The subtitle to this book is : chronicles of the frozen Thames and harsh winters in Britain since 1000AD. It is basically a chronology of Britain's harshest winters followed by a more indepth look at some of them. Although it is a bit uninspiring in layout, it does deliver some fascinating facts and includes some amazing old pictures of winters past. Here are some snippets from the frozen past.
1715
Source: Wiki Images http://www.fulltable.com/crowd/12.jpg |
1881
1881 is known for the greatest snowstorm of the 19th Century with mountainous drifts across southern England and drifts 10 foot high in Oxford Street. So intense was the cold that oaks, yews and hollies were 'split assunder sounding like rifle cracks."The diary of an Oxfordshire farmer relates that ''27 persons were said to have perished on Salisbury Plains - besides hundreds of sheep.''
When you think of the Thames freezing you probably imagine a glass-smooth surface, of course it was nothing of the sort. Often it took the form of huge blocks of floating ice. In Greenwich, spectators gazed in amazement at enormous icebergs the size of a 'six-roomed cottage'.
1890
The frost which began on Nov 25th continued in East Anglia for 56 days with every night at or below freezing. A measure of the cold was shown in Devon when mud froze and adhered to the bottom of fishing smacks, anchoring them to the bottom of the river at low tide. When the water rose they remained there, only their masts showing. And this in salt water. This wasn't the last time the sea froze, in 1963 ice stretched out to sea for two and a half miles off the North Kent coast.![]() |
Frozen waterfall after days of temperatures below -10 C |
Hardships

Another phenomenon, seen in 1940 occurred after two days of continous rain. It was supercooled and immediately froze on touching surfaces of trees, grass, roads and buildings. Whole woods were devastated as trees split apart or shed branches weighed down by ice. We have experienced this super-cooled rain ourselves over the last few winters and it's literally impossible to get about unless you go on your hands and knees.
This Spring, the hill farmers have faced huge difficulties with a late snowfall. Many hundreds of sheep have frozen to death with their lambs under huge drifts of snow. Back in 1947 on the South Downs farmers faced the similar difficulties when live sheep were frozen by their wool to gorse bushes.
This year there have been reports of hundreds of puffins being washed ashore on the East coast due to stormy conditions out to sea. This fatal event is known as a wreck, and this was the largest for some 60 years. Puffin report
1945
A particular hardship hit Yorkshire in 1945 when the second half of January brought a particularly cold spell of weather. Temperatures did not rise above -9 degrees Centigrade and beer froze inside public houses! Yes, it was that bad. In London Big Ben was silenced when its hammers froze. Fuel was in short supply and people queued for hours to bring home a bag of coke from the local gas works.
From the countryside there was reports of a farmer using rabbits which had frozen to death, to keep his stove alight, as the roads for miles around were blocked with snow.
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Source: Frosts, freezes and fairs. |
1947
If you're not a fan of cold weather, then Buxton in Derbyshire is probably not the place for you. As one of the highest towns in Britain at 1000 feet above sea level, it seems to suffer particularly badly. When snow was reported to have laid on the ground for 45 days in London in 1947, it was with Buxton for 71. That particular winter finally ended in mid-march with disastrous flooding but not before another ice storm had festooned the trees with ice and icicles even hung from people's hats. The picture taken from the book shows the enormous drifts that had amassed by March here, north of Beaufort in Gwent, some 1300 feet above sea level.1963
More recent winters have also stopped transport. In 1963 two hundred London buses were grounded with frozen diesel.1985
An extraordinary aspect of this winter was the outbreak of many fires in West Scotland. The dryness caused by the mountains providing shelter to the easterly winds led to over 50 fires on the dry grass and heathers. The firemen had to set explosives to break up the ice to provide enough water to put them out!Icy pleasures
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Why does the Thames no longer freeze?

The Royal Humane Society

So, as the snow finally melts away and spring finally shows its face, we can at least be grateful that our cold winters can be borne stoically with the comfort of central heating and an electric blanket.
Addenda
This has taken a long time to be posted. Mainly because I managed to lose all the text after spending ages on it, and then had to type it out again and couldn't face the final edit! Anyway, the positive side of this now terribly outdated entry is that I heard Gillian Clarke on the radio at the weekend and thought her poetry would be a good addition. Here's a snippet of her poetry and here's a link to the collection IceBooks which surely must be read/bought some day
Richard Mabey's take on how the weather shapes our national culture and psyche. Turned out nice again
And another book which uses fictional accounts of the 40 times the Thames has frozen solid The frozen Thames
Winter: Five windows on the season (2012) by Adam Gopnik
'Winter' takes us on an intimate tour of the artists, poets, composers, writers, explorers, scientists and thinkers who helped shape a new and modern idea of winter. Winter (details)
Now enough of Winter, let's enjoy the sunshine!