A FAMILY has told how a twister raised a shed weighing several tonnes into the air and swept it away, causing up to £50,000 of damage.

The cost of the devastating storm which swept through Dunnington earlier this week is still being counted, and has left one local farmer with significant crop damage.

Julian Hopwood, 50, said he believed the area was hit by a twister with the force of the storm lifting a large wooden horse shed from one of his fields and dumping it 20 metres away.

“This area was hit by one hell of a storm,” he said.

“We had just started cutting the rape and it’s devastated it. The wind has just ripped it out of its pods. The hail was as big as marbles. I would say it’s taken more than half the pods.

“Until we get it cut and sorted we just don’t know.”

Mr Hopwood, whose family have worked Grimston Grange and Clock Farm since the 1930s, also described how the “freak” storm had lifted and destroyed a wooden building.

“It lifted the horse field stable over a four-foot fence, and it will be a three or four-tonne structure, and carried it about 20 metres,” he said. “It’s freakish – it’s just been a thin seam of weather. There’s dozens of trees down on neighbouring farms.

“The main thing is that no people or horses were hurt.

“But the gut-wrenching thing is the damage it’s done to the rape. We will get over it but it’s a big hit.”

The cost of the hail storm and devastating winds is still being counted in the Dunnington area. The village’s cricket club, suffered £32,000 in damage to the nets it had unveiled just one month ago.

Trees were brought down throughout the area on Wednesday, blocking roads and in one case destroying a summerhouse in Dunnington’s main street.