Hi Brian I watched the programme last night and you beat me to the burials list, I was quite surprised I thought there would be a marked increase in the death rate judging by the way the programme seemed to imply lots people died of starvation due to crop failure, It may be the rural setting and availability of a variety of root vegetables and high dependancy on meat didn't affect Hawkesbury Folk as much. However there certainly was a very cold summer as contempory reports below show, the eruption said to be 10 times larger than Krakatoa and Vesuvius combined occured on April 10th 1815. regards Robert 1811: A late start for severe winters in the 1800s, but January of 1811 saw the Thames freeze, once again! 1812: A year later, and March this time. 1ft of snow fell in Scotland, around the city of Edinburgh (I think Edinburgh and London had the most weather records of anywhere in the UK due to their frequency in data being recorded) followed by drifting in a gale force North Easterly! 1813-1814: Not many of the 1800s winters had I heard of before about 3-4 years ago, but this one I had, due to its severe cold. One of the 4/5 coldest winters in the CET series. Colder winters included: 1962-63 (see part 1739-40 (see part 3) and the coldest, 1683-84 (see part 2) 'Lorna Doone'. A memorable winter overall. January to March was very cold. January had a CET of -2.9 (third coldest since records began?) The next comparible year in terms of cold weather being 1962-63. The tidal stretch of the Thames froze for the last time, the old London Bridge was removed, and other factors helped increase the rivers flow, preventing ice forming again. If it was the same now as it was back then, we would still see it being frozen. A frost fair was held on the Thames, possibly the last 'great' one. The frost began in late December, approaching the new year. Thick fog came with the frost, as was common in London at the time. Probably one of the snowiest winters in the last 300 years, although 1947 was likely to have been snowier. Heavy snow fell for 2-3 days in early January, before a temporary thaw of 1 day. Then the frost just returned, possibly more severe than before due to the snow cover, and persisted until early February. A thaw followed later, and ice floating down the river damaged ships. Fog was also a hazard and took a long time to clear, lasting from late December to early January, an unusual occurrence. Visibility was down to 20 yards at times! Traffic hardly moved, and travelling became very dangerous. The fog cleared following a Northerly gale in early January, when heavy snow fell. A severe and very snowy winter. 1816: Known as the year without summer, snow fell very late on, and the summer never recovered. The winter proceeding it was severe. A volcanic eruption (Tambora: East Indies) disrupted wind patterns and temperatures greatly, affecting the track of depressions, which tracked further South than usual, and making the UK very cold and wet for the summer and beyond. Scotland was drier though, an obvious sign that the depressions changed track. In September the Thames had frozen! Snow drifts remained on hills until late July! 1819-20: Severe winter. -23c was recorded at Tunbridge Wells, although no details of exposure are evident. 1821: Late May saw snow in London, probably the latest snowfall there until 2nd June 1975. 1822-23: Severe winter, ice on the Thames by late December. February 8th saw a great snowstorm in Northern England. People had to tunnel through the snow. 1825: Snow fell in October in London. A very windy time, with gales doing damage. 1826: Ice on the Thames. Visit my web pages at http://www.hawkesburyhistory.co.uk ----- Original Message ----- From: "BRIAN MORGAN" <brian.morgan9@btinternet.com> To: <ENG-GLO-HAWKESBURY-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, May 28, 2005 7:19 AM Subject: [HWK] Mount Tambora, Indonesia 1815 > Hi, Listers > Watching the programme on the volcanic explosion of Mt Tambora and the > claims that it affected wide swathes of the world inc England, causing a > doubling or more of the deaths in 1816 through starvation and cold, I > wondered about Hawkesbury. > Just done a quick but fairly accurate count from the Hawkesbury burials > list with the following results > > 1815 1816 1817 1818 > 21 18 21 13 > > Interesting. > > I'll look at Bitton later to see how that compares. > Cheers > Brian Morgan > > > ==== ENG-GLO-HAWKESBURY Mailing List ==== > Visit Robert Millard's local and family history web pages at > http://www.hawkesburyhistory.co.uk. > > ============================== > New! Family Tree Maker 2005. Build your tree and search for your ancestors > at the same time. Share your tree with family and friends. Learn more: > http://landing.ancestry.com/familytreemaker/2005/tour.aspx?sourceid=14599&targetid=5429 > >