// Archives

Sources in focus – Newspaper reports of extreme weather in and around Stornoway and the Western Isles in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (part 1).

Sources in focus – Newspaper reports of extreme weather in and around Stornoway and the Western Isles in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (part 1). Since the project started in December 2013, blogs have highlighted several categories of historical sources which can provide evidence of past extreme weather events, for example, diaries and parish registers. In …

‘Foaming rivers of snow’ and lost sovereigns: sampling William Parsons’ diaries

In the previous blog post, Lucy highlighted the value of diaries in our extreme weather research and pointed to the richness of these sources, whether they were produced specifically as weather diaries or as more general records of everyday events and activities in which weather features. In both cases, compilation demanded quite a particular kind …

Sources in focus: Diaries

Knee-deep in diaries Many of the documents that we’ve been consulting in the archives over the last few months have been diaries, indeed Marie-Jeanne recently said that she was “knee-deep in diaries”, a feeling that I can empathise with! Some are meteorological registers – diaries specifically of the weather – but many are diaries that …

Extreme weather events in focus: Aurora borealis

Aurora borealis from the UK Following recent sightings of the aurora borealis from the UK, in this week’s blog I thought I would share some of the parallel appearances they have made in some archival materials that I’ve been looking at. In putting the post together I’ve been able to utilise the summary reporting tools that Richard …

Seashells, pirates and Mr William Bulkeley’s Diaries

William Bulkeley day On the 19th and 20th of September, we had the privilege of being asked to participate in the events surrounding the launch of the online digital versions of the diaries of Mr William Bulkeley (held at Bangor University Archives). The diaries represent an important source on the social history of Anglesey during …

Getting into the archive: Lincolnshire and Matthew Flinders’ diaries

Lincolnshire Archives This week I started my work at Lincolnshire Archives. I had a really successful day, completing work on all of the documents I had requested ahead of my visit (a rarity!). The first documents I looked at were the diaries of Matthew Flinders, 2 volumes, dating from 1775-1784 and 1785-1802. These were a …

St Kilda: Extreme Weather on the Edge of the World

  St Kilda: an island community’s perception of weather St Kilda is an isolated archipelago forty-one miles west-northwest of North Uist in the North Atlantic Ocean comprising the islands of Hirta, Soay, Boreray and Dun, as well as several sea stacks, and are the westernmost islands of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. It is an interesting …

Extreme weather at the WCEH, Guimaraes, Portugal

World Congress on Environmental History (WCEH) This week Georgina and I were lucky enough to be able to attend the 2nd World Congress on Environmental History (WCEH) in Guimaraes, Portugal. Although this trip wasn’t an official part of the Weather Extremes project, the conference included lots of talks on extreme weather events from a variety …

Getting into the archive – The Buildwas Earthquake of 1773: an earthquake or a landslip?

Cartographic and textual sources Early in the morning of the 27th May 1773, a remarkable earthquake or rather landslip occurred at a place called ‘the Birches’ located on the hillside above the River Severn between Buildwas and Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, not far from the site of the present day Ironbridge power station (see featured image above). …

Sources in focus – Parish Registers

Parish Registers as a source of information on extreme weather On a recent visit to The Hive, the new home of Worcestershire Archives, several of the items on my list of documents to consult were Parish Registers. Parish Registers primarily contain lists of baptisms, marriages and burials making them a popular source of information for …