Basingstoke Flashback: The scorching summers of old

In July 1847, southern England suffered temperatures up to 98 degrees Fahrenheit (37 centigrade), which buckled a few railway lines due to the heat.

In 1892 it was reported that “a wave of intense heat passed over Europe, causing many deaths” on August 18.

In the year of King George V’s Coronation, in 1911, the temperature reached 94F and July had 372 hours of sunshine.

The driest year on record was 1921, when June was almost rainless and the dry conditions lasted into October.

In 1947, after a terrible winter of snow and ice which lasted three months, the summer turned out to be the driest and sunniest one for years.

But 1976 is probably the year that most people will remember, as temperatures rose to 95F, with hardly any rain falling for months.

The farmers were left wondering if they were going to have any crops worth collecting.

The 1945 Water Act was brought into use to ban all hosepipes for gardens and washing vehicles, but reservoir levels still kept on getting lower and lower.

In August 1976, Denis Howell, the sports minister, was asked to sort out the problems caused by the long summer, and the “Minister of Drought” went into action. Within a few weeks, downpours of rain brought an end to the months of hot sunshine.

Cooling down is the problem in heatwaves, and with the aid of ice-creams, paddling and swimming pools and cold drinks, most people find they can cope with the heat.

Ice-cream, as we know it today, was first introduced in France in the 18th century, and a chef from that country brought the idea to England.

Ice-cream parlours opened up in London, but their offerings were expensive.

Italian immigrants sold “street ices” from stalls in the roads in the summer, which were quickly accepted by those who worked in the city in the middle of the 19th century.

In 1851, over in America, Jacob Fussell, of Baltimore, introduced mass production of ice-cream with a special device and, soon, the world’s first ice-cream factory was in operation.

The invention was copied by others and the idea came to Britain, where it was improved and led to a new nationwide market in various types and flavours of ice-cream.

An old ice-cream van in Southend

In 1922, Thomas Wall, an English sausage-maker, became worried about his lack of sales in the summer months, so he decided to try his hand at ice-cream selling.

One of his staff suggested the use of specially-designed tricycles with small refrigerated containers in the front to sell ice-creams to people at seaside resorts.

This “Stop me and buy one” idea soon grew to some 8,500 salesmen pedalling around the streets of Britain by 1939, with six types of ice-cream for sale.

Eventually, other firms, such as Lyons and Eldorado, as well as Wall’s, sold their wares from shops and other outlets.

Meanwhile, in Basingstoke, people were enjoying their summers splashing about in the West Ham swimming pool, which had been opened for the public, near the newly-built waterworks, in 1906. With dozens of changing booths and a large pool, it was used on a regular basis by individuals and groups, including schools.

The swimming pool closed down in 1971, to make way for town development.

Swimming pools have been around since the mid-18th century, when an indoor pool was opened at Goodman’s Fields in London in 1742. The “Pleasure Bath” was 43 feet long and was kept warm and fresh every day, with a cold bath for summer.

The first open-air swimming pool in England was at Old Street, London, which was converted from an existing pond in 1743. With dressing booths and a screen of trees to protect bathers from the gaze of onlookers, it cost 30 shillings (£1.50) for an annual subscription, or one shilling (5p) for casual patrons.

For those who did not want ice-creams or swimming pools to cool off, there was an array of cold drinks of a non-alcoholic nature on sale at shops, such as lemonade, orange squash and various others under their trade names.

One of the latter was Tizer, a red fizzy drink, which was introduced in 1920 by Mr Fred Pickup from his factory in Manchester, under the name “Pickup Appetizer”.

Four years later it was renamed “Tizer”.

Youngsters in Britain enjoyed it in the 1940s and 1950s, but the mass marketing of American cola drinks did damage to his trade. In the 1980s the drink was relaunched with an advertising campaign which helped with their sales.

Whichever way we try to cool down in these hot summers, there is always the thought that within six months, we will be complaining about the English winter months, and wishing it was warm again!

This column has been updated and was originally published in The Gazette in July 2005. It was written by the late Robert Brown, a former photographer, columnist and historian at The Gazette. He wrote eight books on the town’s history and sadly passed away on March 25, 2019.