50 YEARS AGO - THE 1963 BIG FREEZE

[cerneman]

Also remember the high tech gritting,,,My dad God bless him...Was on gritting ..Back of lorry with shovel scattering grit,,,,

Forgot about the gritting lorry''s, I know neighbours put out the ashess from fireplace, Always left mess after snow gone

[johnholmes]

brilliant clips Coast, brings back many memories, some even good ones of that bloody winter. Just a shame that the music on one is too loud at times to pick out the wonderful radio/tv spoken clips.

[The PIT]

Amazing clips. Also shows how different we approach things these days. Buses go off straight away. You won't see a gritter with more than one man it. You won't see men clearing snow from railway tracks and cuttings because there isn't the staff let alone see a train with the basic plough on it. Amazing how much snow the steam train could pile through. Traffic slows to a crawl as soon as the first flake is spotted these days the clips of some of those drivers carrying on as nothing has happened says to me we have forgotten how to drive on the stuff.

[Lyn-M]

I was sweet 16 at the time and the main thing that I remember, apart from the weather but caused by it, was the fact that my father broke his leg. He was a Station Master and, on the day after Boxing Day, had gone to walk along the track to one of the signal boxes to check that all was well. It was only about a hundred yards, but he slipped, fell awkwardly and broke his leg in several places. Not entirely sure how they got him to hospital (it was about 10 miles), but it was a good job the railways were pre Beeching because it was the only way we could get to see him and it still involved a substantial walk to the hospital. He was laid up for longer than the snow was around!

I can't recall missing any school, but I did travel by train with a walk at one end, those in the outlying villages did not have that luxury.

[Bristawl Si]

I was 1 at the time so dont remember it.

My dad always says that 1947 was much worse for snowfalls in Bristol, although didnt really begin until end January i believe.

As for coping now, well the worst aspect i reckon would be 'elf n safety closing schools, buses not running and other things.

[iand61]

I was 1 at the time so dont remember it.

My dad always says that 1947 was much worse for snowfalls in Bristol, although didnt really begin until end January i believe.

As for coping now, well the worst aspect i reckon would be 'elf n safety closing schools, buses not running and other things.

Just made up 1 myself so was probably tucked up in my cot for most of it. I did grow up with every substantial snowfall and cold period being "nothing" compared to it though along with the usual "not as bad as 47" stories.

Could we cope with another 63 or 47, probably although the modern reliance on "just in time" would make it much harder than previous bad winters including more recent ones such as 79 and the early 80's ones.

[overcast]

I was just turning 7. My unheated bedroom faced East in a rural Leics village. The ice gradually built up on the window from my frozen breath - I remember thawing a little patch with my hand so that I could gauge if any more snow had fallen overnight. Getting dressed was a real ordeal and done at breakneck speed.

Walking to school I was unable to resist jumping into the powdery drifts - not so good when it later thawed in the class room! We made huge slides in the playground that remained frozen and were gradually extended each day. Also vividly remember my grandfather using an iron bar to prise some turnips from his rock-hard garden. Oh yes and as mentioned before, the frozen cream poking out of milk bottles with the little silver cap still sitting on top.

Final memory is of a temporary thaw and a big pond forming from several burst pipes in a row of houses opposite. Soon the cold returned and this became our 'skating' rink. Local school never closed as far as I remember and even then parents and grandparents were telling me how this was "nothing compared to '47 - your grandad and the other coal miners had to dig a way through to next village". Now that is a picture to imagine!

[cerneman]

January 1963 Cliff Richard and Shadows number one in pop Charts with song called The next time, Can't be 50 years ago, Cliff still looks so young

[PeteB]

Yeah, I was 13 when it started and on my 14th birthday April 30th there were still patches of snow left in a few ditches. In actual fact there weren't that many snow events, the first one on Boxing Day left about 6 to 8 inches of snow. Then two or three days later a bitter wind set in with more snow, heavy at times and with severe drifting and this lasted for what must have been 10 days or so, although the snow only fell for a day or two. Drifts were enormous. Then there was a quiet period with bitter day and night temperatures. The next snow came in early February, a huge blizzard, the biggest I've ever seen, that started in the late afternoon and finished the next morning, this completely covered our driveway to a depth of 6 feet or so. Half term provided us with another moderate fall maybe 6 inches and that was almost the last of the snow. I say almost because on the day the thaw started we had a couple more inches before it turned to rain.

Other memories were skating on a frozen lake in mid February and being able to walk on the usually fast flowing stream close to my house. It had frozen from bank to bank with just a trickle underneath the ice, that stream has never frozen since then. Also unique was the River Dee freezing solid at Queensferry although it did freeze higher up river in Chester 1981/2. The drifts also froze over and got quite dirty apparently from soot that came all the way from Russia.

Funny thing was that having moved from Birkenhead to Wales in 1961 I thought this must be a normal winter up here (at 350 feet), we used to go to The Wirral most weekends and they only had a few inches of snow down there.

Pete

Edited January 2, 2013 by PeteB

[Coast]

Some wonderful home movies!

Billericay, 1962/63:

Walsall 1962:

The Moors:

[joggs]

Gr8 readings and footage, wets the appetite for whats around the corner lol ha ha

[drgl]

Sadly wasn't around but I do remember some of the winters in the late 70's & early 80's have plenty of snow (compared to now!!). We just had central heating installed prior to '82 IIRC. The toilet used to freeze before that, frozen windows on the inside stick in my mind.

[Coast]

Now, the coldest winter since 1740 (mentioned above) yes, 1963. Probably the worst winter of the last 100 years.

Anticyclones to the North and East of the UK, brought bitterly cold air over us. Depression tracked to the South, brining huge snowfalls to England, Wales, and Scotland. Mean maximum temperatures for January 1963 were more than 5c below average over most of Wales, the Midlands and Southern England, and in some places, an amazing 7c below average!!!!!

The winter began, just before Christmas 1962. The weather in early December was changeable and stormy. London experienced terrible fog, for a time. Gusts of up to 88 knots were recorded in the North of the UK. Winter 62/63 Courtesy O.Bullock

A belt of rain over the North of Scotland turned to snow as it moved South, giving Glasgow its first white Christmas since 1938! When the snow belt reached the South, it became almost stationary. 5cm of snow fell in the Channel Islands, 30cm in Southern England.

A blizzard over South West England, and South Wales (Yes!!! We did get snow once! ) in late December, brought snowdrifts 6m deep. It wasn't a laughing matter anymore. Villages were cut off, power lines where drought down, trains were cancelled. Farmers couldn't reach livestock, and many starved to death. Extremely tragic. From Boxing Day 1962 to early March 1963, much of England was under snow continuously, an amazing feat, 3 months of snow.

Even so, the UK was generally sunny, unlike 1947. In fact sunshine totals were above average for many.

1963 will be remembered more for its coldness, and less so its snowfall. 1947 the opposite, remembered for its snow, less its coldness. Nonetheless both were very cold and very snowy, and hazardous to life. For once, snow wasn't just fun and games.

In January 1963, there were 25 or more air frosts almost everywhere in southern England and South Wales! Mean maxes were below 0c in much of England and Wales, for January, and slightly higher during February. Braemar recorded a low of -22.2c on the 18th of January! Surpassed by 1995 interestingly!

http://www.netweathe...s-winters;sess=

Here's a selection of photos I've taken from the web:

Yes, that's a double decker bus in that drift, somewhere in Somerset!

The Teesside to Hartlepool Road

Snow clearing in the Trough of Bowland

'The West Midlands'

Swindon?

Wheatley, Oxfordshire

Of course trust a Mini to get through, these are a fleet of Police vehicles in Flintshire used during the 1963 Winter

Burnley, January 1963

Edited January 3, 2013 by Coast

[Charltonkerry]

My favourite topic is the winter of 62/63, my kids still shudder at the mention of it.

I was 10 years old and lived in the poor part of Dartford in a 3 bedroom council house, with an outside loo and coal house. I was in the last year of junior school and never missed a single day as we where getting ready for the dreaded 11+. Oh do I remember that Boxing Day, we where round relatives up the posh end of Dartford and we around 6pm to catch a bus home, as we where standing at the bus stop so the first flake gently meandered down to earth, being an excitable youngster I got very excited which ended with a clip around the ear, and the famous comments by my dad of "you will be able to walk around all the walls of Dartford tomorrow and still not have enough snow to make a single snowball". Oh how wrong he was.

My father worked in the centre of Dartford in a foundry (sp), so at least he kept warm, he was a man mountain and fit as a fiddle and used to get up at 5am every morning to go to work, however his first job was to make the fire up in the front room (only room with heating), once the snow was on the ground somehow this became my and my mums job as we had to dig our way out to the coal house and toilet before we could light the fire or go to the loo. The things that really stick in my mind is going to bed, you had to leave the warm room to go to a freezing bedroom and get to an equally freezing bed (cotton or polyester sheets) which meant you where shivered yourselves to sleep, but when you woke up, oh the warmth was fantastic, until you had to get out into that freezing bedroom, the thermal shock was enormous and the shivering restarted immediately, obviously if it was turn to get the coal or needed the loo, then you got warm (and wet) by digging your way out to the shed.

Then the trip to school, firstly the donning of multilayered clothes on the top half of my body which kept that part nice and warm, and for you younger ones us poor boys wore short trousers and they where considerably cheaper than long trouser, along with these we wore long woollen socks and my only pair of shoes, couldn't afford wellies or similar. On the way to school was the traditional snow ball fight with the older kids going to secondary school , us youngster normally ended up being thrown into the nearest snow drift by the older buggers, thus getting soaking wet, also who can remember the feel of sodden woollen gloves, till this day I still shiver at the thought of that feeling. On arrival at school we had the fun of the snowball fight with the girl school next door (always won, and always ended in tear, sure it had nothing to do with putting icicles in with the snowball mix :-)) then the slide which by the end was over 100' long, oh the happy memories and the minor cuts and bruises, anyone sensible feel over with 10' to go, but us hard nuts kept going to the bitter end, unfortunately this was a brick wall.

Then on into the classroom, it was hot, yes, the only time I was warm, outstanding memories from here was the gloves steaming on the radiators, coats, socks and shoes drying, yes we went barefooted around the classroom. The milk with the silver tops sticking up by around an 1" until they defrosted and the unbearable smell of drying clothes. But mostly the chapped legs and the teachers rubbing on Vaseline (again a luxury we couldn't afford). Hot food at dinner time prior to the ongoing fun in the playground. Then the trip home which was a repeat of the journey there.

Well I better get on with some work, but sometime I will finish off with some more of my memories, if anyone's interested.

Regards

Kerry

[Coast]

I will finish off with some more of my memories, if anyone's interested.

Yes please.

Seems like a lifetime away and such a difference to today, where when the heating goes off in October, the kids are off school for a week!!!

[WhiteFox]

Some great memories there! Of course I'm far too young to have been around then, but a few things mentioned do stir some memories from winters past!

Frozen milk. I did a milk round on Saturdays from 1988 to 1993 and do recall a few occasions when this happened. Many will say "But that was during a period of mild winters" and so it was. However, there were some notable periods of frost even during those winters and I do remember the milk freezing on a couple of occasions and pushing the lid off the bottles. Pity the poor milkmen and milk boys as we couldn't wear gloves (the milkman was a hard man and refused to use a handcrate "They're for girls", so we used to carry the bottles in our hands. By 1993 I could carry ten bottles in two hands!). We had to use fingerless gloves which to this day I think are useless. I also remember some fountains freezing. Couldn't have been the 1988/9 winter as that was just too mild and it wasn't 1991 as that was memorable for different reasons, so if Mr Data has records of any notable inversions which led to severe frosts and days around freezing (although it was snowless) then I'd be very interested to know!

Also, the inside of windows freezing. Although we had central heating, we did not have double glazing and by the 1980s the original 1960s windows were feeling their age. There were many occasions when ice formed on the inside of windows, with 1981/2 being particularly bad (that is was also the last time I saw huge icicles hanging from houses until 2009).

Of course this all pales in comparison to 1963 but a few points are worthy:

1. People suffered during that winter, probably much more than they would if we had a similar winter these days.

2. JH is right about transport and Just in Time logistics. There would be problems with distribution, but then I guess there were also problems in 1963.

3. The road network would seize up. This is inevitable, but again it's worth noting that traffic levels are many degrees higher than in 1963. I remember in 2009 when people were mentioning the M4 queuing from the M25 to Reading because of snow. My response at the time was that this happens quite a few times a year without snow so it is no surprise that 4 inches of snow causes this! The main routes would be cleared fairly quickly.

My view on the impact of a winter like 1963 today is similar to my view on the Olympics; plenty of people predict the worst and forecast armageddon, but things would somehow manage to carry on.

[Charltonkerry]

Right officially bored at work now, and being that coast asked for more, here it comes (interesting point re work, I actually got involved with my job via the winter of 62/63 as the cold fascinated me, my job, I design industrial refrigeration plants, therefore If I need a dose of cold, all I have to do is to drive to one of my sites, and I can get a fix of temperatures of anywhere between -30 and +10c) and before anyone asks I can't fix domestic fridges and I refuse to work for any supermarkets either. Right back to the memories

My mum who didn't work at this time was the real boss of the household, despite what my father thought. It was her job to get the food on the table and she did every single day, normally twice a day as my father came home for lunch. As I stated previously we where poor and luxuries where few, however the food was always there, it was the winter of '62/63 that she produced the meals that really stopped us from dying and allowed us to survive the winter, costs of all vegetables etc rocketed as they where frozen in the ground (no luxuries of frozen foods in them days) as an example there are photos of the frozen fields being defrosted by braziers down in Thanet on the Internet, so if you had to do that you can imagine the costs of them in the shops. Mum decided on the day after Boxing Day to start up one of her famous hot pots, in went the left over turkey, with anything else that was left over including all the veg, potatoes etc, this pot was massive and must had held many galleons of liquid etc, it was so heavy it never moved from the hot plate. Well as winter progressed and the cold intensified so more and more items where added, can remember a dead rabbit going in (accidentally shot by one of our neighbours in a field opposite us), my favourite was neck of mutton not much meat but very flavoursome, all sorts of offal, I believe a pigs head in at one stage. I can still smell it now, but I was often momentarily put of when mum scraped the scum off the top, dependent upon what mean was used then this could be an inch thick (my uncle used to take this home with him, although I never worked up the courage to ask him why? I just didn't want to know) this hot pot finally finished around the 2nd week of march and we where still finding the odd turkey bone even then. That single turkey saved our family.

Coming back to the cold, waking up in the morning, only amateurs used there hands to defrost the windows, us professional snow watchers had a much more warmer system, we took a 2d piece to bed with so when you woke up you placed this at eye height on the window, and hey presto the ice melted, no cold hand for me, we'll not until the track to the outside loo began anyway. The windows where ill fitting I think crittal metal frames, single glazed, the inside window seal was ice with if it had snowed during the night a fresh layer of snow.

I remember well the icicles where a tremendous length, especially those hanging from the gutters, I believe a of gutters actually broke through the wait of ice hanging from them, another memory was how everyone swept there own paths and kept them clear by using domestic salt, this had the added benefit of turning the paths in death traps as the ice / snow would defrost during the day and promptly re freeze again at night when the freezing point of the salt / water solution was reached, oh what fun to here the milkman / paper boy take a tumble.

No doubt I can think of some more, but duty calls.

[Village]

Had the cane for throwing snowballs at teachers car, Two across each hand. Case of mistaken identity

the winter of 1962/63 was before my time, but I remember being one of a group at school in the winter of 1979 when we rolled the biggest snow roller and left it infront of Mr Miller's blue Reliant Robin car in the teacher's car park.

We all were called out in assembly the next morning and made to stand and stay behind to meet the Headmaster who told us that because of our stupidity that Mr Miller couldnt move his car and therefore was put out to get home and not in that morning! We paid for it with the stick.

Another thing the younger generations dont know is that if we get another very cold winter many cars wont work because there are so many more diesel vehicles today and the fuel will start to solidify in the tanks.

Back in the 1970's lorry drivers would light fires under their diesel fuel tanks to warm the fuel so that they could start their engines. It of course was a really dangerous thing to do, but it had to be done if one needed to get going and get warm.

Edited January 3, 2013 by Village

[mike Meehan]

The cold weather started off in December of 1962 and for a time we had freezing fog where the temperature remained at a -5c for a few days - during month I went to a friend who had a houseboat on the Thames and the river was starting to freeze over - there was ice on the inside walls of his houseboat which wasn't really anything more than a caravan on a punt.

The next I recall was when I went with my then fiancée to her parent's in the Chilterns not far from Whipsnade Zoo over Christmas and it started snowing on the Boxing Day.

Then on New Years Eve we went into central London when it started to snow again with large flakes falling on the pavements not melting at all.

At the time I was living in Hounslow and early in the New Year woke up to find considerable more snow which had formed drifts up to 2 feet deep on he roads - it had not been disturbed by traffic and remained virginal.

At the time I was spending most of my time working in the Met Office in the Queen's Building at Heathrow as a scientific assistant. At various times some forecasters would try to drag up a front from the southwest but it never materialised exactly like that - I beleive we did get one front from that direction which ended up with snow preceeding and falling after the front when normally it would be expected for the following precipitation to turn to rain.

I recall others remarking on the balmy weather they were having in Stornaway which was getting highs of 4C.

We did get a patch of milder weather for a few days and this coincided with me being sent over to the 'North Side' where we did our obs - it made me feel a little disappointed to see the snow starting to turn grey with the pollution and slowly melt a little but it did not last and thankfully we entered the ice box once more with a little fresh snow to make everything look nice again.

I visited my fiancée at regular intervals, travelling along the M4 on a motorcycle to Kensington where she was living - at speeds above 40 mph the snow hitting my face grew quite painful - we had open helmets in those days.

On a visit back to the future in laws I was negotiating a right bend when I lost the front wheel through ice which was beneath the snow - we both fell off but no damage was caused - just that my throttle remained stuck open and the engine was screaming for all it was worth, so my instinctive first reaction was to go to the bike and close the throttle - it took a little while to live that down.

Eventually it became milder and patches of green beneath the white started to look quite strange - by this time we had got so used to a white landscape that anything else seemed odd.

I've spent the rest of my life hoping that one winter we may get a repeat performance especially in terms of the longevity of the white stuff - I have been hopeful a few times when we have had a cold spell, say for one two or three weeks but we have always been thwarted eventually by the Atlantic, so I have ended up somewhat disappointed.

[Polar Continental]

Thanks for starting this carinthian :-) great thread.

Yes I was only a young lad during the great 62-63 winter, some peeps may have read the double page spread in the daily express which appeared at the end of November, ‘When Britain Froze’ worth a read if you haven’t seen. I have a contribution at the bottom of the 5^th column. See attachment. Part can also be read on the winter section on the net-weather front page.

I would like to add much more in here, when I am not so busy with my own website, will try to add more of my memories from that fascinating winter.

Paul

Edit: the print may to small for us oldies to read, use your browser to magnify or save to your pc and view in paint.

Edited January 3, 2013 by Polar Continental

[jethro]

Anyone interested in the epic winters of 47, 63 and lots lots more should try to get a copy of this book - it's brilliant!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Frozen-Time-Worst-Winters-History/dp/1905080093/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357245072&sr=1-4

[iand61]

Anyone interested in the epic winters of 47, 63 and lots lots more should try to get a copy of this book - it's brilliant!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Frozen-Time-Worst-Winters-History/dp/1905080093/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357245072&sr=1-4

got this book as a Christmas present a couple of years ago and agree that it is a brilliant read giving a blow by blow account of the way that the winters panned out.

[Village]

I know one thing....I have been lucky enough to have lived through the deepest snowfall in this country. The snow lay for almost three weeks.

It was January 1987 I think if my memory serves me well. I lived on the seafront in southeast Essex with my parents at the time and the wind turned northeasterly and strengthened one Saturday afternoon. Snow showers set in later which became heavier and heavier. Some with thunder and lightning and a mini tornado which swept down the beach picking up a spout of snow from the ground. It was great. The snow after the first afternoon was only laying to a depth of about four or five inches with drifts of 18 inches.

Then the next day the wind dropped off and the showers faded during the morning. At dusk it started to snow again, but this time it was continuous. It became heavier and heavier during the evening and the wind was variable. Temperatures were about -2C on the coast. The snow became ridiculously heavy at times and it snowed all night until about mid morning on the Monday. I went downstairs to the porch to leave and try to get to work at about 7 am and it was still dark. The scene that confronted me was unbelievable. I couldnt see much street light through the glass porch door, only at the top half. I opened the front door and was immediately confronted with a huge wall of snow. I thought it was strange to have had drifting snow without wind. I was wrong! It wasnt driftied snow!!! its was completely level snow of 38 inches in depth!!! a meter of level snow!

My sister's MGB roadster was parked in the road outside and all you could see was a gentle mound of snow in the road.

I couldnt possibly walk in it ...nobody could. So I got my Dad's waders out which come up to your chest and tried to walk to the station! It was impossible, one huge step at a time to lift one leg as high as i could up to waste hight to put it down again and then gradually i rose up on the compacted snow with each foot step. I couldnt go far, had to turn back.

Later that day the wind got up to gail force from the east, northeast and it blew all this powder snow into huge drifts. One house at the end of the beach had a drift to the roof and you could walk in an eighteen inch gap between a sheer virtigle wall of snow that went right up two floors to the guttering. All the roads became blocked, but nobody could get their cars out anyway. The roads stayed blocked for a week until the council bulldozers managed to dig a five mile route to free up a carriageway. I have photos of the fifteen foot drifts and drifts to the top of buses.

Somebody walked across the corner of the bonnet of my sisters car because they didnt know the car bonnet was there !! The snow was absolutely ridiculous....38 inches of level !! never seen anything like it since, thats 96.5cm. On the Thursday I think, the temperature in the morning was -15C. The North Sea froze to about half a mile off shore and where the sea ice ended there was sea smoke.

It was amazing to see. I watched lightning from a Cumulonimbus dumping snow over the Isle of Sheppey during this time and snapped a photo of that looking across the sea ice. Unbelievable time.

Edited January 4, 2013 by Village

[drgl]

/\ Please post up the pictures if you can, would love to see them. I remember a good dumping of snow around here in '86 I think.

[Terminal Moraine]

I was coming up for 10 in the winter of 1963 and remember it very well. In this area it was a winter remembered more for the intensity and longevity of the frost rather than the amount of snow.

In common with the other contributors in this section I lived in a house with no central heating or double glazing; we had coal fires in the kitchen and the front room and relied on these for warmth. The unheated rooms were, literally, freezing and my mother had the delicate job each morning of gently thawing out the lead pipes, without bursting them, so that we had running water for the rest of the day.

The windows, even in the heated rooms, were thick with frost throughout the day and it took a considerable amount of scraping to see anything through the bedroom windows. I remember having a glass of water on a table by my bed and waking up on several mornings to find it frozen too hard to poke a finger through the ice.

The local school did not close and I don't remember missing a day due to snow or severe frost. On one morning in mid-January we were playing outside prior to lessons beginning when the headmaster summoned about 5 of us older boys to come with him. The headmaster could be a fearsome man and we wondered what we might have done but he led us to a Six's thermometer on the wall of the school, about 4 feet above the playground. It was reading 9F at about 9.0 a.m, and this on a hilltop site at about 230 mts. He solemnly informed us that we should look at that thermometer very carefully as we might never see a reading as low as long as we live.

That made a very big impression on me. I already had an interest in the weather and had kept some rudimentary records for about six months in 1962 after the tremendous gale in February that year. I was now resolved to get myself a thermometer and keep 'proper' records and so began my weather records in September 1963 when my parents bought me a thermometer and a rain gauge.

A local pond was frozen so thickly that a farmer's son drove a tractor across it. ( Unfortunately he tried the same stunt at the beginning of March and the tractor went through the ice. He got out but the tractor was there for several weeks until it could be dragged out)

One final memory is that of feeding the birds. My parents used to buy 'Swoop' bird food ( anyone remember that? ) and we had several bird tables in a large garden. Even the shyest of birds seemed to lose all fear of humans in that winter, so desperate were they for food, and I remember seeing Green Woodpeckers eating from the bird table only a few feet from the kitchen window. I also remember a Robin which couldn't stand or fly properly. My mother went out, picked it up, and brought it indoors to find that it had two balls of ice, about the size of large marbles, frozen to it's feet. She got a small bowl of warm water into which she held its' feet until the ice thawed, dried it off and released it unharmed.( and probably very relieved).

I've certainly seen snowier winters than 1962/63 but I still haven't seen a lower temperature at a hilltop site than tthe 9F in the school playground.

Edited January 5, 2013 by Terminal Moraine