1100_1199

(T: warm/cold events; R: dry/wet events; S: 'stormy' events)

Date	T	R	S	Description	Ref:
				*1100 - 1199*
1102				Drought (possible). Also noted as accompanied by 'excessive heat'.	8
1110/11				Long & hard winter (London/South).	8
1114 (annual)				Considered to be one of the driest years on record: on the 10th October(OSP) - some sources have the 15th(OSP), the Thames at London was so low that men and boys were able to wade across the river. (Combination of notably low tide & the aforementioned drought). (Some sources have the date as the 15th) [Note that the river had a completely different character to that of modern times.]	8
1114/15				Very severe winter: the frost lasted for about 9 to 11 weeks and nearly all the bridges in England were damaged by ice.	6, 8
1116 (annual)				A year of 'excessive' rains.	"The Weather" (Kimble & Bush)
1124/1125 (Winter)				Exceptionally severe winter in France & Netherlands may also have affected Britain (probably at least the south & southeast if the Low Countries were affected).	1, 8
1128				Severe winter with heavy snow at Easter. Easter Day in 1128 was on the 22nd April, which is near to the latest Easter can fall and it would be remarkable if heavy snow fell in late April nowadays in lowland England. There may be confusion with 1125.	8
1135-37				Relatively dry, with one exceptionally dry year in 1136; a particularly fine (hot & dry) summer in 1136. (It is not clear if ALL three years were dry, or just one (or two) of them.)	8
1141 (May)				(year may have been 1140): (possibly May 19th, new-style): Welsburn (now Wellesbourne), Warwickshire .. " a very violent whirlwind (i.e. a tornado) sprang up, a hideous darkness extended from the earth to the sky & the house of a priest was violently shaken, and all of his outbuildings were thrown down and broken to pieces ". Some 40 houses severely damaged, and large hailstones, (noted as the size of pigeons' eggs) fell, one of which killed a woman (& possibly one other). This is the first record of a tornado that has been deduced by TORRO, and they assess it at T5 (in a scale that extends from T0 to T10).	TORRO
1141 (or 1142)				Very cold weather with snow in December (which year?: Easton, in CHMW notes that it was the winter of 1142/43 that was cold in Europe.)	1, 8
1149/50 (winter / early spring) [but possibly 1150/51]				Severe winter: the first authentic report of the Thames being frozen solid - the frost lasted from December to March and the frozen river was crossed on foot and on horseback. Very intense cold began 10th December 1149 (OSP) and continued until (at least) February 19th (OSP). The Thames was frozen over at London Bridge and supported loaded wagons. (Some sources have this as the winter of 1150/1151)	1, 8
1158 (annual)				Because of an earthquake (?), the Thames at London was waterless and it was crossed dry-shod. Some sources give the year as 1157. Much more likely that it was a dry year, which just happened to coincide with a minor earth tremor.	8
1175/76 (Winter)				Severe Winter; frost & snow 25th December(OS) to 2nd February(OS) in Normandy & possibly in England. [ At this time, under Henry II, much of north-western & western France (in modern-day parlance) was a series of 'fiefdoms' of the Kings of England - an inheritance from the origins of the Norman conquest in 1066. This means that contemporary chronicles applicable to Normandy would have been of interest to many on this side of the English Channel. ]	8
1178/1179 (Winter)				A cold winter. (Easton, in CHMW/Lamb) ... does make you wonder if there is confusion here with the 1175/76 event?	1
1193				Regarded as 'unseasonable' (whatever that means), with thunder & lightning often noted through the year. A 'wet' year. (This presumably means that the general opinion was that the climate at this time 'should' have been drier?)	8

main historical menu

1200 - 1299>>>>