Memories of Preston Beach Road, Weymouth before wall

Storm Henk made itself known on January 2, causing chaos across Dorset, felling trees in the county and disrupting travel.

The more recent Storm Isha gave many of us a sleepless night last Sunday, battering Dorset with gale force winds.

But these named storms had little consequence for Preston Beach Road, Weymouth, compared to what happened when Mother Nature unleashed her fury before the beach wall was built.

This quartet of storm pictures taken in the early 1980s show just what it was like for frustrated residents, many of whom had to bid a fond farewell to their cars, which became entombed in shingle.

Damage done to Preston Beach Road following a storm in the early 1980s

These pictures were taken on Preston Beach Road just after a vicious storm threw water and shingle over the old wall, embedding cars and a bus as it did so.

Luckily, the new wall has so far meant this is now a thing of the past.

Sue Hogben remembers: "Every year at one stage or another, you could almost guarantee that this main road into town would be closed.

"When the winds and tides were right, crossing the old road was more a question of dodging the flying shingle and crashing waves.

"Until the arrival of the council men to put the rather well-used and battered old ‘road closed’ sign in position, people in their cars would stop hesitantly at either end of the road, watching and waiting to see what and how much was breeching the wall.

A bus grounded during a storm

"I can recall more than a few hairy journeys in my dad's old banger.

"You got ready to duck should Neptune decide to launch his mass of missiles, though what good that did, I have not a clue!

"On one or two of the slightly more touch-and-go journeys the sound of a shed load of shingle suddenly crashing down onto the car roof sure was scary.

A car overwhelmed by sea water and shingle

"Even worse were the rogue waves, my Dad always used to tell me that every 7th wave was bigger than the rest, I would spend that frantic dash for the other end and safety trying to count as each wave roared onto the pebble bank hidden behind the wall with all ten of my fingers and toes well and truly crossed.

"Every so often one monster would rear up and over, covering car and contents in a cascading foam of water, no amount of frantic to-ing and fro-ing by the windscreen wipers could reveal the road in front…you just kept going in the hope that you were still straight on the road and not heading for the ditch or the wall."

*With thanks to the informative website 'Weymouth Past & Present' (https://cannasue.wordpress.com/)