A foreboding winter pic, from 1963?

[NealB]

Nicked from our local FB group.

Looking across the Crouch from Creeksea to Wallasea.

 

[Concerto]

This is a photo from the KentOnLine web site. Kent's snowfalls of 1963

 

[ex-Gladys]

'63 started on Boxing Day '62 and lasted through months... A now flurry in Feb is hardly comparable

 

[Easticks28]

This is Gt Yarmouth in the winter of 1963

 

[NealB]

'63 started on Boxing Day '62 and lasted through months... A now flurry in Feb is hardly comparable

I'm not even vaguely suggesting comparability!

'63 win hands down (fingers crossed!).

Indeed ..... that's exactly why I thought it'd be fun to show a pic (or two, or three, or ......?) from '63 on the East Coast forum.

 

[tillergirl]

'63 started on Boxing Day '62 and lasted through months... A now flurry in Feb is hardly comparable

I was a Nottingham boy in those days. The snow in 62 started in first week of December. Don't remember any problems with the trolley buses. Not that they had heating upstairs.

 

[LONG_KEELER]

I was a Nottingham boy in those days. The snow in 62 started in first week of December. Don't remember any problems with the trolley buses. Not that they had heating upstairs.

Best winter ever.

Loads of sledging and snow fights. A leather flying helmet from the surplus shop was chic at the time.

 

[LittleSister]

I remember there was a decent depth of snow even where we lived in London - well up near the top of a child's wellingtons - you had to make a hole for each foot as you tried to walk. I can't remember seeing snow that deep in a town since.

The area where I lived was mainly very flat, but there was a steepish concrete slope down to the entrance of some modern Council flats that had been built nearby, so we 'tobogganed' down that. Unfortunately, there were concrete bollards at the bottom of the slope. (Ouch!)

I say toboggan, but our 'sleds' were pieces of old lino we'd found on a bomb ruin. You curled up and over the front edge and tried to grip it, sat on the lino and off you went. With the emphasis being on the 'off', as you'd often part company with the lino on the way down.

The main thing I remember was quite how cold one's hands got. We didn't have gloves, but old socks our parents gave us to put on our hands, and these were soon sodden.

 

[michael_w]

Not '62 but another winter, Best toboggan was the bonnet off a Morris Minor, Six kids completely out of control on Hampstead Heath,

 

[Lucy52]

It was about 10in on the front garden path, in West London, and the schools stayed open. We walked there as well.

 

[Robin]

I lived 30 mls north of London, my driving test was postponed 3 times. kids walked to school without complaining, in short trousers mostly too AND the teachers turned up. Later when living in Wiltshire, 6 inches of white stuff fell overnight,my kids went to school but came home because it was closed, main roads were cleared but teachers would not drive on the uncleared school car park, nor offer to help clear it, school closed 3 days more until parents got their shovels out, except for my next door neighbour, who was one of the teachers....

 

[LittleSister]

. . . and the schools stayed open. We walked there as well.

No doubt you were scarred for life by the experience.

 

[Poignard]

In the winter of 1963 I was on a course at a Royal Navy training establishment.

The accomodation and classrooms were in uninsulated wooden huts, supposedly heated by radiators fed from a distant boiler room, by inadequately insulated pipes.

It was so cold that, as a special concession, we were allowed to wear civilian pullovers with our uniforms. We also used to put layers of newspaper between the two blankets we were issued with.

 

[NealB]

In the winter of 1963 I was on a course at a Royal Navy training establishment.

The accomodation and classrooms were in uninsulated wooden huts, supposedly heated by radiators fed from a distant boiler room, by inadequately insulated pipes.

It was so cold that, as a special concession, we were allowed to wear civilian pullovers with our uniforms. We also used to put layers of newspaper between the two blankets we were issued with.

Two blankets AND layers (plural) of newspaper?

I thought you RN types were meant to be a tough bunch?

 

[tillergirl]

Best winter ever.

Loads of sledging and snow fights. A leather flying helmet from the surplus shop was chic at the time.

We had the longest slide in the school quad. A nice natural slope and no shortage of ice. Great.

 

[Poignard]

I recollect the winter of 1947 being worse.

 

[NealB]

I recollect the winter of 1947 being worse.

Thanks!

I had to google that one (a bit before my time).

The Winter Of 1947

 

[banger]

I spent a considerable time during that winter snow clearing, two and a half months on a International Drott BTD 6, no cab, we worked early morning until dark, then with light's, the snow reflected so much in the dark you could work easily, we shifted it, the wind backfilling it but we had to keep the roads clear. The machines were left running when we finished, stop them and you couldn't start them.

 

[banger]

1962/3 I am referring to.

 

[johnalison]

'47 was famously bad, if only because it came at a time of shortages anyway. I believe, though I hardly remember it, that January was unusually warm and the freeze didn't start until the end of the month. '62/63 started on Boxing Day and continued with only a short thaw for a couple of months. they were both pretty bad in their own may. I was in my last year of study and had to borrow my father spare car, a Mini to get around. Living on top of a fairly steep hill made it interesting, but drivers were generally better at coping then, and there were far fewer of them.

This morning was a bit wet, so at least walking was easy enough. We probably now have about the four inches forecast. Not so much a beast from the east as a cub.