Winter Wonderland

We have had lots of snow here this week, although not as much as some people, and it has been extremely cold. In Regency Cheshire , the mail-coaches were expected to keep going whatever the weather. However, coaches often got stuck in the snow, which happened on one of the coldest nights on record, that of Friday 8 February 1799. The post-boys struggled on with the mail-bags on horseback. In those severe winters long ago, there were even reports of coachmen freezing to death.

Images: A snowy Delamere Forest, and the author’s back garden. © Sue Wilkes

Thawing out

It’s cheering to see the snow disappearing at last, even though we have got a rainy day here in Cheshire. We should count our blessings, however; winters were much more severe in the past. Frost fairs were held on the Thames when it froze over, most notably in the winters of 1684 (when a printing press was erected on the ice), 1715-6, 1740, 1788-9, and 1814. There were tents selling food and drink, games of skittles were held, and there were even swings and merry-go-rounds on the ice. A sudden thaw set in during the 1814 frost fair, and some stallholders, keen to enjoy profits while they lasted, stayed on the ice far longer than was safe. Tents and merry-go-rounds fell into the icy water; three men were killed. Frost fairs became a distant memory as winters grew warmer and the currents in the Thames changed over time.

Image: Fair on the Thames, 1716. W. & R. Chambers’s Book of Days, 1864.

Cheshire Salt Newsflash!

Cheshire salt is needed to keep the country moving! This news video shows the huge stockpile of salt at Middlewich which is going to save Britain's roads from the Big Freeze.

True Grit

It was snowing hard when I got up this morning, although it’s beginning to ease off now. Like many other people, I suspect, I find it strange that so many schools have been closed this week – I remember trudging through the snow to get to school when I was a kid.

In earlier times, people just got on with their lives, unless they physically couldn’t get out of their door because the snow was so high. The mail-coaches kept going even if snow was up to their horses’ bellies. There were reports of mail-guards and passengers riding outside the coaches freezing to death in severe weather. One of the bleakest nights on record during Georgian times was that of Friday 8 November 1799. Many mail-coaches got stuck in the snow. The mail guards had to leave their coaches behind and take the postbags on horseback to their destination.

Images: 'Taking up the mails,' and 'In a Snowdrift.' Hugh Thomson, Coaching Days and Coaching Ways, (Macmillan, 1910.)