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Half a century ago the UK was in the grip of a brutal winter. How did they cope then and how does it compare with now?The terrible winter of 1962-3 has become a sort of legend, second only to the even worse winter of 1947. I remember the winter of 63, but not that of 47, I hasten to add. I was nine years old and can remember it well. I used to walk to school (only a mile or so) and the snow was about two feet deep in my road. It had a hard crust on top, and if you were careful you could walk on that, but if you broke through the surface, the snow was crotch-deep (for a small boy) and very uncomfortable. As in the article, on more than one occasion I went to school on my sledge. My Mum worked in the same area as my school, so a ready packhorse was available. I didn't even have to push.
Happy memories. Life went on, trains moved, things were delivered, shops were open, people got on with their lives. Two specific memories that are still with me: one was my Dad putting a small paraffin greenhouse heater under the engine of the car every night so that it would start in the morning, and the other was waking up to find that the water in the glass by my bedside had frozen solid in the night. The house was very cold (no central heating or double glazing then) but my bed had plenty of blankets and there was always a lovely open fire downstairs. I don't remember suffering at all.
But 'half a century ago' ... centuries, that's history and stuff, isn't it?
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ReplyDeleteFunny how much snow we remember from when we were a kid. I remember opening the front door in the late 70's and my step-dad having to shovel through a wall of snow. I was in kindergarden at the time.
ReplyDeleteNow we have warmest months ever on record, but no coldest in years.
I remember years in Canada with 13 feet (level fall) of snow and 22 foot drifts, happy days.
ReplyDeleteJust to be a pedantic twat, your age has ALWAYS be measurable as fractions of a century, started as 1/100, next 1/50, 3/100/, 1/25 etc. : )
The terrible winter of 1962-3 I had to walk to school in bare feet we were so poor.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that bit of information, RtB! I wondered if anyone would pick that up. I guess I meant major fractions like a half, but I acknowledge the error.
ReplyDeleteAs for weird weather, can anyone else remember snow in June in 1976? I distinctly remember it (in Leeds), but I can't find anyone to back me up.
Are you sure it was '76 (a very hot summer)?
DeleteI do remember listening to TMS & hearing BJ talking about a county match in Derbyshire being snowed off.
Welcome back!
ReplyDeleteIn those days central heating was really only for the toffs, the plebs made-do hot-water bottles. Ours was made of something like reconstituted stone, and had a 'flat' side to prevent it rolling around.
Nearly everyone walked to Primary School then; something which should be mandatory now for those living within 1-1/2 miles of their school.
@ Richard:
ReplyDeleteIt actually snowed on June 1st 1976 (the hottest and longest summer I'm ever likely to see - I was 13 at the time) and the cricket between Lancs & Derbys had to be abandoned that day. Also, it actually rained on Midsummer's Day that year, at least it did in Manchester. Finally, in 1976 we all got to know about one Vivian Richards. What a memorable year then.
Do you remember the plague of ladybirds that year that actually made it to a House of Commons discussion. Such innocence in politics in those days!
Paul.
Sorry, I should have continued reading the comments before I replied to Richard.
DeleteNo worries. Would that be a very tasty little V7 in your profile pic? If so, you have good taste.
DeleteNo, that is a Mk III Le Mans, same colour as the one I had '83 - '91. Probably the most uncomfortable bike ever, but great fun to ride, remarkably fast (despite what the reviews said) and very forgiving. It took me to most of the countries of Western Europe.
DeleteBefore that I had a V50, a delightful light bike that was even more forgiving than the Le Mans and an absolute beauty to ride. It could have done with another ten horses; it couldn't live with the Honda VX500 (?) on the straight, but left it for dead on the twists. Unlike most of them (red) mine was blue.
Heh, Guzzi have really hit the styling nail on the head with the V7, than. A beautiful modern bike, looking just like an updated beautiful older bike. Never had a Lemon, but my favourite bike ever, and the one I most regret selling, was a V50II. Mine was that lovely vermilion red. Slow as a 250 (if we're honest) but nothing could keep up on a twisty road. Tangled with a full-race Norton once on a B-road and he couldn't catch me as long as the straights were short. A very flattering bike, and if I could find my old one I would pay 10x the market value to have it back. There's definitely another Guzzi in my future.
DeleteWould you believe I blew off a Yam 350 LC on the A 82 along Lomondside on the V50? & I am no racer - lovely bike! Yes, I'd have mine back.
DeleteAnd yes, no CH in the 60s (until 1974 in our house) and no double glazing. Ice on the windows - the insides - every morning for weeks. My mum says she put me to bed in the 60s dressed in wollens, a hat and mittens. Every morning she discovered I had dispensed with the mittens and she was freaked out because my tiny hands were blue!
ReplyDeletePaul.
Thank you, Paul. You are the first person ever to corroborate my memory of 1976. I had taken over my Dad's garage to rebuild a motorbike, and I can remember standing in the doorway looking out onto the street and watching the snowflakes falling. It was indeed the 1st of the month (I remember thinking it's June, but only just) and it didn't last long, but it happened. Then we had that glorious hot summer (or terrible drought if you are a glass-half-empty type of person) which only broke when the Govt appointed Denis Howell as Minister for Drought. Another fine memory: I had finished the bike one afternoon and went inside to clean up, promising myself a ride in the Dales the next day, to take advantage of the brilliant weather that i had missed all summer, being busy with the rebuild. Of course, I got up the next morning and ... It was pissing down. I blame 'Sunny' Jim Callaghan. W
ReplyDeleteI too remember cold winters, and shovelling the snow out of the way of the door so you could open it - we took the dog for a walk in the park, once, and he disappeared into a snowdrift! He was an Alsatian, too...
DeleteLikewise 'I remember the winter of 63', I went to school knee deep in the snow, dad went to work, mum went shopping. We were cut off from the county town (shithole then as now) but carried on regardless.
ReplyDeleteYou forgot to mention the school milk, delivered in 1/3 pint bottles, extruding frozen milk-ice from the neck up.
Yes!!! The horrible cloying smell in the summer (it merges with the smell of damp mop-heads in my mind), and the little white pillars of frozen milk in the winter, coming out of the bottles like something out of Alien. And we still had to drink it :)
DeleteA day when "Life went on, trains moved, things were delivered, shops were open, people got on with their lives" even while it was snowing? That's not history, that's almost mythology :o)
ReplyDeleteI remember milk extruding through the bottletops. Free ice cream...
It stopped the tits from getting at them!
DeleteYes, I remember a lot of disappointed tits.
DeleteCentral heating and double glazing were alien to me until I moved into this house in 2001. I can remember the net curtains being frozen to the bedroom windows. The only heating we had was a coal boiler in the kitchen which also ran a useless radiator in the hall and a gas fire in the lounge, this was in a 1920's flat. Any heat in the place was soon lost through Crittal windows that barely touched the frames, the curtains used to move about in the wind..
ReplyDeleteOh yes, still cant stand the taste of warm milk.
Central heating and double glazing were alien to me until I moved into this house in 2001. I can remember the net curtains being frozen to the bedroom windows. The only heating we had was a coal boiler in the kitchen which also ran a useless radiator in the hall and a gas fire in the lounge, this was in a 1920's flat. Any heat in the place was soon lost through Crittal windows that barely touched the frames, the curtains used to move about in the wind..
ReplyDeleteOh yes, still cant stand the taste of warm milk.