Parts of UK see 20-year lows

Steven Morris
The Guardian, Thursday 8 January 2009

Harbours froze over, balcony railings in Plymouth sheared away from a block of flats and a polar explorer arrived in London to test the ice in the fountains of Trafalgar Square as Britain endured the coldest snap for more than 20 years.
Benson in Oxfordshire survived the coldest temperatures overnight: -11.8C, the chilliest night there for 11 years. And in the fens, near Earith, Cambridgeshire people skated on frozen ponds.
Culdrose in south-west Cornwall had its second coldest night on record at -7.8C. Padstow harbour in north Cornwall froze over. In Plymouth, Devon, it fell to -7C, the coldest for 21 years.
Meanwhile, police in Devon were searching for a pensioner who claimed she had been forced to sleep in her car on Dartmoor after being evicted from her home. The woman, Robyn Field, telephoned a national radio programme.
Roads in many areas were treacherous. A man was killed when his car crashed down an embankment on the A299 near Faversham in Kent.
The polar explorer Pen Hadow, who is leading a team of scientists to test the thickness of the Arctic Ocean ice cap, was able to practise taking such measurements in Trafalgar Square.