Origins of Weather Forecasting

 

 by Margaret Pearce

In October 1859, as a ferocious storm raged in the Irish sea, the steam clipper Royal Charter, was dashed onto the rocks off Anglesey, killing more than 450 people. A total of 133 ships were sunk in the storm at a cost of 800 lives.

Robert FitzRoy, the former captain of HMS Beagle, who had been appointed Meteorological Statis to the Board of Trade, wrote to the Times and explained that the storm had been predictable and sinking avoidable.

Barometer readings and other data could be collected and shared using the new technology of telegraphy.  Spurred into action, Fitzroy set up a network of 15 coastal stations to collect data for “weather forecasts” a term he had coined in 1863.  He also arranged for barometers to be installed in fishing harbours and for signals to be used to display weather warnings to ships.

Order in Court

 

by Jackie Hudson

ORDER IN COURT

Good morning everyone and welcome to the Dorset Quarter Sessions.  It seems rather appropriate that I spent a good deal of time researching and preparing my talk while sitting in the Shirehall courtroom where I am a volunteer.

If you are like me, even having spent most of my working life in law, albeit on the other side of the Atlantic, I was hazy about Quarter Sessions.

However, when I was given a book entitled ‘Dorset Quarter Sessions 1625 – 1638’ I couldn’t wait to dip into it.  In fact it was more like a full immersion.  This is the only book containing Dorset Quarter Sessions which remains from before the Civil War and it nearly didn’t survive but was purchased in 1898 from Sothebys by Wilkinson and Hodge, a law firm at a cost of 13 shillings, and donated to the county.  At that time of course it wasn’t contained in a neat albeit heavy book.  It was originally 642 hand-written parchment sheets.

So, let's learn a little about the antecedents of Quarter Sessions.