Fifty years ago, Britain endured the driest summer for 200 years – and one of the hottest on record. On Thursday, the Daily Mail documented the great heatwave of 1976, when the temperature reached well over 30C, bringing in weeks of drought.
People were mobbed by swarms of heat-crazed ladybirds, water shortages meant the government imposed a hosepipe ban and a ‘minister for drought’ was appointed – however, schools and workplaces remained open.
When we asked readers what they did during that scorching summer, nearly 3,000 responded. Here are some of their memories:
I was ten years old in 1976, living on a
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