Weather records kept by Soham woman need new home

A new home is being sought for the meticulous weather records kept by a woman for 55 years.

Betty Mann recorded the lunchtime temperature in the shade in her garden in Soham, Cambridgeshire, each day, starting on Boxing Day in 1962.

She made her final entry on 20 February 2018, aged 83. She died later than night from a stroke.

Her daughter Brenda Renshaw is hoping someone will find the records of scientific value.

Mrs Renshaw said her mother owned a plant nursery so needed to know the daily temperature, and filled about 17 books with her weather records.

The first is now a shabby and slightly delicate diary that came free with a magazine.

"Mum had begun growing plants in the garden and wanted to monitor the weather," Mrs Renshaw explained.

"Later they had a nursery so needed to know if the plants needed heat, but she and dad were always very interested in the weather anyway - they were country people."

"She was dedicated to it. Every day at one o'clock the temperature was recorded, and later on she added the rainfall as well."

It started in "the very cold winter of 1962 when my mum and dad were very concerned about the weather conditions", she said.

In her first entry, Mrs Mann wrote: "Very cold. There's snow on the ground. 26F."

Mrs Renshaw said all temperatures were written in Fahrenheit and that her mother never missed a single day.

She said her parents did not go on holiday and if she had to go out, Mrs Mann would insist her husband Roy - or occasionally the children - take the temperature.

"But we'd often put something we shouldn't in the book, like, 'Oh, it's really miserable today' or 'We're really happy and chasing butterflies'," she said

Mrs Renshaw is slowly going through all her mother's diaries. "It's quite remarkable, looking back," she said.

"We'd love to find someone who can put this information to good use - that would be lovely. I can't just throw them away."