Sheffield market stall mangled by falling tree brought down by strong winds overnight

A strange story of City Council work teams and contractors passing each other like ships in the night unfurled today (April 12) after residents woke to find two market stalls on The Moor in pieces.

The two gazebos on Moorfoot were reported to The Star at around 6.30am when they were found tipped upside down and bent out of shape. Metal struts were sheared in two, leaving jagged metal sticking out.

To residents, it was thought to either be the work on sudden, fierce winds overnight… or else vandalism that only hurts local traders.

In fact, the damage prompted the council City Centre Ambassador teams to begin searching CCTV for proof of what happened.

Now, it has emerged that the stalls were, in fact, crushed by a nearby tree that fell to earth in last night’s strong winds some time around 9.45pm – that was then cleared away in time for this morning.

Contractors cleared the tree away some time in the night, leaving others to wonder what caused the damage and search for evidence of potential vandalism.

Notably, it also means everyone involved as of this morning – the council’s city ambassador team, Sheffield residents, and even The Star’s own reporters – were too distracted by the crushed stalls to notice the jagged broken tree stump not two metres away.