LIGHTNING STRIKES CENTURY OLD CHURCH
September 4th 1958 Cambridge Daily News
The century old parish church at Reach was struck by lightning on Thursday.

Its roof was stripped of tiles and daylight streamed through three gaping holes.

The Church clock stopped at 7.34 a.m, the moment that the lightning struck and its pendulum was blown away and stuck in one of the rafters.

Inside the church. masonry and roof timber littered the floor. and many of the seats were broken. Stained glass windows behind the altar. for which members of the congregation had collected £50 last year to repair. were blown out.

The Church of St. Ethelreda and the Holy Trinity was built, in 1860. Its' vicar, the Rev. W. F. Hicks. On Thursday pinned a notice on the church: "Any, persons entering this church do so at their own risk."

The village school, which stands next to the church. Was untouched, but during the heavy rainfall, thunder and lightning, described by the villagers as one of the most violent they had ever experienced, the electricity supply was cut off and all the lights in the village went out.
These pictures give a graphic idea of the havoc caused to the Church. The shattered roof (top left), the damaged font in the nave, with furniure and books scattered about (bottom right) the clocked stopped at the moment the lightning struck (top center), when it did the large steel pendulum dropped about 20 feet from the clock tower and was impaled upright in a beam over the entrance door, (right). The stained glass window from over the altar was blown out alomost in one piece. It is held by John Cole (top right)

“Press and Chronicle“