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Farmers In Mid Essex Are Appealing For Common Market Aid After A Freak Hailstorm

1985 , Essex (County)

Cat no. 79032

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Total damage from storm estimated at more than three million pounds.

Michael Luckin farms 420 acres at High Easter, Essex. The farm has been in his family since the sixteenth century, but he does not know whether they can continue after a recent hailstorm on 26 May 1985 caused damage to crops across several farms. The storm wiped out his barley cereal crop and ruined much of his market garden. Mr Lucking walks from his farmhouse home at Higheasterbury with Anglia TV reporter Stephen Cole. Views over fields of crops. Samples of the large hailstones were collected and stored in a freezer. Asked if he will survive as a farmer, Mr Luckin says it is difficult as yet to confirm the true extent of the damage across the full range of crops including winter barley, spring barley, potatoes and durum wheat. He thinks the damage on his farm alone could be £40,000 to £50,000. Tom Matthews of the National Farmers Union says this is a disaster affecting a small number of farmers in a small area, but catastrophic for their farms and he suggests that this could be given government disaster funding. This short video was made to be shown in a news story on Anglia Television early evening news / magazine programme About Anglia.

Keywords

Farming; Cereals; Crop damage; Hailstones; Hail; Weather

Additional Description

See also Cat 11772

Manifestations

Farmers In Mid Essex Are Appealing For Common Market Aid After A Freak Hailstorm

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