author
John (Shepherd) Claridge
Known as the “Shepherd of Banbury,” this early weather writer became famous for turning years of practical observation into memorable rules for forecasting the sky. His name stayed in print for generations through a small, influential book of weather lore.
1 Audiobook
The Shepherd of Banbury's Rules to Judge of the Changes of the Weather, Grounded on Forty Years' Experience
by John (Shepherd) Claridge
About the author
John Claridge was an English shepherd associated with Banbury and remembered for The Shepherd of Banbury’s Rules to Judge of the Changes of the Weather. The work was first published in the seventeenth century and was built around signs of changing weather drawn from long experience in the field.
Later editions kept his name alive well beyond his own lifetime, and the book became one of the best-known examples of traditional English weather lore. Modern library and archive records still connect him with this practical forecasting tradition, showing how a local shepherd’s observations traveled far beyond rural Oxfordshire.
Very little biographical detail seems to be firmly documented beyond his identity as a shepherd and the enduring fame of his weather rules. What survives most clearly is his reputation as a careful observer of nature whose sayings were copied, reprinted, and remembered for centuries.