The Rushden Echo, 17^th December, 1920

Wintry Weather in Northants
Cold Snap in The Rushden and Higham District
Raunds “The Coldest Place in England”
Motor ’Bus Service “Held Up”

  There were heavy falls of snow in the Rushden and Higham Ferrers district on Saturday afternoon and evening, and again on Sunday.  During Sunday night and in the early hours of Monday morning the temperature in Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire fell to an abnormally low point.  Monday proved to be one of the coldest December days experienced for over 40 years.  The lowest temperature recorded in England was at Raunds, where the thermometer registered the extraordinarily low record of one degree below Zero, or 33 degrees below freezing point, a figure very rarely attained in the United Kingdom.  Rushden and Higham were not a great deal above that point, the thermometer recording 29 degrees of frost.  In North Northants it was the coldest day since 1888.  Other low records were as follows:  Tunbridge Wells 22 degrees of frost, Bath 22, Llandudno 22, Colwyn Bay 21, Southend 20, Southport 19, Malvern 18, Rhyl 17, Leamington 11, Skegness 11.  In the London district the lowest records were at Croydon (10 degrees of frost) and Bushey Park (11 degrees).  A remarkable feature of the weather is that in Scotland comparatively high temperatures prevailed.

  Throughout East Northamptonshire and North Bedfordshire the countryside looked like an old-fashioned Christmas card, and even the robins were in evidence.  The trees were beautified with rime frost, and even the telegraph and telephone wires became “things of beauty,” if not “a joy for ever.”

  The heavy snowstorms of Saturday night and Sunday, followed as they were by the exceedingly severe frost on Sunday night, led to the suspension of the motor ’bus service in the Rushden and Wellingborough district on Sunday and Monday, but the full service was resumed on Tuesday.

  At Rushden the cold snap of the past week-end was the severest recorded in the town for very many years.  The temperature fell to as low as 3 degrees (F.), 29 degrees of frost.  That was registered at 9.30 a.m. on Monday, and possibly a lower temperature than that was reached during the previous night.  Poultry that were not adequately protected suffered from frost-bitten combs, but apparently there were no cases of frost-bite amongst human beings.  Horse traffic was considerably reduced until, toward the middle of the week, the snow was cleared to some extent or had begun to thaw.

  In regard to the monthly weather reports for Rushden, which have been officially recorded by Mr. S. Saddler, these ceased a considerable time ago owing to a breakage of the chief instruments.  The Northants County Council, at whose suggestion the instruments were installed, have been requested to replace the instruments, but nothing has been done in the matter so far.

  Raunds weather conditions are recorded by Mr. L. G. H. Lee, by means of instruments of the approved Meteorological Office pattern.  A daily report is sent to the Meteorological Office.