Tag: Twentieth century

• The war dead and the rise of Labour: did the places that lost most men turn left?

  

  I set the names on Britain’s First World War memorials against every election from 1906 to 1924. Places with more names swung less to Labour, not more.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  Britain, elections, Electoral results, First World War, history, political parties, Twentieth century, UK, war

• What are the odds of a white Christmas where you live?

  

  Every Christmas Day from 1940 to 2025 in 116 UK towns. Snow lay on about 1 in 11, from never in Bournemouth to most years in the Highlands, and white Christmases arrive in a few big years.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  Britain, cities, Present day, Scotland, Seasons, Twentieth century, UK, weather and climate

• Did Beeching’s cuts make places vote Leave?

  

  3,206 railway stations closed between 1955 and 1975. The places that lost them voted Leave in 2016, but compared with similar places that kept their trains, they voted no differently.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  Brexit, Chance test, elections, Present day, railways, Twentieth century, UK

• UFOs, big cats and Nessie: what explains where people see them?

  

  1,905 UK UFO reports, 1,145 Loch Ness sightings and 44 police forces’ replies about big cats, tested against people, skies, air bases, seasons and the news. The ordinary explanations win.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  Britain, Data bias, folklore, Present day, Scotland, Twentieth century, UK

• Waterloo Road and the clock in the streets

  

  Victorian builders named streets after the latest victory. I mapped every UK street named after a battle: 367 Waterloos, 340 Almas, and in 53 of 75 towns the later battles lie farther from the centre. A clock in the streets, if a slow one.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  Battles, Britain, cities, Commemoration, Georgian, OpenStreetMap, place names, Street names, Twentieth century, UK, Victorian, war