It doesn’t normally snow in the Peak District in November these days – February yes but the last couple of days have been really cold and very festive looking, if you’re tucked safely up indoors. It got me thinking about whether I could find more information about snow in the past. I’m sure that many of you are familiar with the concept of the Little Ice Age. I tend to talk about it in the context of the Tudors and Stuarts. Frost fairs were held on the Thames when it froze. In 1683 the winter took a definite turn for the worse. The Great Frost of that winter saw the Thames frozen a foot deep! The River Aire in Leeds froze solid as well and Yorkshire held its own Frost Fair. The proceedings were described by Ralph Thoresby , a non-conformist, whose father served Sir Thomas Fairfax during the English Civil War.

I wouldn’t go so far as to describe the Eighteenth Century as warm either. The tradition of frost fairs continued. As the French Revolution took a grip, the cold continued to ensure the tradition of Frost Fairs in London. And let’s not forget the fog. It was actually sometime in the 1800s when the Little Ice Age ended although the snow continued to fall. Various reasons have been given for the plunging temperatures including volcanic activity and heat in the oceans changing because of the circulation of currents.

1946 was the worst winter since 1814. In isolated villages in the Peak District people burned their furniture to stay warm and shared food. Unfortunately in Nottingham, the winter’s snowfall was followed by a thaw in 1947 which caused the River Trent to go wandering. As a result a new series of flood defences were built.

Then the next winter to find itself in the history books was 1963 which earned itself the name ‘The Big Freeze’. There were snowdrifts 8ft deep in Kent.

As I recall, the 1970s were relatively snow free in comparison to the earlier winters of the twentieth century but the end of the 70s and beginning of the 80s saw some heavy snow falls. I remember walking to school because the bus couldn’t get through. However from the 1980s onwards there has been little snowfall in comparison to past winters. 2018 saw the Beast from the East which drew cold air from Russia and Scandinavia across Britain.

Now as it happens I want to find out about the weather in November/December 1921 – which was apparently the driest year on record thanks to a prolonged drought. I’m starting to dabble in novel writing again…who knows, perhaps this time it’ll get further than a box under the spare bed!

The Met Office archive reports are all available online – see the link below. So if you have a particular year you’d like to find out more about, all the information is available. Incidentally although our winters are now demonstrably warmer, it is possible that with the accompanying increased rainfall we may also once again experience more snow.

https://digital.nmla.metoffice.gov.uk/?s=weather+reports+1921