When lightening struck twice

Lessons were going on when the bolt struck, which shook the school building and left a smell of burning in the air.

Deputy head Carol Watson was reading a story to her class at the time and said: “There was a really loud crash and a bang...it made me jump out of my chair. Quite a number of the children were scared and I don’t mind saying I was worried myself.”

Fire crews were called and traced the burning to the school’s security system where circuits had blown when electricity from the lightening blast pulsed through it.

It was the worse storm anyone could remember. They say lightening never strikes twice in the same place but Biggleswade was the exception that year as another bolt hit a conifer behind Fairfield Road. Pat Stevens who witnessed the strike said: “It went up like a torch”. The tree was only 20 yards away from her home.