On this Day in 1776

Big Freeze - January 1776

Jan. 26. - In the evening, a heavy fail of snow came on at Newcastle and the neighbourhood, which continued almost without intermission all that night and the next day, which was thrown into such dreadful drifts on the high roads in the country, as to render most of them totally impassable, so that the market day in Newcastle did not exceed even the ordinary number of people in the streets on any other day in the week. The frost became so very intense, that those country people residing within a few miles of the town, who surmounted every obstacle to get to market, had their eyes apparently frozen up. The river from Newburn, to about two miles below bridge, was totally frozen and fixed; and hundreds of people were walking and skating thereon every day. Two women going from Newcastle market home, were so fatigued by the deep snow, and benumbed by the frost, that they were obliged to take shelter in a house on the road, at Loosing hill, near Whickham, where they both died in a few hours. The same day a fisherman was found in the snow between Trimdon and Morton moors. A poor fellow, Ralph of Winlaton, well known for selling rods and walking sticks in Newcastle, perished in the snow between Swalwell and Winlaton. The same night, two farmers going from Newcastle to the neighbourhood of Earsdon, were lost on Killingworth-moor; their horses were found next day.

From: T Fordyce, J. Sykes. Local records; or, Historical register of remarkable events which have occurred in Northumberland and Durham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Berwick-upon-Tweed..., published 1867

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