Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow.

Well here it is folks. The first decent snowfall of the year (if my memory serves me correctly.)

I don’t know if you are like me, but when the snowflakes start to fall there’s a sort of hushed expectancy, and the wonderful thing is that once the ground has become covered, all around there is a wonderful quality of quiet in the air.

I took Ruby for her final walk of the evening and she was just a bit puzzled at the cold white stuff on the ground, but it didn’t stop her sniffing her way up and down the road. There was a definite trail where her nose had poked along the ground. It looked as though a miniature snow plough had moved along the causeway. By the time we got back home it was a case of Ruby the white nosed Labrador (now where have I heard similar words to that before?)

I received an e mail from one of my male voice choir members this morning, and learnt that the words of the Christmas Hymn “Christians Awake” were actually written as a poem for a little girl called Dolly Byrom.

Here’s the full story:-


Few of those who join on Christmas Day singing “ Christians, awake, salute the happy morn”, have any idea that the Christian Church owes this magnificent hymn to the pretty fancy of a young girl. Dolly Byrom and her father lived in Manchester, more than two and a half centuries ago, John Byrom (1692—1763) being a teacher of shorthand and also a Jacobite leader.

One day, shortly before Christmas, Byrom asked his daughter what she would like for a Christmas present, and Dolly, knowing that her father sometimes wrote poetry, replied “ Please write me a poem”. When she came down on Christmas morning she found on her plate a piece of paper -- which is still preserved in the library of Cheetham’s Hospital Manchester -- on which was written a hymn, headed “Christmas Day, For Dolly” (what we know as the first two verses)

Soon after, John Wainwright (1723 -- 68 ), the organist of Manchester Parish Church now its cathedral, saw this hymn, and composed the tune “Yorkshire” (originally called Stockport ) which we all know so well. On the following Christmas morning Byrom and his daughter were awakened by the sound of singing below their windows: it was Wainwright with his choir, singing Dolly’s hymn.

Wainwright’s son Robert (1748—82 ) wrote the hymn tune “Manchester”. His other son Richard ( 1758—1825 ) wrote the hymn tune “Liverpool”. Both sons were organists at Manchester Cathedral.

Back to the weather though. As of 18.30 Thursday one or two centimetres of snow have been reported in many areas of the Midlands and the east of England, as well as parts of the south and east Scotland. There have also been reports of several cm of snow, mainly across the Pennines and the North York Moors. Tonight the heaviest snow is likely to be over the E and SE of England.

The temperature seems to be set to stay below freezing for the next four or five days, (-4 on Friday night) with light snow showers on Thursday and Friday and early on Monday it is predicted we will be getting a heavy fall of snow. In fact the forecast for BD16 area is snow almost every day right through to Boxing Day! I just hope we manage to get up to Masham on the 28th!