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[Varche]

Went out for a nostalgic drive with my dad, in the area I was brought up in, today. Horrible weather.

I have always been interested in a story my dad told us about the Bravender family whose home was a mile away from where I was born. No trace of there having ever been a simple home there now apart from a flattish area. Here is the newspaper article.

http://www.gazetteherald.co.uk/features/way_we_were/11833633.Snow_brings_family_tragedy/

 The article mentions the heroic efforts of those involved in recovering the bodies. The way the parishes were laid out was a long and narrow form paying scant regard to the geography. There wasn't even a road to the former house from Brompton until many years later.

I remember snow in the sixties like the photo of 1947. In Scarborough there would be none only 15 miles or less away due to the "warming effect" of the sea.

Anyway , just thought some might be interested.

[scimmy_man]

Aye lad it can be grim up north.

[Lizzie Zoom]

A very interesting piece Varche.

The snow of 1822/23 I believe was quite typical of the whole country at the time, but it didn't always lead to such loss of life. However, the freezing over of rivers, like the Thames, was quite regular, and that is why Charles Dickens stories often feature a vision of much snow, much ice,and the poor freezing cold in over crowded houses when the UK suffered a mini ice age, that had also occurred in the 16th century, let alone the big Ice Age that started to end about 11,000 years ago.

1947 is obviously within living memory, although not in mine! Mum and dad used to talk about it, and the fact, as I have studied, that it was made even worse by the coal and food shortages of the post war period when the country was bankrupt.  The next big freeze was the one of 1962/63 (It started down South on Boxing Day), but I didn't see it as I was nice and warm in Malta GC!

Memories, and historical reports like the one you have found Varche are just so valuable in the facts they provide in a secondary form, but sadly   
of course we have lost the primary source of this information a long time ago.

Read these for some very interesting details on the weather in the 19th century:

https://www.booty.org.uk/booty.weather/climate/1800_1849.htm

https://www.booty.org.uk/booty.weather/climate/1850_1899.htm

[BazaJT]

I love discovering history like this especially about Yorkshire[I was born and raised in the West Riding-in an area now classed as South Yorkshire]fascinating that the family involved were described as inmates of the cottage and not occupants.

[Lizzie Zoom]

I love discovering history like this especially about Yorkshire[I was born and raised in the West Riding-in an area now classed as South Yorkshire]fascinating that the family involved were described as inmates of the cottage and not occupants.

That could indicate that it was a house for the poor, but more research would have to be done to prove that or otherwise.

PS Just re-checked the article and it does state "occupants of the cottage" in the first paragraph.  The use of "inmates" later in the article probably is just another term used at the time to also describe anyone living in a particular house/cottage

[STEMO]

I love discovering history like this especially about Yorkshire[I was born and raised in the West Riding-in an area now classed as South Yorkshire]fascinating that the family involved were described as inmates of the cottage and not occupants.

That could indicate that it was a house for the poor, but more research would have to be done to prove that or otherwise.

PS Just re-checked the article and it does state "occupants of the cottage" in the first paragraph.  The use of "inmates" later in the article probably is just another term used at the time to also describe anyone living in a particular house/cottage

Probably just ‘academics’ deciding to chop and change to suit themselves, as they often do 

[Varche]

It was just a simple house standing alone in a very rural area ina valley. My estimate is ten miles round trip, no proper roads or vehicles. Couple of significance cant obstacles. A steep bank and a small river .

Apparently my dad was told  years ago that the snow was being blown across the plateau top and built up higher up from the house. That broke loose and started the avalanche.

[Lizzie Zoom]

It was just a simple house standing alone in a very rural area ina valley. My estimate is ten miles round trip, no proper roads or vehicles. Couple of significance cant obstacles. A steep bank and a small river .

Apparently my dad was told  years ago that the snow was being blown across the plateau top and built up higher up from the house. That broke loose and started the avalanche.

More great local knowledge Varche which we must never lose

[Rods2]

The storm certainly gets a mention in this British Weather diary from 1700-1846. The winter of 1822-23 and the following summer were a particularly cold one. British weather including temperatures are documented from 1600 onwards, which makes the UK Met's decision to now consider temperatures for records only from when the went over to digital ones in 1980 IMO a cynical one. Great for generating record headlines but very little else!

8th February 1823: Great snowstorm in N. England: the ways subsequently opened by tunnelling through drifts.

http://www.pascalbonenfant.com/18c/weather.html