Empty reservoirs, ladybirds and sunstroke: remembering the UK heatwave of 1976

The remains of the submerged village of Derwent in Derbyshire were exposed in the 1976 heatwave. Photograph: John Ellis/Guardian community The remains of the submerged village of Derwent in Derbyshire were exposed in the 1976 heatwave. Photograph: John Ellis/Guardian community Empty reservoirs, ladybirds and sunstroke: remembering the UK heatwave of 1976 As Britain reached its hottest June temperature on record, readers recall the summer when temperatures hit 36C The recent heatwave in the UK broke the previous June record of 35.6C, recorded during the 1976 heatwave . In Lingwood, Norfolk, a provisional temperature of 37.7C was recorded on Friday 26 June, breaking the previous record reached on 28 June 1976 and on 29 June 1957. We asked people to share their memories of the 1976 heatwave. How did they cope, and how did it compare with the 2026 heatwave? Here are some of their responses. ‘It was a shock to the country’ View image in fullscreen Margaret Waring in the summer of 1976. Photograph: Guardian Community “The context of the 1976 heatwave was very different,” says Margaret Waring, 87, from Cambridge. “We had a drought. It was a shock to the country because it had never happened like that before.” At the time of the heatwave, Margaret worked in Manchester teaching geography, meteorology and climatology in secondary schools. “I’d come home and then we would sometimes share a bath. We’d have to work out who would go in the bath first and not make it too dirty. I had two teenage children and a husband at that time. We didn’t have a shower. “We devised a siphoning system with a garden hose out of the bathroom window into a plastic bin lined for watering the vegetable patch. And the flowers and the grass were ignored. We also saved water from the washing machine.” Water aside, the current heatwave is more uncomfortable, says Margaret. “The heat didn’t seem to be as restricting as it is now. The high humidity and the temperature make it harder to cope. There’s a lot more pollution in the atmosphere. There has been an unbelievable change over the last 50 years. But you can come home and you can have one of three showers now.” ‘The reservoirs were empty’ View image in fullscreen John at his degree ceremony in 1976. Photograph: John Ellis/Guardian community John Ellis, 72, says sitting his finals at Oxford in full gown, shirt, jacket, heavy trousers, mortar board and bow tie during the heatwave of 1976 was “exhausting”. “The examination schools building was boiling,” he says. “It was Victorian, very tall, with a lot of light streaming in. We were allowed to take off our gowns only! We had nine papers between Thursday and Tuesday; it was intense.” Once his exams were over, John, who is a retired FE lecturer and is now a crime writer, headed back home to Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, to see the “reservoirs empty”, including Ladybower in Derbyshire, “just over the hill from Huddersfield”, and the “remains of long-flooded villages exposed” like Derwent.