General Chat

You tend to forget how cold you were 50 years ago. Duvet with masses of togs seem nothing like as warm as 4 blankets on your bed.

And standing in front of a coal fire or elec fire was bliss. The heat went right through you. I get cold now with 23C constantly on thermostat and a 13.5 tog duvet. OH turns thermostat to 21 and I secretly put it back to 23 when she is out. Got away with it so far and only a few week left before the daffs are out and spring has sprung :-D :-D

Oh it wasn't that bad.

The trains mostly ran - we lived on the main LNER line into London and the heavy Pacific steam locos just got on with it. Buses ran ( no heaters that I ever noticed), even the GreenLine was ok. School was a bit chilly but we still had to take our coats off!

When I got home I really appreciated our old Edwardian house ( not that old at the time ) with a Rayburn, big Esse coal fire with a glass front and working fires in the bedrooms. One of these was lived in by our mother's help - poor thing she had all the coals to cart around. Warm and toasty anyway :-) The Koi carp were all frozen which was a shame.

lived near Herne Bay in the 1970s and the sea there (and at Sheerness) usually froze to some extent.

I remember that there were all sorts of problems with the funerals - too many stiffs, coffin shortage, ground too hard. Maybe that's when alternatives became more popular. Being young we thought it was funny.

For our elders who had survived the winter of 1946/7 it must have been very deja vue except coal available ( if you could pay for it ).

The worst thing was the smog, yuk and smoky public transport. The roads were chaos as no seat belts, poor tyres, dangerous windscreens and half the country had never sat a driving test ...

In central London the beer was still delivered using drays ( wagons with heavy horses ) so no problem with running out of beer. Out of London though no racing, no hunting and the gees gees got fat. Great for the foxes, less so for the chickens.

IMHO the winter of 1987/8 was far worse.

I don't remember the cold winter but my Mum did. I was tucked up nice and snug until the temperature started to rise a bit in March, and then I was born :-D

Teresa :-D :-D :-D

I can remember it so well. I used to get two buses to work and there were none running over a period of a few days. I walked to work along with a some others with more joining as we went along, it was like the Pied Piper. We were young and it seemed like fun. My Mother had brought me some knee high boots but I refusd to spoil them and walked in my old zip up ones. When I arrived at my office the Chaiman came round and thanked the people who had struggled to get in, and sent memos out to the ones who lived close to work, who did not make the effort. If it were to happened today, you would not get me over the door step.

I also remember one time when we had very very bad fog & smog you literally could not see a hand in front of you, I was walking with a girl who lived near to me, and we walked past the the end of our street three times and laughed so much, everything just seemed so funny then. :-D :-D :-D

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.

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

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

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.

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 :-)

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'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.

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 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.

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

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

;-)

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!

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.

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.

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 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