BOOK SURREY HOTELS

Kew Devastated by Ice-Fall

Kew, Surrey The 3rd of August 1879 AD

You would have thought that the plants outdoors at Kew Gardens were more at risk than those sheltered in its extensive glass-houses, but the glass that protects the rare and exotic species in its hot-houses ended up damaging many during a freak storm in August 1879.
That storm threw hailstones but also, rather more intriguingly, some substantial lumps of ice down upon the Richmond area, smashing so it is said some 3000 panes of glass in the Temperate House and another 700 in the Palm House at Kew, the localised storm which only lasted about five minutes causing £10000 worth of damage in that time – a small fortune in the late Victorian age.

More famous dates here

6059 views since 15th July 2011

Brit Quote:
In me the tiger sniffs the rose. - Siegfried Sassoon
More Quotes

On this day:
Tolpuddle Martyrs Sentenced - 1834, Argentine Forces land on South Georgia - 1982
More dates from British history

click here to view all the British counties

County Pages