The winters of 1947 and 1963

[Amiguru]

As a five-year-old at the time I remember the 46-47 winter vividly. We lived at Cleethorpes then and for the Meggies and Yellow-bellies among us, I can recall crossing the bridge over the railway at Fuller St. and going onto the foreshore to find the sea frozen solid for several hundred yards out. The surface of the ice was very rough where it had probably frozen while waves were still moving in and breaking over the already frozen bits. The snow on the main road to Grimsby was compacted into ice by the trolley buses which eventually managed to get through leaving ridges and troughs which seemed like mountain ranges to a five-year-old! Due to the compaction and freezing of course, trying to cross was particularly hazardous. The very last of the snow did not disappear there until early June, then it became a really 'proper' blazing June.

Many thanks for this thread which brought back kind of fond memories of those tough times; remember rationing was still in operation and coke was the cheapest fuel available in towns.

Thanks particularly to Hornbeam for reminding me of the frozen school milk. I still have one of those 1/3 pint bottles which I excavated some years ago. They were wide-necked and had a cardboard insert with a pre-punched finger hole for opening.

[Amiguru]

Here is page of hyperlinks regarding both winters:

www.winter1947.co.uk

[PMG]

I too was ten years old in 1963. I vividly remember the school bus (school was on the other side of Darwen to where we lived) couldn't get up Hollins Grove Street. He had several goes at it and the bus slithered sideways and back - I was on the front seat as usual - hanging onto the metal grabrail and knew even at that age the incline would defeat him! The conductor invited us all to get off and my peers set off walking towards school in deep snow wearing only little black lace up shoes.

Yours truly headed back for home! And got her wellies on, collected our eager to go out Corgi and set off for a day out. We walked and struggled for miles around the hills on 'our' side of town, rescuing birds and other stuff as we went. The poor Corgi slept for a week when we got back as she had to jump the whole episode - her little short legs would not allow her to walk thro the drifts!! I very nearly got lost that day and it was close on dark when I finally returned home (nothing new about this actually - I've been lost going on darkness many times since the day I learned how to walk!) My mother says I was a nightmare, she had only to glance away from me for a second and I had gone . . . and little has changed in that respect in the past 50+ years!!!

Pauline

[Pete Collins]

This is a great thread, lovely memories and stories! I was five years old in the hard winter of 1963, and I have a few very vague memories of it. I remember being walked to school through our village on top of the Chiltern Hills - people had shoveled a clear path through the snow, but the snow either side of the path was above my head. The school was closed for several days, and some days the village was effectively cut off as the roads down the steep hills either end of the village were impassable. If it was like that here in the south, goodness knows what it was like up north and in Scotland! According to my parents, 1947 was far worse.

[phyzzio]

I well remember 1963 when I was 12. We were at school in Ringwood in Hampshire and the main sewers froze so we had lots of time off school. My brother built me a sledge on boxing day when it started to snow, and I was still using it on my birthday on 8th March.

[epops]

I don't remember 63 cause i was only 1 but me dad told me how he delivered milk and bread round the local villages with his brother using a tractor and trailer untill the eventually took on more than they could handle and got the tractor stuck in the snow and had to come back to the farm where we lived and got grandad and a couple of horses to pull out the tractor then carried on the delivery using the horses and a make shift trailer

[sleepinabox]

I was also 10 years old in 1963 (1953 must have been a good year!) and can remember how my Dad had to dig a path to our back gate so he could go to work at 6 am but by the time my sister & I were due to leave for school at about 8:30 am we were snowed in again!!
My Mum can remember 1947 and relates a story about how it was so cold that it cracked the glass in the big clock on the wall - to this day it has a big crack right down the middle!

Rose

[sleepinabox]

Just thought of something else .... I can also recall snow in May in Warwickshire in one of the years between 1979 - 1982 not sure which. We had a large Horse Chestnut tree in our village and it the snow and cold wind killed of all the flowers and foliage on the windward side of the tree which looked a bit odd for the rest of that year.

Rose

[Cashie]

I can remember 63, I was 11 & my dad was a bricklayer he said the frost went 3-4 feet into the ground so none of them could work.

I can remember Stanley park lake in Blackpool freezing so thick that there were hundreds of people skating on it & it didn;t even buge a bit.

Eeeeeeeee those were the days!


Paul

[epops]

Originally Posted by sleepinabox

Just thought of something else .... I can also recall snow in May in Warwickshire in one of the years between 1979 - 1982 not sure which. We had a large Horse Chestnut tree in our village and it the snow and cold wind killed of all the flowers and foliage on the windward side of the tree which looked a bit odd for the rest of that year.

Rose

that just reminded me of aday in june sometime in the seventies sitting in an english class at school staring out the window and watching it snow !

[ChrisJB]

Thank you everybody for contributing your memories. I've just got back from a fortnight away (above the Arctic Circle, looking for some decent snow and low temperatures!)and there are several new memories to enjoy. Keep them up!

Regards, Chris

[naturelover]

Originally Posted by smartie

I wish you hadn't started this thread - I was 13 in the winter of 1963 but I can't remember anything unusual about it. Or anything about 1963 at all, really. It's worrying me no end - I knew I was losing brain cells but surely there should be something in the memory banks I've got my MiL staying with me. I'll ask her tomorrow morning what I should be remembering.

your worried i was born 1946 and i cant remember a thing about 1963,i would have been 17 years old.

[colincurry]

I was 8 in 1947. I can remember my father slipping on the ice on the path around our house and breaking his leg. I had to stay with neighbours whilst my mother went to the hospital to see him and we boys watched the snow sliding off the roofs opposite. Another abiding memory from that afternoon, not for the squeamish, and you will see why it still sticks in my mind -there were three of us including my friend's elder brother. He thought he was entertaining us by hanging a piece of bacon rind from his nose. Sorry, but I thought I would share my nausea with you. We lived on a steep hill and there was little traffic in those days and not much of it could cope with the snow. Sledging was the thing. We started off on tin trays and then tried to build sledges from old lumber and chestnut fence posts. The best sledges were made using the chrome chassis from one of the old Tansad (I think it was) prams with a flat piece of wood fixed across the top. I loved this. One morning, my mother told me not to go out without two pairs of socks on. I put two on my left foot but could only find one for the right and I dare not disobey my mother who had a very short fuse and was very physical with it. It took me the best part of an hour to figure out that I did have four socks - three on one foot and one on the other! (I have not improved with age). We used to sledge down a narrow steep path that came out on the main road where the occasional bus was still running. Nobody seemed to bother about this and the trick was turn right or left immediately one reached the bottom of the path. We lost nobody - talk about health and safety!

I too remember the lack of central heating and carpets. Neither did we have that many clothes as everyone was much poorer in those days. Everything was rationed. Ice on the inside of bedroom windows was the norm. We had one coal fire that heated everything about 18 inches in front of it, leaving the rest of the room stone cold. Talk about the good old days.

I got married in the Spring of 1963 and the only thing I can recall about the winter was snow piled over head height at each side of the road as I went to work. I certainly didn't go sledging.

Colin

[Peter W]

I was 15 in the winter of 1963 and lived near the Thames at Hampton Court, like an earlier respondent. I can recall that the frost and snow was continuous in the area from the end of December to the second week in March, and that for many weeks the daytime temperature did not rise above freezing. There were a number of snowfalls that fell on top of previously unmelted snow that gave an onion like appearance if you cut through from the surface.

As was said earlier, the Thames froze over and someone drove a car across it at Windsor. At Hampton there was a need to get coal barges through to Hampton Waterworks which was still steam powered, and they fitted ice-breaking steel plates to the front of the tugs so that a channel could be kept open in the centre of the Thames.

The ground temperature was reported as -1c at 1 foot below the surface and vegetables such as parsnips had to be harvested with pickaxes.

In Surrey in the Leith Hill area many of the sunken lanes were buried to field level by well over 15ft of drifting snow.

Amidst all this, most of us didn't have central heating and opening the curtains each morning to see the pictures left on the inside of the bedroom window by 'Jack Frost' provided some entertainment to help us keep going!

[clover green]

The harsh winter of 1947 was particularly hard because rationing was still in force, so it wasn't just the case of ordering more coal/coke/oil, etc. Also the same for clothing? It must have been so difficult? You couldn't just go out & buy a thick warm overcoat. In those days many women knitted their own jumpers, (if they could get the wool), though many would recycle their old ones by unpicking the wool and then knitting something new. They were very resourceful in those days, also uncomplaining and stoical! Not like today's whingers & moaners.

[Interpreter]

Originally Posted by clover green

The harsh winter of 1947 was particularly hard because rationing was still in force, so it wasn't just the case of ordering more coal/coke/oil, etc. Also the same for clothing? It must have been so difficult? You couldn't just go out & buy a thick warm overcoat. In those days many women knitted their own jumpers, (if they could get the wool), though many would recycle their old ones by unpicking the wool and then knitting something new. They were very resourceful in those days, also uncomplaining and stoical! Not like today's whingers & moaners.

Nothing was wasted. Old coats were made into rugs. Fruit was bottled. Everybody queued for everything. Most of us were from one parent families, as our Fathers were away fighting the enemy for five or six years. But people helped each other at that time. It could have been a heyday for burglars, because every house had the front door key hanging on a string through the letterbox so that the kids could get in. I never heard of anyone being burgled.
A different time: a different people.

[John]

Originally Posted by Interpreter

A different time: a different people.

It's a crying shame but I doubt if that will ever return. The bond created in the neighboured in back then just does not exist nowadays (well it might do in the odd small pocket). Life is too fast paced and generally people are not trustful of one another.

Hopefully the bad winters from back then will not return either.

John

[clover green]

Originally Posted by Interpreter

Nothing was wasted. Old coats were made into rugs. Fruit was bottled. Everybody queued for everything. Most of us were from one parent families, as our Fathers were away fighting the enemy for five or six years. But people helped each other at that time. It could have been a heyday for burglars, because every house had the front door key hanging on a string through the letterbox so that the kids could get in. I never heard of anyone being burgled.
A different time: a different people.

A different era too! So many changes in just 50 -60 years, not all for the better. Life was very hard back then and I believe people were more contented and grateful for their lot, unlike today's!
No values, no community spirit! Gosh I am beginning to sound like my Nan,lol.

[ron1863]

I was ten in 1963 and remember it well - brilliant as we sledged all day, had snowball fights and could play safely, as the only vehicles about were council lorries trying to clear the roads and spread grit.

[LUPUS]

I can remember 63 very well. I can even remember the birds they were dying all over it was awful. I was only 10 and got more than one barking for taking birds into the school to warm em up a bit before releasing em. I expect most of em still died the Head caught me with a WOODCOCK it was beautiful it was the first I had ever seen, he chased me out of the school and it was still on a chair by the radiator last time I saw it often wonder what he did with it.

[snowdrop]

Back in '47 and previous years if the man of the house was laid off through bad weather he had to apply for aid to the parish, or the UAB, now known as the dole, who gave you nothing for a few weeks as a spur to finding work. In winter the men were given snow-clearing work but you had to supply your own shovel, no shovel..no work, no work..no handout.
On a lighter note, as a child how I loved watching Jack Frost breathing different patterns on the bedroom windows and the silent snow building up outside. It vexed my mum to find me blue with cold watching this miracle falling out of the sky, from the back yard 'lavvy'.

[fleur]

Some lovely memories brought back to me reading the posts here. I remeber '63 very well. We lived in Cranleigh at the start of the Winter finishing off in Esher for the remainder. Snow drifts everywhere, no school loved it!! Lots of extra coats on the bed at night to keep warm. The ice on the inside of the bedroom windows and not wanting to get up in the mornings as the bathroom was soooo cold! Can relate to lots of the comments from other members so nice to recall that stage of my life. Hopefully it won't be that bad this year as I'm in the 'grumpy old women' stage now!!
Fleur
x

[badger426]

I remember 1963, no central heating, one coal fire in the whole house, frost on the inside of the windows, army greatcoats on the bed, frozen glasses of water in the morning, sigh those were the days!

[briar rose]

I was born in the winter of 1963, so no I don't remember anything about either of them

[Hobjob]

I was born on 18th April 1947.

There was still snow on the ground and the thaw had not started,
so my Mother told me.

I remember 63 quite well too. IRC it wasn't so much the amount
or length of the snow, but the persistent frost and the persistent
frozen fog - it prevent playing football for weeks on end.

There was some amazing hoar frost on the hedgerows.