In February of 1855 Britain was deep in the midst of one of the coldest winters recorded.

Minus temperatures were reported from January to March. The nights were long and the conditions severe. In the early morning of the 9th

February, people across the rural southwest counties of England were waking up after another

night of heavy snowfall. As they went about their daily

chores, a steady rumbling began to roll through the small villages and across the

bleak farmlands. Rumors were spreading of a trail of prints in the snow, a trail which leapt

walls, climbed haystacks, walked on rooftops and seemed to extend for miles upon miles

across rivers and through towns.

Each step in the snow left a clove and hoof print,

yet it appeared that whatever left it had walked upright on two legs.

This is dark histories where the facts are worse than fiction.

The winter of 1855 was the third coldest winter ever recorded in Britain with average temperatures in February of

minus 5 degrees Celsius. Snow was reportedly falling until May and frosts were recorded right up until summer,

freezing the ground up to a foot deep.

In the city of Exeter, County of Devon,

the river Exi, had frozen over for so long that people skated atop the thick icy surface in their hundreds.

One of the more unusual newspaper reports from that February can be found in the Royal K Gazette dated the 23rd of February, 1855 and

red. A singular occurrence in gastronomic science was tried on Tuesday week on the ice in the center of the river

Exia St Thomas. The severity of the frost heavily coated the surface of the

river with a thick crust of ice capable of bearing several hundred persons who skated

and otherwise deported themselves thereon for hours near the bridge.

It occurred to Mr Vickory, Stove Manufacturer, 4th Street, that a dinner might be cooked

...