If today’s weather seems like another example of a diabolical Bank Holiday, take some comfort that worse has happened in the past.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Spring Bank Holiday, after it was divorced from the Whitsun holiday. In 2000 unrelenting rain in southern England reached up to 100mm (4in) and set off flooding in parts of East Anglia and the South East. In 1984 it rained almost the whole Bank Holiday weekend, and was also bitterly cold. A year later giant hailstones smashed greenhouses and crops in northwest Essex.

But the old Whitsun Bank Holidays could be even worse. On Whit Monday, 1944, a terrific cloudburst in Yorkshire set off a flashflood in Holmfirth valley that destroyed bridges, houses and factories, and killed three people.

Most dreadful of all was Whitsun in May 1891, when snow fell thick over Britain as far south as Bath and the Home Counties, and lay some 150mm (6in) deep around Norwich. Heavy, destructive hailstorms also broke out in many areas. “So raw and cold was the air over eastern and southern counties that it did not rise once above 42deg [6C] whether in London or Yarmouth,” reported The Times. “There was a constant succession of snow and hailstones.” Many places were also struck by severe frost that devastated orchards and many ground crops.