This week I came across the sad story of The Snowdrop Inn in Lewes. Whilst you might assume that the inn takes its name from the local snowdrop growing industry, nothing is further from the truth and it actually commemorates a natural disaster in the town.
On the 27th December 1836 Lewes was gripped by a terrible snowstorm that had been raging since before Christmas. Many roads in the South East were impassable and the mail had been unable to get through 10ft snowdrifts for days.
The present Snowdrop Inn stands in the shadow of a cliff and was once the site of a row of workers' cottages. Snow had piled on the clifftop for a week and, on the morning of the 27th, the pile gave way, bringing an avalanche of snow and rocks down on to the houses.
Townspeople spent a day digging families out but there were eight fatalities. When the inn was built it was named to commemorate the rare event of an avalanche in Britain. For the full story from Secret Britain, click here
0 comments:
Post a Comment