THE ferocity of Storm Callum wreaked havoc at All Saints’ Parish Church in Okehampton overnight on Friday last week when a massive branch from a rotten oak tree came crashing down on graves close to the war memorial.

Parish priest the Rev Stephen Cook said that fortunately the recently restored grave of one sister of Okehampton benefactor Sydney Simmons, had escaped damage.

‘It is a huge oak tree which was several hundreds of years old and we noticed a while ago that it didn’t look that healthy,’ said Rev Cook.

‘There’s a sunken road that goes up the right-hand side of the church to the war memorial, and it has come down across that. I had a phone call in the middle of the night and I went up there in the dark, but there was nothing I could do.

‘Significantly from an Okehampton perspective it has come down across the graves of the Simmons family, where one of the graves of the sisters has recently been restored.

‘Fortunately that one was completed missed but one of the big stones – I’m not sure if it is Sydney Simmons himself – has been turned sideways, and one or two other stones have been broken. If anybody had been underneath the tree at the time, they wouldn’t have survived it.’

He said he hoped that the damage would be cleared up in time for the Remembrance Day parade, as the branches had come down close to the war memorial.

Responsibility for maintaining this area of the churchyard rests with West Devon Borough Council.

A spokesperson for West Devon Borough Council said on Tuesday: ‘Our mobile locality officer is visiting the site today to make an assessment of the damage, and we will then be able to arrange for the contractor to visit to clear the branch away. We will do everything in our power to ensure that this is done before Remembrance Sunday and the WW1 centenary.’