SkegnessVideo.com

DAWN RAIL HORROR
TWENTY-ONE sheep lying on the railway line near Havenhouse Station were killed when a four-coach diesel train ploughed into them just before dawn on Monday.

The train, which could have been travelling at up to 50 mph on that stretch of line, was the 5.40 from Boston to Skegness. It was empty except for the driver and guard. Mr Jim Harvey and Mr Reg Longford, both of Boston, and three British Rail staff travelling to work at Skegness Station.
One, a cleaner, called it “an alarming experience.” She said the train was rocking about and they were afraid it was going to go over.
The accident happened at 6.12, and according to the signalman who reported it, all the sheep were killed outright.
A British Rail spokesman said the train was only slightly damaged and continued on schedule. It was the first train out of Skegness at 06.25. There was no blockage of the line and no danger of derailment.
“The line is well fenced,” he said. “There are other ways of getting on to the line beside through the fences. We shall have to enquire as to exactly how they got on the line so that it doesn’t happen again.”
The sheep belonged to Mr James Epton, of Northolme Hall, Wainfleet.
He said the 21 sheep were part of a unit of 40 ewes and one ram. When they had been left in a field near the railway about half-a-mile away the previous afternoon, everything had been secure,”I’m not quite certain where they got on to the line,” he said. “There’s no question of any negligence on the part of the railway. Obviously access hadn’t been gained at that point.
They must have got on to the track and huddled against the crossing gates on the Skegness side of the station.
“It took us an hour or three-quarters of an hour to clear the line. It really vas a most extraordinary sight half a ton of jointed lamb. They were literally in pieces, chopped to bits.”

Mr Epton, who has 400 sheep, said he has never had a whole flock stray before. The total value of those killed was £264.

1973 Skegness news story

Tower Gardens is the venue for many events in Skegness. Today the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust was holding a Minibeast Safari.

The aim of the event, organised by the Gibraltar Point Nature Reserve Team, was to increase children’s awareness of the natural environment.

There were many activities arranged for the children. The most popular nature activity was searching for minibeasts in trays containing piles of undergrowth, leaves etc.

The chilldren found various specimens including woodlice, centipedes…

…and worms! This wriggly little specimen, seconds after this photograph was taken, dropped from the little boy’s hand and went down his sleeve!.

The boy, quite unperturbed (as we would all be wouldn’t we??), calmly pulled it out again.

Activities inside the marquee included painting and drawing pictures of minibeasts…

…and making models. This mum and dad were helping their children make a snail and a squirrel.

Then the time came for the Minibeast Safari to begin.

Kim Hudson, the Safari leader, firstly briefed the children of any possible hazzards they were to watch out for, like stinging nettles, litter, etc.

Then off the children and their parents went, around the Tower Gardens to search for their minibeasts!

Minibeast Safari Skegness News on Video

Did a tornado hit Skegness in 1999?

TWISTER?

A DRAMATIC incident reminiscent of scenes from America’s west coast was seen in Skegness on Monday when a “twister” hurricane was thought to have made its way across the Lincolnshire coast towards the town.
But don’t worry, it was a perfectly harmless event which was not even remotely similar to the scale of phenomena witnessed in America.
Matt Larg, Brian Hawes, and Tony Hogg were working on Skegness Industrial Estate when they saw a funnel of wind moving towards Skegness near Gibraltar Point. It was seen during the rain on Monday at about 3pm, and lasted between 10 and 20 minutes.
Matt, a welder for Peter Harding (Fabrications), said
although it was quite small he had never seen anything like it. He said: “It’s the first time I’ve seen one ‘in the flesh.’ I’ve seen loads on TV and in pictures, but to see one in real life is quite amazing.”
Tony Hogg estimated it was about two miles away. He said: “It was amazing. Absolutely fantastic. The chance of seeing one in this country is slim, it’s very rare. When you tell people what you’ve seen they say ‘Yes, okay.’ They don’t believe you.”
Tony, who runs Ambassador Limousines, even feels the twister may have been capable of doing damage, if it had been close to anything.
He said: “Looking at the tail it went right
down to the floor, so possibly, yes, it could have done some damage. Obviously we couldn’t see the tail when it went behind trees and things like that, but it may have been capable of doing damage, depending on how powerful it was.”
However, nothing had been seen by the two wardens at Gibraltar Point Nature Reserve, according to warden’s secretary Doreen Lilly. The centre compiled weather reports for the weather bureau, she said, and it would have been noted.
She also said that local fisherman Ian Wharton had told her it was just a water spout. It was a regular occurrence and nothing to get excited about, he had said.
Neil Walker, an observer at Leeds Weather Centre, said that they had had no other
reports of a twister in the area, but he said the weather conditions were conducive to a small twister.
He said: “We had thunder reported in the eastern area, and thunder is one scenario where a hurricane would be feasible. There was an awful lot of rain, 16 millimetres in Wainfleet, and rain associated with thunder is conducive to hurricanes.”
He said Great Britain was above average with between 80 and 100 twisters a year, mainly in the summer months. They often took place in the countryside, but he said if it had taken place over the water it was a water spout.
Did you see anything near the Lincolnshire coast on Monday afternoon, or did you take a photo? If so, then contact the Skegness Standard on 01754 610362.

NOW do you believe us? That was the cry from Skegness residents this week as the Standard was inundated with sightings of the twister in response to last week’s story.
As soon as Friday’s paper went on sale, accounts of sightings began to flood in. They varied with sightings near both Gibraltar Point and the sea front, and others seeing two smaller ones which dispersed quickly to leave the main one.
Skegness man Mr Roger King managed to get a photo, taken outside his house in Sunningdale Drive. He saw the twister at about 3pm, just before the rain started, and he says it lasted for about 10 or 15 minutes.
He said: “I was mowing the lawn at the time and I just said I’d better get inside because it’s about to chuck it down with rain. That’s when I first saw the twister.”
He says it kept changing size and moving up into the clouds and then down again. Mr King also saw one last year, at Church Lane, Winthorpe.
He said: “I stopped underneath it and had a look. They make a kind of helicopter sound as they spin in the sky.”
Mrs Anne Pollock was at her daughter’s home on Buckthorns Avenue, Skegness, looking out of the window when she saw two tornados. She thinks one came from around Gibraltar Point and looked as though it was sucked up into the clouds.
It was followed by a smaller tornado just before the downpour, which also looked as though it was being sucked up into the clouds and taken out to sea. “It was really fascinatng,” she said.
Mrs Cynthia Lee, of Croft Lane, ainfleet, said: “I just want to say in response to your article - yes I did seeit. I didn’t want people saying those men who saw it were just seeing things. I saw it but when I told my husband he said ‘No, you must have been mistaken.”
“It was amazing, quite spectacular. I was watching it for a good 10 or 15 minutes.”
Mr Peter Ladums took a photo from his garden in Croft Close, Wainfleet. He saw it at bout 3pm, near Gibraltar Point. He said: “My neighbour, Cyril Beardshaw, saw it and me round and told me about it. He saw three, but when we went out there was only one. As I got my camera out, it was beginning to disperse.”
Mr Beardshaw said the three twisters were moving towards Skegness. He said: “There was more or less a blanket of cloud. There was one big twister and two smaller ones.”
David Taylor, proprietor of Tattoos by Dave, saw the twister from the pier. He said: “When I saw it I was standing on the side of the pier. It first appeared over the Embassy Centre and then moved over Bottons before moving out towards the sea. It kept getting longer and shorter, and then longer and shorter again.”
His wife Lisa saw it too, from their house, and he said their son Kane rushed round to tell him and told him “we’ve just seen a twisting cloud.”
Mrs Wendy Kemble, of Chapel, said: “I was in the car park at Skegness Cricket ground when I saw a tail of cloud at the end of Richmond Drive. As the cloud moved along it took on a cylindrical shape.”
Mrs Ann Cook, a driver with North Shore Taxis, said she saw it briefly near Gibraltar Point while driving along the sea front on Monday afternoon.
Thirteen-year-old Skegness School pupil Matthew Smith said he saw it with about 14 other pupils and two teachers from the school playground. He said: “It was a bit scary at first because it looked like it was coming straight towards us.”

Donkeys on the run
FORTY-TWO donkeys escaped from a field on William Way, Skegness, in June 1999, bringing traffic in the town to a standstill.

Police were alerted to the breakout at about 8.15am, as the donkeys made their way down the railway line towards Wainfleet.
After a brief stop at the Richmond caravan site, they carried on, eventually appearing on the A52 at Croft, where police received reports from one motorist, of “100 donkeys heading towards Skegness”.
Back garden
Of the actual 42 that did escape, four ended up at Croft Grange, with the rest finishing the final leg of their journey in the back garden of the Victoria pub, Wainfleet Road, Skegness.
Owner of the donkeys Mr Chris Epton said: “I didn’t know they were gone until my dad rang and told me they were all over the railway line.
“It was just a matter of containing them really. I would like to thank the lady at the Victoria as she was very nice about it. She fed them carrots and all sorts.
Problems
“They’re fine on the run up to the beach, because they are supervised. However, they get lost easily if left to themselves, and that could have caused problems”.
The donkeys escaped because of a break in the fence, but Chris is baffled as to how it could have been caused, saying: “I checked them last night, and the fence was absolutely fine”.

They have now all been rounded up, relocated, and are thankfully all uninjured.

Picture: Mr Chris Epton with his award-winning donkey, Bruno on Skegness beach.

They ’struck’ goldfish but TV helps out!
THIS is a fishy tale—but it happens to be true.

Once upon a time in 1953, Skegness Council constructed a pond near the Boating Lake on Princes Parade and into it they put three pails of goldfish. For nine years the fish were left to themselves until January 1962, when the pond was emptied in order to make it more shallow.
The workmen soon discovered that during those years the, inhabitants had not been idle, for instead of the original six fish, swimming about the pond were 400 thriving goldfish.
This evidence of Skegness’ bracing air, water and what-have-you, would have gone without notice if it had not been for a holidaymaker from Derby who wrote to the Foreshore Director telling him that the pool was too deep and that her son had lost a toy gun in the green depths.
OVERSIZE FAMILY
The authority decided to make the 5ft. deep pool more shallow. In doing so they found the toy gun, in perfect working order, and gave themselves the problem of what to do with an oversize family of fish.
In part the problem was solved when the news of the great goldfish strike was given on Anglia TV.
Soon the Foreshore office was inundated with calls from buyers —you could say they were prospectors—and of the 400 taken out of the pond and stored in a tank while it was reconstructed, only 150 will be put back.
The remainder of these. Council tenants are destined for jam jars, bowls and tanks all over the country.

Those ‘Bracing’ goldfish set some problems
ALTHOUGH more than half the 400-odd goldfish of which Skegness Foreshore found itself the surprised owners have now been disposed of to applicants, Skegness Foreshore Director, Mr. W. G. Bosworth, is still getting letters from various parts of the country asking if they can have various quantities of the ” Skegness Hardies.”

The multiplying goldfish increased their numbers from six in 1953 to 412 when counted in January 1962. The fact came to light when the Foreshore had an ornamental pond near South Parade made more shallow, to guard against accidents.
A correspondent from Bournemouth wanted 150 of the goldfish. His own had all been taken by cats, he said, and if he could have some of the Skegness surplus, he intended to put a net over his pond.
A Burnham-on-Sea man wrote enviously of Skegness’ “colossal luck in breeding goldfish.” His kept dying off, and he wanted not only some Skegness goldfish, but the secret of their success.
BRACING AIR?
Similar letters came from Chesterfield, Warsop, Rugby and Driffield in Yorkshire, as well as from nearer home. Mr Bosworth solved the transport problem by inviting the first-comers to “come and get ‘em.”
“We have now disposed of enough for the time being,” he commented. “As we seem to have a hardy breed here —or is it our bracing air?—it is only a matter of time before we shall have more to distribute . .”