In January 1795, a fleet was captured by cavalry. The Dutch warships frozen in at Den Helder were taken by French hussars on the ice.

That is one strand of Britain’s hardest winter of the revolutionary wars. There was also a failed army in Flanders, treason trials at home, a Great Frost that stopped river traffic, and bread prices that pushed ordinary families toward hunger. Out on the Humber coast, a parish had to decide who would stay awake and watch.

The Winter of Iron is out now, 32 minutes.