With the UK currently basking in glorious sunshine, we’ve been searching The Archive to find photographs and stories that show how our ancestors celebrated the arrival of hot weather.

We’ve found some terrific images and reports which prove that, when it comes to carousing in the sun, nothing much has changed in the UK over the past 100 years.

One thing that struck us about many of these photos was how heatwaves in the UK bring out the kid in all of us. So the photo from the ‘Western Morning News’ (26.8.1936) of sun-drenched adults taking part in a human wheelbarrow race on Perranporth beach in Cornwall will make many people chuckle knowingly.

That said, the most joyful of the summertime photos are those that show kids building sandcastles, messing about in boats, wrestling hosepipes, riding donkeys and splashing about in the sea and in paddling pools. So we loved this photo from the ‘Evening Telegraph’ (2.7.1926) of children working on a major sandcastle-construction project at Broughty Ferry beach.

So far, however, our favourite images are the ‘before and after’ photos of adults and kids in Dundee on a sweltering day in 1938 (published in the ‘Dundee Courier’ on 2.8.1938). The ‘before’ photo shows a long queue of Dundonians, patiently waiting for the next bus to Broughty Ferry. But what a transformation in the ‘after’ photo! For the second photo perfectly captures the bliss of playing with friends on a sandy beach on a perfect summer’s day. After all, what compares with a summer’s day?

Click on the link below to view the newspaper page for FREE and to see the joyful scenes of kids paddling in the River Tay at Broughty Ferry in 1938.

If you see any other terrific photos of people enjoying hot weather during your journey through The Archive, please give us a shout on Twitter or Facebook.