About four o’clock on Friday afternoon the village of Springthorpe was visited by a whirlwind of a 

character almost without precedent in this district.  About the hour named, clouds were seen a few 

miles distant, rolling and pitching like an angry sea.  These gradually drew nearer the village and fears 

were entertained that it was an immense waterspout.  

The doubts of the villagers on this score, however, were soon put to rest by the wind, which shortly 

began to blow a perfect gale and afterwards assumed the force and the violence of a whirlwind.  It first

attacked the farmyard and building of Mr Joseph Anyan, stripping the roof of the house of all its 

slates, and afterwards tearing off a considerable quantity of the woodwork and breaking every 

window.  Next the house was a stable and an adjoining shed.  It blew the whole of the roof off these 

buildings and knocked down the gable end of the stable.  The slates, which were blown from the roof 

of the house were blown a considerable distance of between 400 and 600 yards to the Springthorpe 

Rectory, the residence of the Rev. E. Leaton Blenkinsopp, who is now on the Continent.  Several of 

the windows of the Rectory were broken by the slates crashing into them, and the lawn in front of the 

house was literally covered with falling debris.  A heavy cart, which was in Mr Anyan’s yard, was 

tossed over and over for a considerable distance.