Liphook School feels the force of Storm Eunice

Highfield and Brookham School felt the full force of Storm Eunice on Friday, February 18 with the 70mph winds ripping off an entire limb of a 30 foot birch tree on the school grounds.

The score box on the boundary edge of the cricket pitch was also devastated by the winds with roof of the hut being torn off and the frame of the hut being demolished, leaving it in tatters on the playing field.

With Highfield and Brookham closed last week for the half-term holiday, the grounds crew cleared the wreckage ahead of the children’s return to school on Monday.

In a strange twist of fate, the school already had plans in place to refurbish the score box before Storm Eunice struck, with the winds further expediting the need for a replacement scoreboard.

As well as removing the debris caused by the second storm to hit the region in a matter of days, Highfield and Brookham’s grounds team have currently been scouring the estate to assess further damage, forcing Brookham’s youngsters to have their popular adventures at Forest School suspended on safety grounds.

Highfield Headmaster Phillip Evitt said: “It was incredibly sad to see the old silver birch tree and the scorer’s box on the edge of Chapel Field in such a state of devastation, being such well-known landmarks on the school scene, but that sense of loss is miniscule in comparison with the deep sense of gratitude that no-one was hurt during what was a pretty ferocious storm.

“Thankfully, the school was closed and all of our children were safe and well on their half-term holidays.

“Our children’s health and well-being are of paramount importance and underpin everything that we do. Trees can be replanted and buildings can be rebuilt, but people can’t be replaced.”

The school was also hit by a power cut late on Friday morning, an outage which affected many of the villages around Liphook as falling trees brought down powerlines.

Power was finally restored on Sunday.