History
LOST DORSET
NO. 19 SHERBORNE David Burnett, The Dovecote Press
T
here were two bitterly cold winters in the late 19th century, those of 1881 – ‘the Great Victorian Blizzard’ – and 1891– labelled the ‘Great Snowstorm’ by the press. During the former Sherborne was effectively cut off by heavy snow blown in by gale force winds. Streets became impassable. People had to be dug out of their homes, and a soup kitchen was set up to distribute 30 gallons of soup and bread a day. In 1891 the ice on Sherborne lake was thick enough to roast an ox on it, which once carved was given to the ‘poor and needy’. A notice was placed on the lodge gates and at the Digby Estate office in Cheap Street informing the townspeople that the ‘ice is bearing’.
54 | Sherborne Times | January 2022
