General Chat

Oh no, skiing holiday would never be my choice, I would rather stay at home lol

I don't know Gawcott very well at all, we didn't visit much as Dad didn't have a car and couldn't afford all the fares. It is very pretty tho, very chocolate-box prettiness.

Lizx

I remember the 1963 snow very well.
There was no chance of any vehicles getting thro the village for days.snow was well above my wellies:) and didn't we have fun .lol
School was shut cos the teachers lived 3 miles away!
Dad couldn't go to work,tho he tried,it would have been a 6 mile journey!!
We had no central heating,but we kept warm:) Plenty of coal in the coal shed.
I don't know who took the photo ,but I have one of myself and my friend up to our knees in snow in the main street.
The 1987/8 was worst for us ,we'd married and moved to a higher area,the snow covered our front and back doors and we had to get out thro the window..The snow was up to the top of our drive gates and deeper in places whwere it had drifted.
The car was by the front door on the driveway and was totally invisable.
Hubby and I had to walk to work, the snow had frozen and we were walking level with the tops of cars.
I had to go to work as I worked for the DSS and lived within 2 miles. I didn't mind as there were peeps that needed their benefits sorting and could be without money (they weren't computerised then) downhiill wasn't too bad, but homeward treck uphill was exhausting..one step forwards two steps back!!!!

We went to stay with my grandparents in The New Forest as always for Christmas 1962. The snow began on Boxing Day and went on for days and weeks.

After a week or so my Dad walked miles to Ringwood and then somehow got to Bournemouth and caught a train back to Surbiton.

We finally got back home early February, the other children in the road had made huge snowmen and igloos.
My sister was born at home on February 28th, the midwife was called, we didn't have a phone but a neighbour did, but she couldn't ride her bike because there was still too much snow on the roads. Dad went to collect her and by the time they got back home my sister had been delivered by our next door neighbour who had been called upon to sit with Mum.

I don't remember going to school in it but I do remember pea souper smogs where we had to feel our way along hedges. That wasn't in the snow though.

We moved house on March 14th, to " The Country " and an unfinished brand new house which was still a building site as the builders hadn't been able to go near it for weeks. The heating didn't work properly, we got dressed in bed and there were always beautiful ferny patterns on the insides of the windows.

Oh and chilblains, I had forgotten about them, horrible.

My Dad promptly went down with flu which turned into double pneumonia.

Poor Mum, what a lot to put up with and to top it all I absolutely hated my new school. M

My first memory of snow was in 1947 and of my uncle coming to dig us out of our house.We (like lots of others then) had no telephone so he'd just stomped through the deep snow to find us. I always like the smell of snow as it reminds me of when I was a child being lifted through the open sash-window.....of course then it was fun!

But the winter of 1962-63 was very harsh and freezing cold.No central heating then!

My OH was a bricklayer and all the building sites in our area of the North East of England were absolutely frozen solid,and all the workers were laid off for over two months.
We had been married nine months and although I was working we found it difficult to cope,no government help then,so thank goodness for my in laws.

Snow can be beautiful to look at but can bring big problems,can't it? :-(

I remember the winter of 1962/63...it seemed to go on forever.

No central heating or duvets then - we had a roaring fire in the lounge and took a hot water bottle to bed, and piled an overcoat on top for extra warmth.

Remember breathing on the bedroom window, or holding your hand on the window pane in the mornings to look out and see if it was still snowing?

No buses running so we walked the 2 miles to school amid snow drifts and slippery pavements. Two or three pairs of socks on inside your wellies in an attempt to keep feet warm and avoid those nasty chillblains - ouch!! No staying home because there were a few flakes of snow in the air. We all went to school.

We were out playing in it every weekend - throwing snowballs, building snowmen and sledging. Happy days :-D :-D

Winter of 47 - my dad made me a large wooden sledge and gave me 2/6d to go to the blacksmith and have him put runners on it. We .lived in a cul-de-sac which was on a hill and we were the second house from the top - there was an earthern bank which stopped us all going over the wall.

Can remember Mum turning gas oven on for heat, and warming up pans of water on paraffin stove which we had used in the shelter. Putting our hands in the basin of warm water to thaw them out. Somehow or other the tea trolley was pushed over the heater and burnt the underside - I got the blame - who else?

I remember January 7th 1963 particularly well as I started work as a computer programmer then.

The thing I remember most about the snow was that it would just seem to be thawing and then a new lot would fall, usually on a Sunday evening.

I don't recall any particular problems getting about. I mostly walked to work and used trains at the weekend.

I remember it very well. My fist daughter was born on February 1st, in a cottage hospital 3 miles from my home. I had to walk there (and back) every evening for a while. Not easy going on uncleared pavements and a country lane.

Like Liz in Norwich, I don't remember the winter of '63 too vividly, exept for the very deep snow.
February '79 is the one I remember most, the month I got married. Three days before, it started snowing and never stopped.I was living in Hartlepool, and nobody could get in or out of the town, in fact, most of the country was at a standstill. Luckily, my hubby to be was lodging with us, but none of our guests could make it, apart from my parents and two friends, who acted as witnesses.Everything exept the ceremony had to be cancelled! Wedding night was spent at Hartlepool Station Hotel.
We had a marriage blessing service 6 months later, with a proper reception and all our original guests. So, I had two weddings!

If anyone is interested, I've found and upload the Iceburg photo to my keepsafe and made it public

Search >Search Photos and Media>Iceburg Kent c1963

;-)

Liz. Gawcott caught my eye. Lovely little village. A friend of mine (Eva Welby) looked after the Wesleyan Chapel there. She was a Baptist but supported all the chapels. She was a retired teacher, lived a mile west of Gawcott in next village and died last year aged about 96.

Potty :-D :-D :-D Visions of this bowler hat moving elegantly towards the exit. In the drifts that year, snow could be well over your head :-D

I was working in London in and living in Slough in 1963. My journey to work was by bus, train (still steam then) and tube. The other people in the office lived in Ashford, Maidenhead, Brighton and Kensington. We all made it into the office on time everyday - except for the Manager who lived 4 tube stops away. Apparently the snow had affected the underground!

The journeys home were often very interesting - spent one with about 30 others standing in a luggage van. Timetables were all over the place and we were allowed to leave work early. On one journey a "City Gent" obviously hadn't heard the announcement about getting into a particular part of the train for a certain station and got out of the train at the wrong place - he stepped into about 4 feet of snow, with his arms outstreched on top of it, one hand holding his rolled brolly and the other his briefcase! His bowler hat stayed on though.

remember being in quarters and opening a national newspaper and shreeching 'that's our house'. It was a photo of a car (well a bit of a roof really submerged in snow), I had fits thinking of burst pipes etc.

Strangely enough where we were in quarters - no snow - kids most disappointed - yet within a mile from there - the Forces were helping farmers dig out sheep etc and take feed.

I'm with you Liz - I hate the cold. The thought of going on a skiing holiday would fill me with dread. If I fork out money for a holiday I want sun.

Strange really, I can't recall that winter, it would have been my last winter at school so I would have been 15. I lived within walking distance of school but used to go home for lunch so 4 journeys each day. My Dad only had a bike so must have cycled to and from work, about 5 or 6 miles I suppose and he worked shifts so would have had to be out early in the mornings or late in the evenings. Must have been tough.

We didn't have central heating, that came later with a Parkray installed by the council and radiators in most rooms, but before then it was paraffin heaters and more coats on the beds, as others have said.

I was born in July 1947. I know my Mum told me about the freeze and said the snow was as high as the hedgerows and she had to struggle along to shop, not sure if that was when she was still in Gawcott, a small village 3 miles from Buckingham, or if she and my Dad had returned to Norwich by then but by the sound of things she was out in the country so must have been Gawcott.

I hate the snow and cold weather and wish I could hibernate.

Lizx

I am supposed to remember it, because my mum keeps reminding me how we had to walk into town to get coal...I was 4 almost 5.

I had forgotten about the winter in the 80s, but I was into ski-ing at that time and remember going to work in London wearing these huge great moon boots....they were the warmest non slippy boots I have ever had, bit dodgy trying to drive in them though....but I did :-0

I decided the other day I needed a pair of boots, but as my mobility is pretty bad I could'nt warrant spending £60+ on something to get me a few yards accross the drive to the car, for maybe one outing in cold weather....but I did think about it :-)

One of my sisters got married in January of that year. It was a traditional village wedding in the village church & catered for by friends & family in the village hall.
The biggest problem was that our village in Sussex was cut off by snow drifts over the roads in all directions, we had the bride, bridesmaids, vicar, choir, bell ringers, but the groom & his family were over the border in Kent. A quick ring round delayed the wedding for a week, but the weather had not improved & the roads were still only suitable for tractors!
My father worked for Guinness Hop Farms & all workers were roped in for ‘Operation Road Clearance’. They cleared the snow from the nearest main road into the village, ran the snow plough down the church lane & cleared the church path using shovels. A tractor & trailer was sent to collect flowers & the cake.
At 3pm we travelled up to the church in our bridesmaid’s dresses & lovely hand knitted angora stoles... stepped out of the car straight into an icy puddle. The church heating was playing up so there was a pungent aroma from borrowed paraffin heaters. The service was not prolonged & we were soon all in the village hall posing for photographs.
The Wedding Reception was a great success, with Granny Batchup’s baked ham, Aggie Clout’s apple pies & many more home made specialities. Our record player & everyone’s records were set up to dance to & later in the evening Aunt Doris played the piano for a sing song.

my mum told me about the big freeze in 63,

she was 5m pregnant with me and had to walk 2m to work at littlewoods pools in liverpool. :-D

February/ March of 1986 was bad for snow and ice. It started to snow on 10th February and continued for a few days but then everything froze solid. My daughter was born on the 12th and we only just got through the snow to the hospital.
I remember watching huge lumps of snow falling from the maternity unit roof whilst I was giving birth! :-0

The freeze just seemed to go on for so long. I got married at the end of March 63 and although the snow was turning to slush by then it was still freezing cold. My mother bought me a vest to wear under my wedding dress (how romantic was that!) and I was very glad of that extra layer.

We moved to our current house at the end of 1986 so we were here for the winter of 87/88 that Rollo mentioned. Our country road was completely blocked by snow and the local children made igloos. The bottling plant at the dairy froze and the milkman dragged a load of cardboard cartons of milk on a sled a mile up the hill. You don't get that sort of service from the supermarkets.