Rose Cottage, Hessle, Hull,
January, 1887.
[Illustration]
Famous Frosts and Frost Fairs in Great Britain.
[Sidenote: A.D.]
[Sidenote: 134]
Thames frozen over for two months.
[Sidenote: 153]
Very severe frost, lasting nearly three months. English rivers frozen,
including the Thames.
[Sidenote: 173]
A frost lasted three months, and was followed by a dearth.
[Sidenote: 220]
A continuous frost of five months in Britain.
[Sidenote: 250]
Thames frozen for nine weeks.
[Sidenote: 290-91]
Severe frost lasted six weeks. English rivers frozen.
[Sidenote: 359]
The frost very severe in England and Scotland. It lasted fourteen weeks
in the latter country.
[Sidenote: 474]
Four months’ frost, and great snow.
[Sidenote: 507-8]
Frost lasted two months: rivers frozen.
[Sidenote: 525]
Thames frozen for six weeks.
[Sidenote: 604]
A frost lasting four months, followed by dearth in Scotland: also very
severe in England.
[Sidenote: 670]
“A fatal frost.”--SHORT.
[Sidenote: 695]
Thames frozen for six weeks, and booths erected on the ice.
[Sidenote: 759-60]
Frost from October 1st, 759, to February 26th, 760.
[Sidenote: 821]
Great frost after two or three weeks’ rain.
[Sidenote: 827]
Thames frozen for nine weeks.
[Sidenote: 908]
The greater part of the English rivers frozen for two months.
[Sidenote: 923]
Thames frozen for thirteen weeks.
[Sidenote: 962]
The frost this year was so great as to cause a famine.
[Sidenote: 975]
Severe frost.
[Sidenote: 987]
This year is notable for a frost lasting one hundred and twenty days.
[Sidenote: 998]
Thames frozen for five weeks.
[Sidenote: 1020]
Very severe frost.
[Sidenote: 1035]
Short says: “Frost on Midsummer day; all grass and grain and fruit
destroyed; a dearth.”
[Sidenote: 1059]
Great frost, followed by a severe plague and famine.
[Sidenote: 1061]
Thames frozen for seven weeks.
[Sidenote: 1063]
Fourteen weeks’ frost: Thames frozen.
[Sidenote: 1076-7]
Frost lasted from 1st November, 1076, to 15th April, 1077. It is recorded
in the “Harleian Miscellany,” iii, page 167, that: “In the tenth year
of his [William the Conqueror] reign, the cold of winter was exceeding
memorable, both for sharpness and for continuance; for the earth remained
hard from the beginning of November until the midst of April then
ensuing.”
[Sidenote: 1086]
According to Walford’s “Insurance Cyclopædia,” “The weather was so
inclement that in the unusual efforts made to warm the houses, nearly all
the chief cities of the kingdom were destroyed by fire, including a great
part of London and St. Paul’s.”
[Sidenote: 1092]
In this year occurred a famous frost, and it is stated, in the quaint
language of an old chronicler, that “the great streams [of England] were
congealed in such a manner that they could draw two hundred horsemen and
carriages over them; whilst at their thawing, many bridges, both of wood
and stone, were borne down, and divers water-mills were broken up and
carried away.”
[Sidenote: 1095-99]
Very severe winters.
[Sidenote: 1114-15]
The following is from an “Old Chronicle:” “Great frost; timber bridges
broken down by weight of ice. This year was the winter so severe with
snow and frost, that no man who was then living ever remembered one more
severe; in consequence of which there was great destruction of cattle.”
[Sidenote: 1121-22]
A severe frost killed the grain crops. A famine followed.
[Sidenote: 1128]
Very severe frost.
[Sidenote: 1149-50]
Frost lasted from 10th December to 19th February.
[Sidenote: 1154]
A great frost.
[Sidenote: 1176]
A frost lasted from Christmas to Candlemas.
[Sidenote: 1205]
In Stow’s “Chronicle,” it is recorded that on the 14th day of January,
1205, “began a frost which continued till the 20th day of March, so that
no ground could be tilled; whereof it came to passe that, in the summer
following, a quarter of wheat was sold for a mark of silver in many
places of England, which for the most part, in the days of King Henry
II., was sold for twelve pence; a quarter of oats for forty pence, that
were wont to be sold for fourpence. Also the money was so sore clipped
that there was no remedy but to have it renewed.” Short states, “Frozen
ale and wine sold by weight.”
[Sidenote: 1207]
Fifteen weeks’ frost.
[Sidenote: 1209]
A long and hard winter followed by dearth.
[Sidenote: 1221]
Severe frost.
[Sidenote: 1226]
Severe frost and snow.
[Sidenote: 1233]
Frost lasted until Candlemas.
[Sidenote: 1234-35]
Penkethman gives the following particulars of this frost: “18 Henry
III. was a great frost at Christmasse, which destroyed the corne in
the ground, and the roots and hearbs in the gardens, continuing till
Candlemasse without any snow, so that no man could plough the ground,
and all the yeare after was unseasonable weather, so that barrenesse of
all things ensued, and many poor folks died for the want of victualls,
the rich being so bewitched with avarice that they could yield them no
reliefe.”
[Sidenote: 1241]
A great frost after a heavy fall of snow.
[Sidenote: 1250]
Very severe frost.
[Sidenote: 1254]
A severe frost from 1st January to 14th March.
[Sidenote: 1263]
On St. Nicholas’s Day a month’s hard frost set in.
[Sidenote: 1269]
A frost lasted from 30th November to the 2nd February.
[Sidenote: 1281-2]
“From Christmas to the Purification of Our Lady, there was such a frost
and snow as no man living could remember the like: where, through five
arches of London Bridge, and all Rochester Bridge, were borne downe and
carried away by the streame; and the like hapned to many other bridges
in England. And, not long after, men passed over the Thames between
Westminster and Lambeth dryshod.”--Stow, edited by Howes, 1631.
[Sidenote: 1288]
Great frost and snow.
[Sidenote: 1337]
Severe frost without snow.
[Sidenote: 1338]
Twelve weeks’ frost, after rain.
[Sidenote: 1353]
A frost from 6th December to 12th March.
[Sidenote: 1363-64]
“Very terrible” frost from 16th September to 6th April.
[Sidenote: 1407]
A frost lasted fourteen weeks.
[Sidenote: 1410]
It is recorded in the “Chronicles of the Grey Friars of London,” as
follows: “Thys yere was the grete frost and ise, and most sharpest winter
that ever man sawe, and it duryd fourteen wekes, so that men myght in
dyvers places both goo and ryde over the Temse.”
[Sidenote: 1434-35]
Stow records that the Thames was frozen, from below London Bridge to
Gravesend, from December 25th to February 10th, when the merchandise
which came to the Thames mouth was carried to London by land.
[Sidenote: 1438]
A long frost.
[Sidenote: 1506]
We find this entry in the “Chronicles of Grey Friars of London”: “Such a
sore snowe and a frost that men myght goo with carttes over the Temse and
horses, and it lastyed tylle Candlemas.”
[Sidenote: 1515]
The Thames frozen, and carts crossed on the ice to and from Lambeth to
Westminster.
[Sidenote: 1523]
Very severe frost.
[Sidenote: 1564-65]
Interesting particulars of this severe frost are given in Stow’s
“Annals,” and Holinshed’s “Chronicle.” The latter historian says that the
frost continued to such an extremity that, on New Year’s Eve, “People
went over and alongst the Thames on the ise, from London Bridge to
Westminster. Some plaied at the football as boldlie there, as if it had
been on the drie land; divers of the court being then at Westminster,
shot dailie at prickes set upon the Thames; and the people, both men
and women, went on the Thames in greater numbers than in anie street of
the Citie of London. On the third daie of January, at night, it began
to thaw, and on the fifth there was no ise to be seene betweene London
Bridge and Lambeth, which sudden thaw caused great floods, and high
waters, that bare downe bridges and houses, and drowned manie people in
England, especiallie in Yorkshire. Owes Bridge was borne awaie, with
others.” There is a tradition that Queen Elizabeth walked upon the ice.
[Sidenote: 1607]
An old tradition still lingers in Derbyshire, respecting the famous Bess
of Hardwick, to the effect that a fortune teller told her that her death
would not happen as long as she continued building. She caused to be
erected several noble structures, including Hardwick and Chatsworth, two
of the most stately homes of old England. Her death occurred in the year
1607, during a very severe frost, when the workmen could not continue
their labours, although they tried to mix their mortar with hot ale.
Malt liquor in the days of yore was believed to add to the durability of
mortar, and items bearing on this subject occur in parish accounts. The
following entries are extracted from the parish books of Ecclesfield,
South Yorkshire:--
[Sidenote: 1619]
Itm. 7 metts [_i.e._ bushels] of lyme
for poynting some places in the
church wall, and on the leades ij_s._ iiij_d._
Itm. For 11 gallands of strong
liquor for the blending of the lyme iij_s._ viij_d._
Two years later we find mention of “strong liquor” for pointing and ale
for drinking:--
[Sidenote: 1621]
For a secke of malt for pointing
steeple viij_s._