Skegness Magazine

THUNDER STORM

Wednesday last, the 17th inst., the town of Spilsby was visited by an awful thunder storm. The rain, with hail, poured down in torrents for nearly two hours.

At Aswardby, near Spllsby, Mrs. Ailsby, wife Mr. Barkwith Ailsby, was instantly killed as she was taking bread from the oven: the electric fluid descended down the chimney, split the same below the roof the house, broke the windows, and melted the lead.

At Hundalby near Spilsby, the chimney of Mr Coupland was much damaged the quantity of hail and rain that descended, and which drove the soot down the chimney amongst ten young children (scholars), making them as black as sweeps. Fortunately the outer door was open, and from the fright the infants ran screaming into the street, tumbling one over the other into the water.

The electric fluid broke a glass window in a room under the same roof, melted the lead, and made the warming pan therein black as gunpowder; fortunately the occupiers were from home: when the door was opened a strong sulphurous smell issued from the room.

At East Keal, the peas and beans in the garden of Mr Parker, brickmaker, were literally torn up by the roots.
It is supposed that the hailstones lay more than 18 inches deep.

July 1816

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