Goss crested porcelain models were a very popular tourist souvenir between 1858 and 1939. They carried the coat of arms of the places where they were sold. At one time it was said that at least 90% of English homes had at least one piece of Goss.

We have not done a scientific study to determine how accurate this Goss weather predicting horse is, but on the day the photograph was taken the horse’s tail was pointing upwards and it was hot and sunny.
Research reveals that the average person in England spends 45 hours a year talking about the weather, and during the last six hours 94% of the population will have discussed it. Honiton residents must have had plenty of weather chats over the centuries if the numerous accounts of extreme weather events are anything to go by.

In October 1753 torrential rain led to floods and several people and cattle were drowned. Many people had to be rescued from the roofs of their homes and houses, bridges, and hayricks in the town were swept away.

In April, 20 years later, Honiton had the finest spring weather ever known. Peas, beans, and corn were being harvested, grass was being mown and the farmers were about to start hay making.

In 1860 there was so much rain in one week that it caused part of the Honiton railway tunnel to collapse. Nine years later a terrible storm raged over the town. Tiles and bricks were stripped from buildings. The worst affected homes were in Silver Street. Mrs Stamp, a tailor’s wife had just put her son Edgar to bed when mortar and bricks fell down their chimney onto the bed, out through the wall into the street below. Their chimney stacks and 15 square feet of roofing had collapsed. Mr Stamp rescued his son, still asleep and took him to a neighbour’s house for safety.

For more than a week in March 1891 a blizzard brought the whole of the district to a total standstill. Lamp posts on St Michael’s Hill were completely covered in snow and in New Street the drifts were 20 feet high. For many days under the direction of Mr Berry, numbers of men with horses and wagons carted the snow away from the town to prevent flooding if there was a sudden thaw.

In May 1896 a drought continued for so long that the public water supply in Honiton was switched off daily at 4pm. There was another exceptional dry spell in June 1939, so the water supply was switched off at 6pm for half an hour to conserve it.

After three seasons of bad weather in 1879, the Bishop of Exeter encouraged people in Devon to pray. That same year a commentator wrote “The sooner the weather forecaster gets the sack, or is pensioned off and his office shut up, the better”.