Snow and Frost
The variety of archive sources available in the collections held
by the Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Archive Service show that
snowfalls were regular, prolonged and substantial in the past, up to
about the mid 20th century. January, February and December were the
commonest months for snow but there are plenty of examples of heavy
snowfalls in the month of March in the 19th and earlier 20th
centuries. The year 1850, for example, saw
very late snow in March which raised concerns for the possible
impact on agricultural yields later in the year. What we might now
consider to be ‘freak’ snowfalls in the months of April or May were
not uncommon. Certainly in the Staffordshire Moorlands there are
examples of quite severe weather, including
snow, into the month
of May.
1940, 1947 and 1963 were particularly bad years for snow and frost
in Staffordshire, with the snow of 1940, the first year of the
Second World War described as being the worst within living memory.
With this experience in mind, in 1942 Biddulph Urban District
Council began early preparations for the coming winter by
purchasing a new snow plough in August. In the bad winter of
1947, February appears to have been the colder month, with more snow
falling then than in January and with constant east winds. The thaw
did not set in until mid-March.
Colder winter temperatures brought prolonged frosts which meant that
the snow stayed on the ground for longer. For example in December
1846, morning temperatures recorded at Trentham showed 20 days at or
below freezing and afternoon temperatures for 17 days at or below
freezing. In 1955 frost was registered at Weston–under-Lizard for 34
consecutive nights from 10 February until 15 March. In January
1963 the lowest temperatures were recorded at Weston since February
1947.
Snow was disruptive to daily life. In an age without motorised
transport, children, who had to walk from outlying areas, simply
could not get to school. Those who succeeded ended up
with footwear
and clothing so wet that they had to be sent home again because they
had no other shoes or clothing to change into. Teachers,
concerned about the regular visits of the school attendance officers
to check the school registers, often did not mark them on snow or
other bad weather days.
School routines were upset in different ways. In the middle of the
county at Huntington, near Cannock, a weekly gardening class did not
take place on 7 March 1904 because of snow.
For farmers and the agents and labourers working for the big
estates, however, the daily round of work continued despite the
weather. Even a snowfall of between eight and ten inches did not
deter a Longnor farmer from attending Leek Market in 1909.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries local councils issued
strictures to local residents about the clearing of snow and ice
from the pavements outside their houses and published notices of
fines to be levied for skating and sliding in the streets. And
gardeners and nurserymen of the past recorded their vexation when
frost hit their prize plants.
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