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Winter had a greater effect on the minds of our forefathers than it does on us: theirs was an agricultural society and throughout the land one sometimes comes across local names telling their own story: in Dorset is a river called the 'Winterbourne' , so named because it ran intermittently except in Winter; it gave its name to several villages. 'Winter Beck' is a stream in Leicestershire which flows only in winter. In Oxfordshire there is 'Winter Beer', a field name denoting barley planted in winter. Across the shires (although none noted in the Arrow Valley) 'winter close' and 'winter field' are common, meaning land used only in winter. These names may not apply now, for it is obvious that our weather has a habit 0f defying the seasons: this, however, is not surprising, for English weather has swung about over the centuries. Roughly speaking, the period 1490 to the 1860s was a cold spell, with particularly severe conditions in the l7th century: almost a mini Ice Age, but with warm years appearing when least expected. Our recent moderate winters will have fooled nobody, for we know that at any time Britain could be held in the grip of an icy spell: the winter of 1962/63 is still remembered and older people in this area cannot have forgotten the ice-floes which congregated round Oversley Bridge in 1940.
Weather scientists measure these things over long periods but it is not an exact science and whether we are heading for another mini ice age or a period of relative warmth, helped by the 'global warming' so often forecast, nobody really knows. England has indeed had warm spells in the historical period:
In the l2th century, for example, southern England was covered with vines, suggesting hot summers and mild winters. Here in the Arrow Valley someone established a vinery by the side of Gunnings Bridge; the date is uncertain but probably early on in the l8th century when the l7th century cold spell had retreated.
It is true what someone once said 'that England doesn't have a climate; it has weather'.