Cambridge Chronicle 19 Aug 1843: Brewer storm damage

Amongst the sufferers in the immediate vicinity of the town the gardeners attract the most commiseration, and assuredly their case is a very hard one. The general effect, as we have it is by no means easy to conceive the desolate picture presented by their erstwhile smiling and bountiful premises after the storm had passed over them. The destruction of glass alone was enormous, but this was a minor matter when compared with the devastation committed amongst expensive fruits, and buds and plants, which were growing up into a source of future profit. Mr. Widnall’s loss would seem to be considerably greater than the amount at which we estimated it last week: it is still, however, impossible to form a correct judgment of value of the property positively lost, many of the frames which were destroyed contained very costly plants of various sorts. We understand that upwards of 2,000 hearts’-ease were destroyed , and in one of the frames which fell before the fury of this most terrific tempest were more than 60 plants of a valuable geranium. At Mr. Brewer’s, on the Trumpington-road, twenty-two thousand squares of glass, exclusive of hand-lights, were broken: a statement has been published to the effect that the number of squares broken at Mr. Brewer’s was about 10,000, but we have every reason to believe the fact to be as we have stated.