Snows of Yesteryear: narrating extreme weather

This project, funded by the AHRC, will investigate how to reveal and relate past experiences, both historical and more recent, as ways of understanding and coping with phenomena increasingly regarded as markers of climate change. It will explore the ways that extreme weather events are remembered and mythologised by the people of Wales, in order to interpret what is ultimately learned from them as both warning and opportunity.

The project’s aims are:

• To research accounts of extreme weather events, specifically regional and national experiences of harsh winters, as they are recorded (e.g. in journals, dairies and literary and art works) and described from living memory (via interviews and web input).

• To research, devise and encourage creative approaches to the exposition of such data, to provide an historical context and understanding of ways that communities have experienced, responded to and survived extreme events through resilience and adaptability.

The project’s outputs will include:

• The creation of a live performance to be presented locally and nationally.

•The digitisation of a small selection of research materials form the archives of the National Library of Wales

• The creation of a sustainable website.

For more information regarding the project, please contact Cerys Jones.