In 1865 when the guides only had 600 reporting stations nationally, Great Strickland was one of them; virtually there at the very infancy of rainfall recording!

  Plumer provided rainfall records for the period 1865-78 and this makes for a most interesting and valuable 14 year record - in 1878 Plumer is described in the guides as 'The late H. Plumer' and in the 1879 edition Great Strickland is shown as 'Obs ceased.'!

  In the 1867 edition there is a 'study of rain gauges within the Lake District and their results' and Plumer's is included in this year and despite just three years worth of data is accredited a mean rainfall of 38.0".

Plumer employed a gauge set at 1 ft 6" (until 1873 when it becomes just 1ft) above the ground and his site was 650 ft asl.

  I'm of the opinion that he did not read his gauge every day as the number of rain days that he records appears to be too low and as already mentioned above, this was quite common. When compared with the figures obtained by Mrs. Whiteside (1899-1917), shown below, then the number of 'Rain Days' recorded by Plumer do indeed seem to be on the low side.

  Plumer does submit some comments to the guides in relation to the year just passed:

  1865 - 'We have reason to think that high winds affects the quantity of rain which enters the gauge, there been a great deal more flood on a windy day, on which we registered a less quantity than there was on a calm day, on which we registered a greater quantity - does it blow over the gauge?

  It has been by far the driest year here for a long time, places being dried up which have never been so before in the memory of the oldest inhabitant, yet we had 36 inches of rain, but it was concentrated in a few months.'

  1868 - 'The driest May, June and July by far that I have ever recorded, and yet, owing principally to the extra ordinary fall in January and December, the total rainfall in the year is larger than any other that I have noticed.'

  1869 - 'This year, like 1868, has been divided into two strongly marked periods, the one dry, the other very wet, the result being in both cases that the total rainfall far exceeded the average.'

  1872 - 'The year 1872 (59.19) has been wetter by 10.82 in. than any year that I have recorded, and falling on 27 more days.'

  1873 - 'The driest year I have ever recorded, and, perhaps the coldest.'

 Maximum Falls in 24 Hrs for 1865-67.

For the period 1865-67 the guides listed the maximum fall for a 24 hour period for all of the reporting stations and hence, at least for Great Strickland and probably locally, we do know the wettest day for each of those years and strangely none occured in the winter months, they are:

  1865 -    1.78" (45.2 mm) - 29th May

  1866 -    1.25" (31.8 mm) - 29th August

  1867 -    1.07" (27.2 mm) - 23rd March

  The annual rainfall amounts for the years in which Plumer kept records are: