurs here to such an extent, or produces such consequences.

"A wildness seemed to spread over the western heavens which could not be mistaken.

"Shortly after eight o'clock, the lightning was seen in the western horizon to play with peculiar grandeur, and a large number of persona assembled on the beach and esplanade, attracted by the magnificence of the scene.

"The course of the brooding storm at first seemed to be southward, it then receded, as if going northward. The lightning increased in power and vividness, and the sound of thunder in the distance now became perceptible.

"About ten o'clock the tempest had reached its height. The thunder, although loud, was not so awful as we have heard it.

"The lightning, which was terrific, seemed to break forth almost simultaneously, and with scarcely a moment's intermission, from every part of the heavens.

"A heavy fall of rain accompanied the storm at first. When at its height, it was superseded by a truly alarming fall of hail, the stones of which were of an incredible size and peculiar formation and most destructive in their effects.

"The extent of damage sustained from the hail is very great. The number of windows broken by it far surpasses anything ever known here before.

"In some streets of the town, in the houses which face west, entire windows were shattered to atoms. Some houses had but few squares broken, but a vast many houses had from 20 to 30, others from 100 to 200 panes smashed.

"The consternation was very great, and the town on the following morning presented an appearance which will not soon be forgotten.

"The glaziers have since been working early and late to repair the wreck. The glass in the town was quite insufficient, and several of the glaziers had to procure crates of glass from neighbouring towns for the emergency.

"The destruction done to the standing crops in the neighbourhood is fearful, leaving some of the lovely fields of corn little better than so much straw."

Outlying communities, such as Goring, Salvington, Tarring, Lyon's Farm (now the site of Sainsbury's superstore), Broadwater, Charmandean, Cissbury, Offington and Sompting, sustained tremendous damage to agriculture, with greenhouses smashed to smithereens, and the repair bill ran into many thousands of pounds.

This is how the Sussex Weekly Advertiser reported the cataclysm: "On Thursday night a terrific thunder and hailstorm passed over, inflicting a large, and in some instances, a most extraordinary amount of injury to property.

"It appears that the residents along the coast between Brighton and Littlehampton observed very threatening clouds working up from the south.

"A storm was evidently gathering. As the evening wore on slight sounds of thunder now and then were distinguished, while the lightning was very vivid and continuous.

"At Worthing the lightning began about eight o'clock, and a little before ten heavy rain descended. At this time also a strong gale of wind was blowing and there was every appearance that a storm of unusual character impended.

"Soon after ten the lightning became extremely vivid and was followed by loud peals of thunder.

"Eye witnesses describe the effect of the lightning as grand in the extreme. The thunder was particularly loud, pealing over the town with a fearful crash.

"All of a sudden, a heavy storm of hail descended, sweeping along with irresistible violence, and commiting immense havoc in its descent.

"At Liverpool Terrace, Park Crescent, North Street, Chapel Street, the fall of hail was like the discharge of volleys of small arms, and the hailstones, which were of unusual size and hardness, smashed the windows just as if so many bullets had been discharged against them.

"Fortunately for the town, the storm passed quickly over. It is stated that the force of the hailstorm was such as to force off the gooseberries from the trees, and actually to cut pieces out of the apples.

"The windows of the Railway Hotel and the railway station also received a good deal of damage.

"The hailstones were unusually large, varying from the size of a marble to that of a young hen's egg. In several instances we heard of these stones measuring from five to six inches in circumference.

Some were like square and irregular-sized pieces of ice.

"At Broadwater, Mr Grooms, of Lyon's Farm, suffered most seriously, his crops being cut to pieces by the hail to an extent that would almost appear incredible.

By some his damage is estimated at £1,000.

"At Offington, the residence of Mr Daubux, great injury was sustained, especially amongst the greenhouses, vineries and gardens, in which both fruit and plants suffered most severely, to the amount of several hundred pounds.

"Mr Peachey, who keeps the well-known (Tarring) fig garden, sustained great damage.

The fig trees were full of fruit, but scarce one fig escaped unbruised. The strawberries were beaten to the ground and the gooseberries so damaged that they fell from the trees at the slightest touch."

According to the Advertiser, Goring suffered most severely, with the Bull Inn receiving a battering.

Goring Hall, the estate of David Lyon, was pounded, and not a single pane of glass in his greenhouses and hothouses remained unbroken.

"Even the lead on the top of the Hall was indented by the force of the hail, while the slates on the roof were in many instances broken, and some of them pierced through in holes about the size of a walnut.

"On the lawn the turf was cut up in holes, a hundred rooks were found the next morning in the rookery, maimed and beaten, some with broken wings and legs, and some killed outright, while various other birds, sparrows, hawks etc, were likewise found under the trees wounded, and, in some cases, dead.

"A poor rabbit seems to have shared the latter fate, while a hare was so injured as scarcely to be able to escape from a labourer whose path she crossed."

Castle Goring, the seat of Sir George Pechell MP, was similarly afflicted, while in Broadwater Road, the horse pulling a four-wheel chaise carrying Mr and Mrs Tribe, and Mrs Lidbetter, panicked and ran into a ditch, turning over the vehicle and throwing the occupants out.

More than 150 acres of oats, peas and beans being grown on the Field Place estate were totally destroyed. Landowner Levi Bushby estimated his loss at between £3,000 and £4,000, a vast sum in those distant days.

The Advertiser concluded:

"Words cannot describe the desolate appearance presented on Friday by that which but a few hours before was a fertile and promising scene."