Barn Nightmare

This is the Artical going in Rallye New and Pratical Classics by Chris, Richard and James.

January 18th 2007 was a windy day for the UK, unknown to us Chris, Richard and James a nightmare was about to start.

Around 5.30pmwe had a phone call from the owner of the barn where we all keep our cars, he said to us all “that the barn had blown down and it had damaged the cars and the building was unsafe”

After the phone call I James went up to the barn to look at the damage Chris was sadly in Scotland and not able to get back, Richard managed to get up a bit later.

On arriving I could not see a lot as its darker than dark where the barn is the wind was still very strong at this point I left my head lights on so I could see inside the barn, where there was once brick walls was now just an open space with caravans and cars holding the roof up and bricks all over the floor and on the cars.

I stood there speechless and about two minutes later Richards dad came up, at this point I entered the barn where there was once a wall to have a look round inside, at this point sickness and total disbelieve hit me to see the cars as they where, Chris’s Escort RST and Escort Cosworth where both under bricks and the roof of the barn, we moved down to a Capri that was also on that side, then onto Richards Cortina 1600E and Escort RST all crushed.

My car the Sapphire Cosworth seemed to be unscathed by the surrounding devastation but it was hard to tell in the dark with only a small touch.

By this time Richard had arrived he was sat in his van just getting himself together then we all made our way into the barn again for a look around, it was a very sad and emotional moment for us all especially Richard.

We decided that there was nothing else we could do we where just stood there getting wet so we made our way home until we could get up there in the light.

I rung Chris just to fill him in on the situation as there wasn’t a lot he could do from Scotland

The next day at different times we all made our way up to the barn with cameras and video cameras to inspect the damage in the light this was even worse as you could see every detail of the damaged cars that weren’t covered by bricks or roof.

At this point it was clear that there was not much that could be done to save the cars so we passed all information to the relevant insurers and this is the stage we are all at now, as im writing this it is only a week after the event.

As we have said Chris was away working in Scotland he returned on the Friday night and made it his first priority Saturday morning to go up to the barn and have a look for himself at the devastation, Chris said “it hadn’t  really sunk in until I had seen my two cars under the roof and bricks crushed” but once he had all became clear that they couldn’t be saved and it was to dangerous to try and attempt moving anything, two of Chris’s friends accompanied him from the Nottingham Group Paul and Wayne to look with him, the only funny thing that came from this was Paul pulling back the dust sheet from the Escort Cosworth and saying “Look there’s a scratch on the bonnet” this made them all laugh and the sheet was quickly pulled over the car again.

The Sapphire Cosworth was recovered one night and that’s all im saying on the matter H380 TBV is safe and will be out next year as normal shows an all.

To finish a small tribute to N995WCF, G767WPU, D186PDV, AYV730H as they where before this sad event.

A big thank you to everyone who helped us all in these very hard times, we would all like to say thanks for your support on the RS owners club Forum and all other forums this story found its way to and your kind words they mean so much.

 

Chris, Richard and James.