Weather
Ever wondered why architect William Wynde designed Belton House with so many chimneys, 64 of them in the mansion alone? We can work out why using Warming Stripes.
are a simple colour coded way of presenting climate change developed by Professor Ed Hawkins, Lead for Public Engagement, Department of Meteorology, University of Reading. Conceived to use colour alone to intuitively convey global warming trends.
The Hadley Central England Temperature
is the longest continuous temperature record in the world. It begins with the year 1659 and continues to whatever the complete year is, currently 2020. It reflects climate in the red triangular area in the Midlands – near to Belton.
For warming stripes, the average annual temperature for the 362 year period is calculated and each year's temperature is represented either as a blue gradient if lower, or a red gradient if higher, than that average. The intensity of colour shows how cool or warm that year was.
We can use this to visually inspect the temperature at the time Belton was designed, circa February 1684 when building began (Julian calendar. But 1685 if using the Gregorian calendar begun in 1752).
Annual warming stripes Central England Temperature, yellow arrow the year construction of Belton began.
London, January 4, 1709.
My ink has been fros, and tho I writ with it as it comes boiling from the fire, it's white.
Peter Wentworth writing to his brother Lord Raby
The period when Belton was conceived and built was cooler than average. Termed the Little Ice Age, the Thames would freeze over supporting frost fairs. A well recorded frost fair occurred in the winter of 1683 to 84. Activities included horse and coach racing and ice skating. It is apparent that there is progressive warming since the 1980s. This pattern is reflected globally.
Colen Campbell's 1715 Vitruvius shows Belton as it originally was with a balustraded viewing platform to admire the integral garden layout, a signature feature of Wynde. His Buckingham House for the Duke of Buckingham featured one; now Buckingham Palace. Walpole relates how with arrears of payments on that house, Wynde enticed the Duke up to the platform to enjoy the grand prospect. Once there he locked the trap-door and threw the key to the ground saying,
I am a ruined man, and unless I have your word of honour that the debts shall be paid I will instantly throw myself over. And what is to become of me? asked the Duke. You shall come with me.
A promise was given and the trap-door unlocked by a workman in on the subterfuge (Lafever 1856).
The rainfall record for nearby Lynden in Rutland runs continuously from 1760 to 1829. It exposes a trend to increasing rainfall. Confirmed by the Oxford record running from 1827 to present. The suggestion is that Belton's viewing platform when built was drier than it is today.
Make your own stripes for any continuous data, temperature, sea level rise, rainfall, sunshine ...