It’s that season where we start to think about whether we will get snow for Christmas. We thought we’d look back through the archives at snow in Dorset over the years. Weymouth bay saw ice in 1963, cars being dug out, picturesque Dorset cottages and fields covered in a gentle white sprinkling like icing sugar – ooh it makes you feel all cosy doesn’t it?!
It looks like 1962/1963 was quite a time of it for snow, with ice in the sea at Weymouth and even windblown icicles hanging from the railings along the seafront – what an incredible sight that must have been!
A document from the old Dorset County Council, referencing specifically 27/28th December snowfall and the 29/30th December 1962 blizzard, contains a map of Dorset indicating the areas affected by the snowfall, and wonderful before & after photographs. The key indicates that areas where “Lengths blocked by snowdrifts exceeding 2 feet depth shown in black” and “Land more than 250 feet above sea level shown thus” – thus being the dotted shaded areas. One can see from this map that the areas northwest of Dorchester were particularly affected.
The before and after photographs contained within document the extent of the depth of snowfall in that notorious winter season – with roads literally filled with snow between the banks rendering them completely unpassable.
In this image of 23rd January, note the road sign on the right hand side in each of the images, the road is completely buried!
In this image of Holway Lane near Cattistock the snow banks are as tall, if not taller, than the men working hard to clear them – imagine doing all that by hand – how exhausting!
The following log documents meticulously the locations and corresponding before and after negative numbers – this must have taken some time to compile.
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Horses proved a great aid in bad weather with a make-shift plough attached to some heavy horses to clear the road in Shaftesbury. This image is estimated to be between 1935 & 1965. If anyone can help us date this more accurately, or if you have any memories or stories from this time, we would love to hear from you.
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Weymouth was a pretty scene, with ice floating in the harbour, snow on the beach and icicles hanging from the railings along the promenade and from the eaves of buildings.
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The 1970’s saw further disruption in the village of Lychett Matravers, where the tractor replaced the horse in helping to clear the way…
Whilst at Eldridge Pope in 1991 it was back to the spade to clear the road in from of the brewery:
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Despite its inconveniences, we always wish for a white Christmas! We dream of those picturesque postcard scenes where it renders the landscape with a pretty dusting, sufficient to build snowmen and have snowball fights, but not enough to disrupt daily life.
These images of Dorset villages and fields show us that it is not just stuff of our dreams.
This magical aerial scene of Shaftesbury in 1964, just one year after the blizzard, rewards us with a light dusting of white magic, without so much disruption:
And this more recent C.20th colour image of Shaftesbury (date unknown):
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The snow was also inspiring. This photograph of an engraving by Laurence Whistler depicts a truly magical Christmas scene contained within a teardrop shaped piece of glass; an intricately carved snowy countryside scene with a farmhouse nestled into the hills is truly the perfect thing to get you in the Christmas mood. Sir Laurence Whistler was a glass engraver, poet, biographer and an architectural historian. He won the first King’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1935. (www.laurencewhistler.com) and used a unusual method of
“line engraving and stippling ..on both sides of the glass….creating an illusion of perspective”
The engraving was photographed by local photographer Graham V Herbert who ran the family photographic business in Weymouth. See our previous blog here: The Herbert Collection – Dorset History Centre blog
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The Registers of Services for the Church of St Lawrence, Upwey contain notes about the weather for each day. The records from 1899 – 1911 interestingly, though one might say unsurprisingly, record the weather for Christmas Day as generally being wet, rainy, damp, cold, dull. With just a few years 1901, 1906,1909, 1910, 1911, as all being sunny. The run of the good three years of 1909-1911 was followed in 1912 by heavy rain with only a small congregation that day, presumably put off by the weather!
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Winyards Gap public house, between 1980 and 1997, produced some very picturesque scene in the snow, with this one taken on Christmas Day in 1993
And these others from around 1990:
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And finally, this beautiful print, collected by the Bankes family, was created in 1901 by Archibald Thorburn and is titled ‘Wildfowl in snow’. It was published by A. Baird Carter, Jermyn Street, London, a gallery that specialised in sporting pictures. Born in Scotland in 1860, Archibald Thorburn was “Arguably Britain’s finest and most popular ornithological artist.” (Bonhams : Archibald Thorburn (British, 1860-1935))
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We suspect this year will sadly be another damp and wet Christmas season, if current conditions remain, but we can all still dream of bygone and future white Christmases’! Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas, whatever the weather!