50 years ago this month gales reaching up to 65 mph ripped through Salford causing the death of one man and leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.
Manchester waterworks inspector Lloyd Clayton was buried under three tonnes of rubble when gale force winds tore the roof from the disused Larmuth and Bulmer iron foundry on Unwin Street.
As the storm whipped through Salford the front of the building collapsed onto workmen directly below, crushing several vehicles and a mobile cabin.
Two other Manchester waterworks employees, George Webster and Barry Hunt, were parked just yards away after a day spend laying new water mains for the newly-built Ellor Street high rise flats.
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Both had miraculous escapes when the brickwork raining down from 20ft above crushed their company van –
both needed treatment in what was then Hope (Salford Royal) hospital although Mr Hunt was the luckier, sidestepping the serious injuries suffered by his colleague.
At the inquest the City Coroner Mr J. Haynes was told that the men’s portable site cabin was parked directly beneath the factory gable end wall which was 20ft high and reinforced by iron girders.
Eyewitness Robert Gaskell, a fourth employee, told the inquest that in the hours before the collapse he had been enjoying a cup of tea in the cabin with Lloyd Clayton.
Gaskell said that he was walking back to work when he saw the roof an adjacent cabin ripped from its holdings by the wind and shouted for Mr Clayton to come and have a look when he heard a loud crash and saw the gable end collapse onto the cabin – exactly the spot where he had stood earlier that day.
As the dust cleared he could see workmen scrabbling away at the rubble in an attempt to rescue Mr Clayton, he was eventually found with appalling injuries when three tonne of bricks crashed through the cabin, killing him instantly.
The collapse of the wall left a reamaining wall in such a dangerous condition that several classrooms at the nearby Clarendon Road school had to be evacuated for the safety of the children and teachers.
By coincidence the school caretaker, George Webster, was one of the men first to the scene in an attempt to rescue the trapped men.
He heard the crash and phoned for an ambulance to attend.
Another rescuer was 26-year-old Colin Tighe from Wyndford Street in Salford, a plumber’s mate who saw the wall start to topple and crumble before it crashed to the ground.
He desperately dug through the rubble to help free the survivors, but did not notice Mr Clayton, so completely was he covered by bricks.
The coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death for poor Mr Clayton, who was survived by a widow and three children in Fallowfield, Manchester.
He added that it was always easy to wise to be after the event, proclaiming to the inquest: “On this day there is no doubt that the weather conditions were of almost unforseeable violence”.
Main image (composite) © Salford Local History Library/Salford University
