Daily Mail
"We are supposed to be heading for the coldest winter in 30 years — but how does it measure up against the great chills of history?There was no central heating to keep Britons warm between the 1500s and mid-1800s, a period known as ‘The Little Ice Age’.This name was coined to tie together all the different global cooling events which took place, which produced the very coldest series of British winters for millennia.The years 1684, 1740 and 1863 were particularly grim.During this period, deep frosts were the norm, and the most bizarre sign of the times was London’s legendary Frost Fair - a carnival of bear-baiting, gambling and ice skating which took place on the Thames whenever it froze.The longest Frost Fair was in the bleak winter of 1684 when the river froze for two solid months.The ground froze, too, so no ploughing or planting of crops could take place.Although no official Frost Fair is recorded before 1608, people have long played on the icy Thames.King Henry VIII visited the river when it froze in 1536, travelling in a sleigh down from Westminster to Greenwich."
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