Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

There is a most fearful tempest (especially this night) of snowing and driving, such as scarce hath been remembered at this time of the year. There hath fallen much snow this week, and it hath frozen hard, so that people cannot plough. They are wont to be forward in seeding by this time, and little is ploughed as yet. There hath been very little intermission of frost since Christmas, and fodder grows very scant. Upon the revolution of affairs in the nation, and at the king’s coming in, there was excessive joy, and among the testimonies thereof that of making bonfires was more than ordinarily visible and extravagant, so that in great towns there was an intolerable waste made of coals, and now there hath been exceeding scarcity of sea-coal in great towns that have been supplied from Newcastle, especially London, Hull and York, by reason that the Hollanders lie upon the coast and hinder passage, insomuch as coal is at £5 a chaldron, and very difficult to be gotten, and this sharp winter many poor people have been in great danger of perishing by cold. The Lord is holy in all his ways and righteous in all his works.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations:

• ER: East Riding
• GM: Greater Manchester
• NR: North Riding
• NY: North Yorkshire
• SY: South Yorkshire
• WR: West Riding
• WY: West Yorkshire

Comment

Comment

If a chauldron is 36 bushels, a bushel is 8 gallons, and a gallon of coal weighs 40 pounds, then coal was slightly less than £1/tonne. In 2021 a tonne was retailing at roughly £420, almost three times as much after inflation. Fortunately we have gas. No, wait.

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Original

There is an extraordinary hand of god out against us in the unseasonableness of the weather. This day being March 10, there is a most fearful tempest (especially this night) of snowing and driving, such as scarce hath been remembered at this time of the year. There hath fallen much snow this week, and it hath frozen hard, so that people cannot plough. They are wont to be forward in seeding by this time, and little is ploughed as yet. There hath been very little intermission of frost since Christmas, and fodder grows very scant. The lord sanctify these tokens of his displeasure. How soon can our god turn our abused plenty into deserted penury.

Upon the revolution of affairs in the nation, and at the king’s coming in, there was excessive joy, and among the testimonies thereof that of making bonfires was more than ordinarily visible and extravagant, so that in great towns there was an intolerable waste made of coals, and now there hath been exceeding scarcity of sea-coal in great towns that have been supplied from Newcastle, especially London, Hull & York, by reason that the Hollanders lie upon the sea-coast and hinder passage, insomuch as coal is at £5 a chaldron, and very difficult to be gotten, and this sharp winter many poor people have been in great danger of perishing by cold. The lord is holy in all his ways and righteous in all his works.

243 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Agriculture (10) ·
• Anglo-Dutch Wars (2), three conflicts 1652-1674 and one 1780-1784, all mainly naval ·
• Charles II (1630-85) (25), King of Scotland 1649-51, King of England, Scotland and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration until his death ·
• Coal (16) ·
• Crop (1) ·
• Dutch Republic (5) ·
• Fuel poverty (3) ·
• 📌Halifax (43) ·
• Heywood, Oliver (1630-1702) (34), Bolton-born nonconformist minister and diarist, active in the West Riding, resident at Northowram, ejected for his beliefs ·
• Hunger (9) ·
• Jacob van Ruisdael (1) ·
• 📌Kingston upon Hull (65) ·
• Little Ice Age (3) ·
• London (74) ·
• Maunder Minimum (1) ·
• Newcastle upon Tyne (8) ·
• 📌Northowram (14) ·
• Plough (3) ·
• Poverty (16) ·
• Second Anglo-Dutch War (3) ·
• Seed (1) ·
• Snow (16) ·
• Stuart Restoration (5) ·
• 📌York (164) ·

All tags.

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