As Britain bakes in record-breaking temperatures, much mention has been made in the news and on social media of the long, hot summer of 1976.
Nearly five decades on, those scorching eight weeks of unbroken sunshine reside in the collective memories of everyone who lived through the time. The sun blazed in cloudless skies over Britain from the last week in June, right through July, until the final few days of August.
Millions of us soon began flocking to the seaside and the countryside, and sunbathing in parks and back gardens. Newcastle ice cream firm Mark Reay took on extra staff and upped their order of ingredients to cope with the rocketing demand for ice cream and lollies.
