FARNHAM’s bumper Christmas Market was abruptly cancelled on Sunday after a “freak weather event” saw strong winds sweep through the town centre, picking up gazebos and threatening injury to pedestrians and damage to Grade II listed shopfronts.

More than 200 stalls lined Castle Street, The Borough, The Bush Hotel and Central car park as the town’s biggest ever festive market got under way at 10am, promising pressies aplenty, food and drink, festive entertainment and a visit by jolly St Nick himself.

However, just before 11.30am the wind suddenly picked up forcing Farnham Town Council to call an immediate halt to the festivities, with gusts of up to 50mph reported and numerous stallholders reporting gazebos taking flight.

The council broke the news on Facebook: “We regret to announce that due to high winds we have had to cancel the Christmas market. Our prime concern will always be the safety of the public, thank you for your understanding and cooperation.”

Although Farnham escaped much of the snow seen in nearby villages over the weekend, for reasons explained by amateur meteorologist Chris Shepheard the market was a victim of a very localised weather phenomenon.

Chris, the former director of the Rural Life Centre, explained: “What Farnham experienced just before 11.30am on Sunday was a freak weather event. The north westerly airstream met the south easterly one above the town and I think created a line squall.

“At 11.19am the barometer fell to a very unusual low of 971.9 mb and at 11.26am the wind reached a maximum of 25mph. In those conditions it was very fortunate that there seem to have been no serious injuries.

“That fact was undoubtedly helped by the decision to close The Borough and thus make the stall area less crowded and congested. Well done to Farnham Town Council for handling a dangerous situation so well.”

Town clerk Iain Lynch added: “A number of gazebos went over, including ones we put up ourselves and knew were properly weighted. It’s obviously very disappointing that we got into that situation but we had no choice but to cancel.”

Mr Lynch added that winds propelled one gazebo high up into the air and into the wall outside Hamptons estate agents, while another is believed to have hit somebody - although fortunately no injuries were reported.

He added the market cost the council more than £10,000 to put on, including around £3,000 for the road closures in Castle Street and The Borough, £1,200 for the stage, as well as fees for gazebo hire, St John Ambulance, musicians, advertising, additional staff, electricity, bins and street cleaning.

Part of these costs are covered by fees paid by stallholders, which the clerk explained are unfortunately non-refundable from a week beforehand. However, the clerk did suggest councillors are looking into giving affected stallholders a discount to attend next year’s market.

He continued: “Obviously councillors were very sorry to hear about the circumstances and are reviewing a number of things. I don’t want to commit ourselves to giving refunds, but we are looking to be supportive in some way.”

Responding to the news, stallholders expressed their disappointment at the cancellation of what was set to be a highlight in Farnham’s Christmas calendar but were broadly supportive of the council’s decision.

A typical comment in response to the council’s announcement said: “A real shame but being at the market ourselves with a stall we agree with the decision made. A big well done must go to all your staff/marshalls of the event. They handled everything fantastically and smoothly.”

Winds also brought down a number of trees over the weekend, including one in Tilford Road near The Woodlarks Centre, as well as causing a major power cut affecting more than a thousand homes in the GU10 postcode on Saturday morning.

This in turn led to the closure of All Saints’ School in Tilford on Monday, after a power surge linked to the outage broke the school’s boiler, leaving the school without hot water and heating on one of the coldest days of the year.

Explaining the cause of the power cut, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said shortly after 7am on Saturday the safety mechanism on the circuit supplying 1,225 customers in the Hindhead area “operated”.

This, the utility company added, can happen when airborne debris comes into contact with its overhead power network, causing the network to temporarily disconnect itself.

“Engineers went to the site of the fault and began the reconnection process, with customers coming back on in stages and all supplies restored by 8.30am,” a spokesman said.