// Archives

Cold weather records: reflections from the bus stop

As I was waiting for the campus hopper this morning my fingers were steadily growing numb. The texts and emails I sent from my mobile were even more laden with errors and typos than normal, as button pressing became increasingly challenging. It was most definitely cold. There is no snow on the ground here 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 …

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 …

Getting into the archive: the Pegge-Burnell diaries

Over the last few weeks I’ve been spending time at Nottinghamshire Archives looking through some of the documents of interest that we’ve identified from online catalogues searches. These potentially contain information on extreme weather events of the past that will be included in our database. Pegge-Burnell of Winkburn One of the largest collections of documents …

Getting into the archive – Shrewsbury in ‘The Great Frost’ of 1739

‘The Great Frost’ of 1739 Whilst the frost fairs held on the River Thames, London in the years 1608, 1683-4, 1789 and 1814 are well recorded in both documentary evidence and artistic representations, little is known about comparable events in provincial town and urban settings throughout England. The engraving by an unknown artist shows a panoramic …

Frost Fairs at the Museum of London

Last week I visited a small display at the Museum of London about frost fairs on the Thames. Frost fairs had a carnival like atmosphere and combined market stalls with street entertainments set upon the river near London Bridge. They took place on the Thames in years where the depth of ice was sufficiently thick …