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During the dramatic storm which broke over Worcester and the surrounding district on Thursday afternoon, the rainfall, as measured at Diglis, was 1.80 inches.

The rush of water caused several minor floods. Manhole covers were lifted from the drains, gulleys were stopped up, and sewers proved almost everywhere inadequate. The majority of low-lying streets were covered with water to a greater or lesser degree. In Sidbury, the water was up to shoe tops, while Newtown Road was quite impassable beneath the arches.

In houses in the neighbourhood of the river, water entered freely, and there was a sad waste at a house in Newport Street where a vat of newly-brewed beer was overturned.

The sloping entrances to the Theatre Royal in Angel Street formed convenient channels for the waters which rushed down into the orchestra stalls, saturating the carpets and the seats so that several of the front rows could not be used during the evening performance.

The underground portions of the Hop Market Hotel were flooded, and even in High Street, the water found access into places of business. All sloping streets ran like mountain streams, and the total amount of damage city-wide is not easy to estimate.

Mrs Hunt of 6 Field Terrace, Bath Road was standing at a front window at about 6 o’clock and was struck by lightning. P.C. Wilkes, who lodges a the house, heard a fall and a groan and rushed into the front room to find Mrs Hunt prostrate. Dr Simmons was hastily summonsed, and he found that the right side of the patient’s body was paralysed.

The house in St Dunstan’s Crescent of Mr W J Bladder, the cycle shop owner, was also struck with considerable force, the back sitting-room chimney being the chief point of contact with lightning. Sections of masonry fell, and the debris made a hole in the roof through which a good-sized table might be passed without difficulty.

The storm, no respecter of persons, also found a defective pipe in the upper portion of the Chief Constable’s house which was flooded.

At Pershore, water flowed into dozens of houses to a level of a foot, especially at the top of High Street, and considerable damage was also done at Evesham.

Originally published in the Worcester Journal May 30 1903