The winters of 1947 and 1963

[ChrisJB]

Dear Folks,

Does anyone have any memories or tales from these two severe winters? My dear old grandad would recount tales of winter hardship here in SE Lancashire, from these two years, when I was a kid and they have stayed with me ever since. With our miserable winters today, I would love to experience one like them!

I have pretty decent memories of 1979 and it seemed a hard one to me, but my grandad said it was 'nowt compared to a 47er'.

Regards, Chris

[Paul mabbott]

That would be 1946-47 ... don't know if it was colder than more recent winters but it would certainly have felt colder because people didn't have central heating, double-glazing or even so many clothes at that time!

[ChrisJB]

From what I was told, 1947 had terrible blizzards, with colossal amounts of snow. 1963 was more infamous for it's bone -chillingly sub zero temperatures for weeks.

Both sound magic! In reality, I'd probably be snivelling after a week and crying for my mam!

Regards, Chris

[eeyore]

my old dear always claims that there was so much snow in lincolnshire that year that it burried a train - but i have always been a bit sceptical about that - tho as i wasnt born til '73 i'm not really qualified to comment.

[Garden Carpet]

I remember pictures on television (1963) of people cut off in the snow and food being dropped to them. I lived in scotland at the time and had a glorious time sledging etc... being only a gal at that time...
jaki

[Tursiops2]

I remember the winter of 62-63. I was nine. We lived at East Molesey, on the Thames near Hampton Court. For the first time in centuries, the Thames froze over, and our Dad took me and my little sister for a walk across the frozen river at Hampton Court Bridge. It was a magical experience and the memory is one of the most vivid of my childhood.

I also remember, that winter, going tobogganing down the side of the Hog's Back in Surrey. There were some local kids there, but rather than a wussy wooden toboggan like ours, they had this huge great sheet of corrugated iron, bent up at the end, which seated about four people at a time. We had a few goes on that . My cousin was with us, and one of my favourite memories of him was watching him come off the toboggan (ours) at the bottom of the hill, head first into a snow drift, and hang there, suspended upside down, head buried, for a good 30 seconds before falling over. I creased myself. He's now something substantial in the Foreign Office.

Tursiops2

[kathrynat]

I was born during the severe winter in 1963 and had to born at home as a result. When I was older my parents told me that in 1963, the estuary close to our home froze over. There were photos in the local paper of people standing on the frozen river close to a railway bridge.I still live in the area, and the estuary has never frozen since.

[John]

I remember the winter of 62 / 63 in a bit of a bad way. I was a steam engine fireman and had been firing a Black Five engine on a goods train to Sheffield. The weather started to close in badly and we were pulled into a siding whilst they let a few passenger trains through first. The trouble was that the snow was coming down that heavy that the tracks soon started to disappear under the snow. By the time the signals went up to let us out we were well under snow. We started to pull out of the sidings (we were well back from the points) and the snow started to impact to such an extent that we derailed before reaching the points onto the main line. I Had to walk quite a distance to get to a phone in atrocious conditions, dropping into deep snow drifts at times but I eventually I managed to get to a phone to alert the nearest signal box to our plight.

So bad was the weather that they could do nothing for us as by then a decision had been made to close that main line as a passenger train had derailed further back down the track.

They couldn't get to us and we couldn't get to them and we were stuck in that siding for over 24 hours before the derailment further down the track was cleared and the snow ploughs had cleared the line enough to allow a rescue attempt for us.

Even though we had a fire to keep going it was still bitterly cold as the cab was open to the elements, plus by the time we were rescued I was flippin hungry.

It certainly was something that I will never forget.

John

[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.

[Hornbeam]

I remember them both. Only a child in '47 but I still remember the snow drifts and blizzards. School milk was frozen in the bottles. We broke the glass and held the frozen milk in our hands like lollipops. No central heating of course and your breath froze on the inside glass of your bedroom widows. Getting out of bed was agony! Even at school we only had one coke burning stove in a classroom. The ink froze in the ink wells overnight! Vehicles were totally buried in snowdrifts and I'm pretty certain that trains got hopelessly stuck and buried too.

I962/3 lasted longer. I seem to remember that it started to snow in November and lasted until March. Snow came up to the bedroom windows of my parents' north London house. We just got on with life, but it was hard and even the kids got tired of the snow. It was deep and hard and permanent. Ponds and lakes froze hard and so did water pipes. Many houses had great bursts of spectacular icicles on the outside from burst pipes. I was in the Army and spent most of that winter digging people and vehicles out of enormous snowdrifts much higher than your head.

[thunder]

I remember the water in my bedside glass freezing in 62/63. I think Paul M may be worng about people not having so many clothes in 46/47 - back then if you felt cold you put on another jumper/vest/coat. Now, people just turn up the heat (and whinge!)

henrya

[douglasclark5]

I remember them both. It was fun for a while, but then it became hard work doing anything. In our town the men on dole had to help dig out the main road out of town, only to find them filled in next morning. Sheep were lost on the moors and frooze or starved to death, as the farmers could not get feed to them. helicopters delivered bread etc. to the villages. Millions of birds, mammals and other wildlife died. Power lines came down. For a while human died could not be buried. But we still had to make our way to school if at all possible. So I think I have had my share of bad winters thank you. But having said all that we still enjoyed life as much as we do now

[Hornbeam]

You can see some photos of the 1947 winter here:
TopFoto Gallery - The Winter of 1947

more information on winters of '47 and '63 here:
Mer Office: Winter chills: 1947 and 1963

(that assumes I am allowed to post link to external sites)

[richardkm]

Here's a pic from 1979 in Buxton, we had some rare snow that year.



In 1963 the weather records show the following snow fall/snow lying in Buxton 1963:
Nov 62 3/5; Dec 63 6/9; Jan 63 15/31; Feb 63 15/28 (so there was snow lying for the whole of those two months, with more coming down); Mar 63 3/0 (must have been a big thaw in Mar); Apr 63 4/1. Sadly, I was living on the south coast at that time, but we had plenty of snow by our standards, and the sea froze.

[ChrisJB]

Great stories and pictures so far - keep 'em coming!

I have commited the pressure maps from the met office site to memory and the key seems to be an anti - cyclone over Scandinavia. This winter I shall be studying the maps in ghoulish anticipation.

I also remember a really cold spell during the winter of 1981 (I think), when I was birdwatching on the Dee Estuary. Part of the sea was frozen and small ice floes where coming down the river.

Regards, Chris.

[petermcgain]

I was living in suburban Middlesex in 1963 and I remember the great freeze really got going on Boxing Day and the snow and ice stayed on the pavements until well into March. My father worked at Ruislip Lido and some of the staff took delight in driving their Land Rover over the reservoir as the ice was so thick. We made an enormously long slide on the road outside our house (few cars then). I can remember going into central London before the thaw, sometime in early March, and being startled at the green grass in Hyde Park, as the only natural colours were white and all shades of grey!

[islayhawk]

I do not remember the winter of 1947 but I heard my parents talk of it. I do however remember 1963. I was off school with a cold!!! - I would have been 10yrs old at the time. When the snow started falling my cold was forgotten and I was up out of bed and away out. It is very unusual for Islay to get snow and frost because it is bathed by the Gulf Stream. So if we got it bad I shudder to think what it was like on mainland UK.

[Interpreter]

I was there for both of them. the '45-'46 snow was great fun, as I was a kid at the time. As I remember it the schools stayed open and we all walked to school in those days. It did not cause as much trouble then because very few people had cars. They either went to work on the 'bus or walked.

1963 was different. I was working at Bishops Court in Northern Ireland and we were completely cut off. Eventually the authorities decided to get a helicopter to bring food to us, but before this took place our fire engine got through to civilisation and returned with food.

Of course, in those days we had seasons, which appear to have disappeared now.

[Paul mabbott]

Someone mentioned that we don't really get winters nowadays whereas snow was commonplace most winters in the 1950s-early 1960s.
As I remember it: the cold winter in the 1960s wasn't particularly heavy snow but it went on and on, for weeks, as I recall. The big snow in the 1970s was a serious blizzard, with huge drifts, but only lasted for a couple of days.
Either way, I only remember one serious freeze-up since then - in the late 80's?

[Tursiops2]

Originally Posted by Paul mabbott

Either way, I only remember one serious freeze-up since then - in the late 80's?

There was a particularly cold spell in January '96, if I remember correctly, three days of snow followed by a month of frost. I was living in north London at the time. Apart from that, and a couple of cold winters in the mid-eighties when I was in Bristol, I don't remember any really hard winters since... um...1978 or '79.

[ChrisJB]

I remember the Jan' 1996 snowy spell. I was just returning from the Gambia, and the plane had to be diverted from landing at Ringway, to Speke. We touched down in a glorious swirling blizzard.

Back at home (near Rochdale), all the lanes coming down from the moors were blocked with 6 foot drifts. Alas, it only lasted a few days before a thaw set in.

I think, since then we have had very little in the way of blizzards up here. Fingers crossed for winter 2007 - 2008.

Regards, Chris

[theincrediblesmiffy]

Ive heard great tales of funfairs on the Medway! Completly froze over enough for a ferris wheel and various stalls to be set up.. I look at it now and the very idea seems ridiculous.. probably a spectacle I will never get to see

[snowdrop]

I found '47 a winter of iron-hard ice, freezing winds and a shortage of money for coal. 1963 was a winter of deep snow, a delight to see but so difficult to walk through when reaching the knees...how it made your thighs ache.
The spring of both these years were welcomed as never before.

[Hoppingmad]

Originally Posted by ChrisJB

Dear Folks,

Does anyone have any memories or tales from these two severe winters? My dear old grandad would recount tales of winter hardship here in SE Lancashire, from these two years, when I was a kid and they have stayed with me ever since. With our miserable winters today, I would love to experience one like them!

I have pretty decent memories of 1979 and it seemed a hard one to me, but my grandad said it was 'nowt compared to a 47er'.

Regards, Chris

Chris

I agree with you - I would love a "proper" winter. Why is there so much FUSS about 1cm of snow now? I could scream!! I love a hard frost and snow is beautiful too.

My dad who is mid-70s has the following memories of both winters:

"1947 was very severe snow being at least a foot deep and perhaps more. Bus traffic in Walthamstow was freed by the use of the unemployed to keep the streets clear. This went on for about three months. When the thaw came the resulting flood water contaminated the filter beds in Lea Bridge Road. Supply was then by tankers in each street. In all I think it lasted for three months. 1963 was a similar situation but I operated then from North Weald (where we lived) in Essex to Leytonstone, now probably a 25 minute journey, the entire roads were frozen the whole way. Speed to work was very low about 20mph or so. Again I think it lasted about three months".


Hope this is of interest.

[Paul mabbott]

Originally Posted by thunder

I think Paul M may be worng about people not having so many clothes in 46/47 - back then if you felt cold you put on another jumper/vest/coat. Now, people just turn up the heat (and whinge!)
henrya

Well, I was only two months old and there was very little spare in the way of clothing, bedding or fuel! I remember it well - it probably accounts for why, when roving, I always head south rather than north!

One of the points brought up by this, of course, is that in days gone by, even in the 1960s, MOST people travelled by foot, bike or public transport and, though the weather was more severe, managed to cope. Now most people travel by car and can't cope! Progress, eh?
As you say, whingers ....