Day Log/1888-02-29

In the last week of February, 1888, bad weather caused the suspension of operation of the Festiniog Railway, and its associated quarries.

Details

A TERRIBLE WEEK.

From all parts of England, as well as from the Continent, reports have been received of destructive gales and heavy falls of snow during the last week of February. Between Dover and Deal, as well as between the former place and Canterbury, the roads were rendered simply impassable by deep drifts. In Wiltshire two trains were snowed up. On the North-Eastern line, between Kirby Stephen and Barnard Castle, no less than five trains were blocked, and in some places the men sent to cut them out could not face the driving snow, whilst the snow ploughs proved useless against the drifts. Traffic on the Midland Railway was also seriously interrupted, and one train from Burton to Leicester had three carriages thrown off the line, and completely embedded in the snow, which was six feet deep. Happily no one was injured, and the train was eventually dug out. In the more exposed parts of the country as in East Kent and Derbyshire, the mail carts were not able to get through the snow. The driver of the mail gig from Sheffield to Castleton had to employ men in several parts of the road to cut a way through the snow, and the bags had to be put on the backs of the horses, which managed to mount the wreaths. On returning it was found that the paths cut in the morning had in several places been filled up again.

In Wales the severity of the weather was especially felt. In all the slate quarries work was suspended, and the narrow gauge Festiniog railway was completely blocked.

Over a thousand sheep and lambs are said to have perished in the mountain districts, and similar losses are reported from Derbyshire and Yorkshire, where the drifts are in some places more than six feet deep. Several deaths from exposure to cold have occurred in Wales, and ice accidents have caused the loss of several lives in Shropshire, Yorkshire, and other parts of the country. France, Switzerland, and Spain have also been swept by very heavy and destructive snowstorms. Around the coast storms raged with great fury, and both in the North Sea and the English Channel the mail boat encountered the most boisterous weather. In Dungeness Bay over four hundred vessels, of all nationalities, took refuge from the violence of the gale.