David Goldsmith, snow writer

In 1966 the British writer Colin Fraser published a landmark book called The Avalanche Enigma, which recounted remarkable tales of avalanches and terrifying winters across the Alps. Enigmatically, in mentioning the most deadly avalanche ever to occur in the UK, he devoted only two paragraphs to a disaster in Lewes in East Sussex which killed eight people in the morning of 27 December 1836.

170 years later I took the trigger from Fraser’s ‘enigma’ and decided to investigate the Lewes Avalanche in all its dimensions: its causes, its consequences and the rich historical context of the incident. From a background in snow writing since 1978 (as a recently qualified ski instructor writing the first UK articles on snowboarding) I decided on a historian’s tack by sticking to corroborated facts as closely as possible.  I wanted to get to the guts of the story by focusing on the people who died or were rescued alive, or were left without the loved ones they had known only seconds before the snow destroyed their homes.

Reconstructing the story of the Lewes Avalanche quickly led me to the UK’s national newspaper library – British Library Newspapers – which is sited (at least at present) only 25 minutes bike ride from my home in NW London. Within ten minutes of starting the research, and with the aid of the superb librarians in the building, I hit upon an obscure reference of extraordinary significance (but which took me a year to recognise as such).

The fun had begun!

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The second step of the research, on 5 November 2006, took me to the pub in Lewes – the Snowdrop Inn – which stands on the site of the seven terraced cottages destroyed in the avalanche. ‘The Fifth’ is an elemental day in Lewes for other reasons – a night of fire, explosions and pyrotechnics – but that particular Fifth afforded me a chance overnight encounter at Brighton youth hostel. On the morning of 6 November I breakfasted with the Jones family and met Debby Jones, one of Britain’s most skilled genealogists. Debby was immediately entranced with the mysteries of the Lewes Avalanche and has devoted herself to uncovering the lives of those most closely affected by the disaster. Key facts in the book will result from this research and may result in at least one follow-up book.  The book about the avalanche, and the snowstorm that caused it, will be published in 2010.