We had been down to visit my grandparents in South Derbyshire and were returning to out home at Holton le Clay, just outside Grimsby, Lincolnshire.
Before we set off, I noted that it was cloudy and the temperature was below freezing.
We set off via Nottingham and then on to Lincoln and up until that point the journey was uneventful, though my step father being very perceptive noted that oncoming lorries had snow on them and remarked that we were heading into snow.
When we got to Lincoln it started to snow big flakes the size of half crowns. As we got to the top of the hill and headed out through the other side, the snow depth increased dramatically. It had obviously been snowing for quite some time and was banked up at the sides of the road in some cases to about 6 feet. The wind was blowing furiously and the drifting snow had the appearance of fog.
My step father decided to take a lower route rather take our usual one over the Wolds, however we eventually came to a crossroads where it was not possible to make any further progress and parked our car, an old 1935 Humber 12, outside an AA box.
On looking round we spied a farm labourer's cottage and sought shelter there. Before we knew where we were about another 10 people had joined us. Since we were short on food, the farm labourer went out to the woods and shot some pigeons. The following morning his wife walked 3 miles to the local shop to try and obtain bread and ended up heart broken to find there wasn't any left.
My mother had a goodly supply of mince pies given to us by my grandmother and she was able to make soda bread for us.
The visits to the toilet were an education. This was a wooden outbuilding built over a hole in the ground with the old plank with a hole in it for sitting. The bottom of the wood had rotted away allowing the snow to swirl in and freeze our nether regions as we were answering nature's call.
I marvelled at the shape and complexity of the snow drifts and loved watching them grow.
In all we were there for 3 days before they could get the roads cleared again. The cylinder block on our old car had frozen so it was kaput. We got a lift back home with a breakdown lorry.
Along the way there were countless telegraph poles broken in half and countless wires down.
In those days they used to have the snow reports on the TV and these were preceded by a photograph and imagine our surprise when we saw that the photograph was our poor old Humber outside the AA box.
The cold weather did not last and after a few days it seemed that we had positively balmy weather with sunshine melting the snow.
Now I would greatly appreciate it if anybody was able to get hold of any synoptic charts and observations so that I could look at it in further detail. As far as I recall, it was the only substantial snowfall that winter and it was in January shortly before I was due to return to school after the Christmas break, hence the mince pies.
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