HAILSTONES the size of golf balls caused havoc across the region last night, with thousands of pounds’ worth of damage reported.

A North Yorkshire nursery saw thousands of panes of glass in its greenhouses shattered, while cars also felt the force of the freak weather.

Jonathan Bradbrook, of Ravensworth Nurseries, Richmond was left counting the cost of the storm.

“It started thundering about 9pm,” he said. “Then my brother rang me from about 100 yards down the road and he said ‘have you seen the hail?’

“’I said ‘no’ and looked out. It started small, but then it was as big as golf balls. I have actually got some in the freezer.

“We went out after it stopped and it was just devastation, the whole nursery looks like it’s covered in bullet holes. It’s knocked panes of glass out everywhere. We estimate well over a 1,000 panes of glass gone, it could be 10,000.”

Mr Bradbrook said the cost of replacing the glass would run into the thousands.

“The speed that the hail came down was just unbelievable,” he said. “I have never anything like it here before. We have had extreme weather, down to minus 23 before, and ten years ago we had a massive flood in June, but nothing like this.

“Hopefully, the insurance company will foot the bill. We can open one side of the nursery, where there isn’t as much damage, but on the main part that will affect business.

“What can you do? You can’t really fall on the ground and start crying. It’s devastating really, but life goes on.”

Damage was also reported at Whinfield Farm Nurseries in Gainford.

Andrew Robertson said:  “The hailstones last night damaged about 130 panes of glass that will cost at least £700 to repair.

“The green houses are going to have to be closed until we clean up all the broken glass.

“We saw it all happen at around 9pm last night, the hailstones were the size of gobstoppers.

“I’ve never seen anything like it before, there was absolutely nothing we could do, I wasn’t going out in it.

“We’ve been here around 28 years and nothing like this has happened – it’s devastating but we’ve been lucky that it happened this time of year and not spring.”

In West Auckland, Philip Down reported “hailstones the size of the palm of your hand”. He said they had dented his car and smashed people's conservatory roofs.

Rachel Scaife, from Stainton, near Leyburn, North Yorkshire, said several cars had been damaged with windows smashed and bodywork dented.

David Butterworth, from nearby Bellerby, said several cars in his village had also been damaged.

"I missed it but when I got back saw that the 'golf balls' had trashed every vehicle in the place - we can now look forward to three months of wrangling with the insurance company," he said. 

The Northern Echo:

DAMAGE: Hail damaged several cars in Bellerby, near Leyburn.

Terry Robinson from High Etherley, near Bishop Auckland, said: "The hailstones have caused damage to cars, broken glass in green houses and flat roofs. The storm only lasted some 15 minutes."

The weather is also understood to have led to two RAF Hawk jets landing at Teesside Airport. A photo submitted to The Northern Echo showed the aircraft on the landing strip.

Northern Powergrid, the company responsible for running the power network across the region, has restored power to more than 55,800 customers after yesterday's lightning.

The storms caused damage to the overhead electricity network and power cuts for approximately 57,500 customers in parts of North Yorkshire, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, Teesside and Northumberland.

Northern Powergrid diverted electricity supplies, where possible, through alternative routes on its network to quickly restore power to as many customers as they were able whilst its engineering teams worked to repair the actual damage caused by the storms. 

A Northern Powergrid spokeswoman said: “Our teams have worked throughout the night restoring power to the vast majority (97 per cent) of customers after lightning storms damaged our power network yesterday afternoon and again in the early hours of this morning.

“We’re sorry for the inconvenience caused and thank our customers for their patience while we carry out the necessary repairs.  We’d like to reassure them that our engineers are working hard to restore the remaining 1,700 customers still affected as a result of the storm back on supply today.”