Getting into the archive – The Buildwas Earthquake of 1773: an earthquake or a landslip?
June 30, 2014
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
June 20, 2014
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 …
Getting into the Archive – The Hingham Town Book (part 2)
June 9, 2014
The Hingham Town Book A few weeks ago, Lucy reported on her recent visit to Norfolk Record Office. A source which I alerted her to following discussion with members of the British Agricultural History Society at the annual spring conference was the Hingham Town Book. As Lucy noted in her blog, the Hingham Town Book, …
Getting into the archive: Joseph Woolley’s diaries
May 23, 2014
Joseph Woolley This week I thought I would detail another source that I’ve been working on in Nottinghamshire Archives. Born c. 1773, Joseph Woolley was a framework knitter and stocking maker from Clifton, Nottinghamshire. There are 6 surviving volumes of diaries, for the years 1801, 1803, 1804-05, 1809, 1813, and 1815. The series record personal …
Getting into the archive: Eighteenth-century weather diaries in Devon
May 16, 2014
Devon Heritage Centre and the National Meteorological Archive The Devon Heritage Centre is housed in an unprepossessing building amidst a jumble of light industrial units, car parks, supermarkets and arterial roads on the edge of the city of Exeter in Devon. It holds archival and local study material relating to that county. Contained within the …
Historical perspectives on extreme weather
May 8, 2014
This week I wanted to use my blog post to explore historical perspectives on extreme weather whilst also publicising a couple of activities and events involving members of the project team. Our project aims to build up a database of information relating to extreme weather events of the past that we hope will be of …
Getting into the Archive – The Hingham Town Book (part 1)
April 24, 2014
A trip to Norfolk Record Office A few weeks ago I began exploring the collections of Norfolk Record Office (NRO), looking for information on extreme weather events experienced in the East Anglia region, another of our case study areas. I went equipped with a list of material of interest, generated with the help of searches …
Getting into the archive: the Pegge-Burnell diaries
March 28, 2014
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
March 10, 2014
‘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
March 4, 2014
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 …
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