Ne'er cast a clout till May be out, they say, but I think we can at least conclude that the winter now ending has been no match for last year’s brutal affair, writes Mike Truscott.

But if you thought that the 2013-14 grand slam was the worst ever, you might like to think again.

A quarter-century ago, we were battered by a series of violent storms that included one recorded by the Packet as the worst Britain had ever suffered – and it was not difficult to see why.

Our issue of January 26, 1990, said hurricane force winds gusting up to 114 mph caused the telephone network to “collapse” and robbed homes and businesses of electricity for many hours.

The Packet had a 28-hour power cut, seriously delaying publication, and Trago Mills lost an estimated £30,000 in takings.

The main grandstand at Falmouth Town football club was “torn apart” and a garage at Longdowns “exploded,” losing its roof and a door.

Pupils at Falmouth Lower School were evacuated just minutes before a tree fell onto it, while two 50ft pines smashed into The Moorings residential home in Gyllyngvase Terrace.

The village of Flushing and Penryn’s Packsaddle estate were effectively cut off by fallen trees, and an elderly couple at Maenporth were trapped in their home for 24 hours when five fallen trees blocked their access.

All told, several hundred trees came down in the Falmouth-Penryn area – with motorists having “amazing escapes as trees crashed around them.”

A 400-year-old Columbian pine, thought to be the only one of its kind in Cornwall, fell near the Falmouth Exchange pub. “It’s very upsetting,” said proprietor Jenny Stevens. “Four hundred years have just been wiped out.”