Betty Bean, 61, regaled all who would listen with stories of how “When I were a lass, we had frost on the inside of the windows!”

Meanwhile, Jake Neskini, 22, said he had had enough of hearing about “ice on the Thames” from his parents.

It is thought that any adverse weather automatically triggers a response in those over fifty, who then feel compelled to inform their assorted descendants about how they’ve “never had it so good”. As well as the classic ice on the inside of the windows and the Thames freezing solid, other favourites include “the time it was so foggy you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face but still went to work” and “that month when it rained for twenty-eight days and we had to swim eight miles to school”.

Historians said that few of the stories had been proven, but that over-fifties had a great capacity for “mis-remembering” details. Dayve Cheesington, an Expert Scientist from Longsands School’s new Ernulf campus, said that he intended to look into the situation more deeply. “If you speak to my nan you get the impression that in the 1940′s, Britain was permanently under an icy lake of foggy water, but of course they ‘muddled through’. I think this is pure bollocks of the ‘A-levels were harder in my day’ variety.”

Cheesington will be interviewing anyone over fifty who can remember their own name accurately within the next few weeks.

However, a study by the Chinese Whispers Distribution Depot has revealed that 62% of these are completely fictional, and the rest are lavishly embellished.

CWDD spokesman Beatty Broadband said, “As you know if there’s a rumour in St Neots that we didn’t start, we investigate it fully to decide whether it’s worth continuing. Hearing all these stories about fog got us thinking about how many were utter rhubarb.”

Broadband was shocked to find out that, amongst other things, Peter Bellingham, 41, of Parkway, had never accidentally driven into the river; Mavis Reerendum, 86, of Cambridge Gardens, had never parked in the centre of the road ten feet short of her garage “thinking she was home”; and HGV driver Simon Paul, 50, had never driven “all the way from Cambridge to Harrow at 85mph, unable to see more than three foot ahead.”

In fact, says Broadband, the only fog stories which did turn out to be true involved people getting pulled over by the police the next evening after accidentally leaving their fog lights switched on. “It’s quite disappointing really. I thought we had some really interesting misty mishaps in St Neots, but it turns out we live amongst over twenty thousands pathological liars.”