Chilly
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It has been chilly recently, puddles turned to ice, leaves frosted, breath lifting on the quiet air. It’s winter, it’s what is expected. Our winters are not as harsh or as long as once they were. There were years when the ground remained cold solid for months, though this has not happened for at least ten years. Even so, the winters were not then severe enough to maintain a frost fair.
The Thames Frost Fairs took place from the late 7th century until the early 19th century, although most of them took place in the so-called Little Ice Age, between the 17th and 19th centuries. That was a time when the River Thames froze more often than it now does, and also a period when the river was wider and ran more slowly.
AD 695 marked the first officially recorded time the river froze solid. It remained frozen for six weeks and local tradesmen set up their stalls to attract business from people enjoying the novelty of the frozen river. It was not officially registered as a frost fair.
The Thames froze several times in the 16th century. Henry VIII travelled by sleigh from the centre of London to Greenwich in 1536. In 1564, his daughter, Elizabeth I, frequently ventured onto the ice to practise archery, while little boys played football.
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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
The first named Frost Fair was in 1608, during the reign of James I (reigned 1603-1625) A pamphlet written at the time said:
“The great frost. Cold doings in London, except it be at the Lotterie. With Newes out of the Country. A familiar talk Betwene a Country-man and a citizen touching this terrible frost and the great Lotterie, and the effects of them.”
The ‘citizen’ recounted his experience of “being shaved in the middle of the frozen Thames: an experience to be remembered in the afterlife!”
In the 17th century, during the winter of 1683-1684, the River Thames was frozen for two months. The ice was 11 inches thick in London and disrupted shipping and trade in the North Sea. People enjoyed many activities on the ice, including bull-baiting and horse and coach racing as well as the more usual ice skating.
John Evelyn (1620-1706) was a garden designer, horticulturist and diarist. In his account of the Frost Fair of 1683-1684 he wrote “Coaches plied from Westminster to the Temple, and from several other stairs too and fro, as in the streets; sleds, sliding with skeetes, a bull-baiting, horse and coach races, puppet plays and interludes, cooks, tipling and other lewd places, so that it seemed to be a bacchanalian triumph, or carnival on the water.”
He also commented on the effects of the extreme weather on the poor and on wildlife.
“The fowls, fish and birds, and all our exotic plants and greens universally perishing. Many parks of deer were destroyed, and all sorts of fuel so dear that there were great contributions to keep the poor alive...London, by reason for the excessive coldness of the air hindering the ascent of the smoke, was so filled with the fuliginous steam of the sea-coal ...that one could hardly breath.”
There were further frost fairs in 1715-1716, 1739-1740 and 1789. Frost Fairs on the Thames were frequently of short duration with rapid thaws leading to loss of life and property. In January 1789, a ship anchored to a riverside public house was dragged from its mooring by melting ice. It caused the building to collapse and five people were crushed to death.
The final Frost Fair occurred in 1814, and was held between Blackfriars and London Bridges from February 1st to 4th. Temperatures had remained below freezing from 27th December 1813 to 7th February 1814.
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Londoners flocked onto the frozen Thames to enjoy refreshments like hot chocolate, beef, gingerbread and gin and entertainments including nine-pin bowling and dancing. During this fair an elephant was led across the ice below Blackfriars, no doubt to the wonderment of onlookers.
There were several printing presses on the ice, one
printer, George Davis, typesetting and publishing a book of 124 pages called, ”Frostiana;
or A History of the River Thames In a Frozen State: and the Wonderful Effects
of Frost, Snow, Ice, and Cold, in England, and in Different Parts of the World
Interspersed with Various Amusing Anecdotes.” In his introduction he wrote, “as an additional object of curiosity, it may be proper to mention,
that a large impression of the title page of this work, was actually printed on
the ICE on the RIVER THAMES !!”
The ice started thawing on February 5th and several people drowned.
The climate was changing, becoming milder. In addition, the old London Bridge, with its 19 pillars, was demolished in 1831 and a new bridge constructed. The new bridge had wider arches, allowing freer flow, and the river was dredged and embanked, making the river deeper and faster-flowing and thus less prone to freezing.
