TWENTY-FIVE years ago, on the night of January 12, 1994, a massive landslide devastated an area of Blackgang, destroying two houses and leading to the evacuation of many residents.

Emergency services were powerless as the huge landslide turned the old Blackgang Road into an earthquake zone.

What was left of the road rippled and cracked and residents were offered emergency accommodation at Chale Village Hall as a massive section of the cliff fell away.

Police received calls at around 9pm that day saying the cliff was on the move and they called out the Solent Coastguard.

Rescue teams from Totland and Ventnor were dispatched and the coastguard helicopter was alerted.

Despite the risk of further landslides, some of the residents who rented caravans and chalets in the danger zone refused to move.

Worst hit was a cottage owned by the Dabell family, who runs the nearby Blackgang Chine.

Alex Dabell was inside having dinner when the ground started to move.

“The floorboards just seemed to rise up like a pyramid and the wall paper started ripping as cracks appeared in the wall.”

The land at Blackgang continued to move for more than a week and news of the landslide occupied the front page of two editions of the County Press.

County Press deputy editor Rachael Rosewell remembers reporting the event when she was a reporter at the paper.

She went down to Blackgang immediately after the landslide and spoke to the people affected. She also went up in a light aircraft to view the devastation from above.

Rachael said: “As a senior reporter, I received a call first thing in the morning from the news editor telling me to meet up with Chris Thwaites, CP chief photographer, to go off to the landslip, which had only recently taken place.

“There were reports of people living in huts along the landslip area who were refusing to move, despite police warnings for them to get out.

“A further landslip was predicted and their lives were in danger.

“The whole area was like an earthquake zone, huge sections of the road at Blackgang had fallen away and there were massive cracks. It was unbelievable.

“When we arrived, the world’s press also descended. I particularly remember a reporter from Sky News who was wearing a light linen suit and pair of pale suede brogues.

“Chris and I were togged up in wet weather gear and boots and this chap had to try to clamber over the muddy landslip with us. He got filthy and his clothes were ruined.

“At that point, I don’t think the police had closed off access as we managed to get down there and as I happened to know a few of the people living in the huts we got an interview.

“Chris then had the brilliant idea of asking his friend Jim Birnie, of Birnie Air at Bembridge, to take us up in his light aircraft so he could get some great shots of the landslip from the air.

“The editor thought it would be good if I went too so I could write a pen portrait of the devastation.

“The only trouble was, I hate flying.

“To make matters worse, Chris, who was a terrible daredevil, had asked Jim to remove the doors from the plane so he could hang out and take pictures.

“It was a four seater and I was in the back, holding on for dear life.

“As we swooped over the landslip, we went from the land to the sea and, as anyone who knows anything about airflow knows, there was a fair amount of turbulence, just what I hated.

“How Chris didn’t fall out of the plane, I do not know, but he kept throwing rolls of film back for me to catch.

“I had both hands braced on the sides of the aircraft, and the film kept hitting me on the head.

“When we eventually got down, I had to follow Chris into the dark room and get him to develop the film as quickly as possible and I wrote my description from his pictures as I’d had my eyes squeezed tightly shut for the whole of the flight.”