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My son was 5 years old in 1976 He had always been fair, but that summer his hair bleached by the sun, was almost white. His cousin, not wanting to play, said " Boys with white hair can't play".This expression is often remembered when we all get together.

i was studying for my O levels and would revise in the garden under the shade

Being unable to sleep at night, but it was even worse for my dad as he worked permanent nights - so he found trying to sleep during the day even worse. Using washing up water to water the garden, and finally my French penfriend coming to visit only to find we disliked each other, much to my mums annoyance.

Our first summer after getting married, we grew tomatoes outdoors and spent years afterwards trying to do it again. Now we have a greenhouse.

I had recently returned to work after 7 years at home with the children. In those days office culture dictated that you went to the pub at lunchtime on Fridays - because it was so hot I started drinking real ale, developed a taste for it and have been drinking it ever since.

I remember it well
DD was a toddler and I was heavily pregnant with DS (born in October). It was a long, hot summer. We had recently moved house and I remember spending most days in the back garden, sitting in the shade of the apple tree, me with my feet in DD's paddling pool while she played in it or the sandpit with her new best friend, my neighbour's little boy.
I remember making lots of ice lollies and reading lots of stories. Also turning a blind eye to everything waiting to be done in the house. Painting and decorating etc just had to wait.
And yes, I remember those pesky ladybirds...and how the kids were in fits of giggles at the yellow 'poo' they occasionally deposited on our skin.
Happy days

Will always remember that time. It was not long before our house burned down, so very mixed memories.

I worked at the Midland Bank in those days and I remember we didn't wear uniforms, so all of us girls turned up for work in strapy summer dresses.nothing was said, so it was our way of keeping cool.

You'll be sorry you picked this year! I got meningo-encephalitis, was barrier nursed in a very hot hospital, my two year old daughter was at our house with my parents as my husband was at work, it was hell! I had a lumbar puncture which meant I had to staying flat on my back for weeks as I got a terrific headache every time I tried to sit upright. Eventually I discharged myself as I couldn't bear to be away from my child any longer, spent weeks just getting up for short periods, a frozen cloth on my head for the headache, gradually got up and took a few steps before collapsing. It took months for me to recover and I got pregnant immediately so my son was not well when he was born the following year! Phew! What a scorcher!

Holidayed in 1976,as we always did, in Northwest Wales, and enjoyed a brilliant southern continental-type climate for possibly the only time ever. The local posh hotel had to import gallons of kaolin and morphine for a stomach bug which felled many guests.
BiL and Sil in Mid-Wales had water cut off for 12 hours a day, and there were serious forest fires. The next year small daughters asked when it was going to be summer.

Taking my CSE exmas in a scout hut about a mile from the school which meant I had to go to the school for assembly then walk the mile (in the heat) to the scout hut which had a tin roof (making it like an oven) then walking back to school at mid-day sweltering. Also avoiding the ladybirds which got caught in my very long hair!! At least I passed all 10 exams but I don't know how!!

I remember lots of carefree beach action, grew up in Cornwall and we used to have trampolines on one of the local beaches and tennis courts right next door, when it got too hot we'd run into the sea and swim out to the rocking raft which was always seriously overloaded with rowdy teens using it to divebomb from, it was madness but we loved it, soaked, sunny, salty and sandy, vivid memories of pure pleasure !!

It was my first year of secondary school. We lived in North Devon and had a terrible water shortage. My grandparents had to get water from a standpipe and I remember collecting water for them in the rain

I was working as a chambermaid in drought hit East Sussex that very hot summer. I well remember several disgruntled hotel guests moaning about the fact that the swimming pool was empty. After explaining over and over and still getting moans and grumbles, we had leaflets printed in the end, to put in all the rooms, explaining that we weren't allowed to fill it because there was a drought on.

We were camping in Cornwall, our normal annual family holiday and it was horrendous in the caravan, no breath and 5 of us sweltered. Thankfully there was a swimming pool on the campsite but it was ridiculously busy as everyone tried to cool down

I remember that year very well for few memorable moments and Year -1976 - First I got married in February in my warm country(Mauritius). Then after a week come to England in the cold weather. Remember the journey from the airport to Ealing. Every house look similar in each road, the weather - was cold, cloudy and miserable. First impression. Well the summer was ok for me at the beginning but gor hotter. Remember we left doors, windows opened, day time sat in the shade in the little garden which we shared with the landlord(a friend of my husband). My husband used to wash his car often with the hose which was ban, no Bath but shower. Remember priest - from India came to U.K. to chant so we will have rain. I miss my family from back home. I will never forget that year. There was a great change in my life. 41 years now.....a memory and memorable time and change in my life. Was glad in a way but was different and lonesome too sometimes. I am happy to have gone through that period and witness and be part of that. X

Our family home had a conservatory with a solid roof at the back of the house. It was a perfect private place to sunbathe but you had to climb out of the bathroom window to get to it. I remember spending my free time there reading and drinking ice cream sodas to keep hydrated and cool. One day my mum decided to keep me company but then struggled to get back indoors as she couldn't jump up to the window sill. I had to clamber in and bring a stool out for her to use. She kept to the patio for sunbathing after that. Happy memories!

I went on holiday to the Lake District with my boyfriend. We stayed on a farm that did B&B - there was a water shortage & we weren't allowed to flush the toilet or get showered. We were booked in for 5 nights, but made up a family crisis & left after the first night

Started work that summer and there were two local holidays two Mondays in a row. Buses were on Sunday service and I had to walk home in blazing heat. It was glorious

I was living in an attic flat at the time and it was stiflingly hot so I would open all the windows, only to allow in swarms of ladybirds

Oh I do indeed remember the hot summer of 1976 and it did really seem endless! I was pregnant with my first son, who made an appearance at the end of September at the hefty weight of nine pounds nine ounces. I was staying with my mother in law whilst my husband worked away from home so we saw each other only at weekends. This made the growth rate of my swelling abdomen even more noticeable to him of course and he knew a whopper was on the way. Ma in law grew strawberries in pots and was saving a big luscious one for me; I was really looking forward to the day of ripening when I could taste the juicy strawberry and savour it at leisure from the comfort of the deck chair I had recently re-covered. The day dawned when we could pick the shiny red strawberry, but when we trooped into the garden we saw that all that was left was the stalk and a tail end of fruit; the blackbird had got there before us!

I too was pregnant in 1976. DD was born in June. I was ill afterwards and didn't go out for a month. I remember the unbearable heat in London and a baby who we had to spend hours trying to feed, along with trying to occupy a toddler. Beginning of September we decided to drive down to Devon for a holiday just as the weather changed. Over the ten days there we had one morning and one afternoon when it didn't rain!

My DD was two years old and we lived with my parents in our own annex of a big old farm house which was arranged around a courtyard garden. DD was down for her afternoon nap so I lay down on a sun bed to catch some rays, stark naked. I must have fallen asleep in the heat, because I was woken by a hand cupping my breast! Luckily it turned out to be my other half who had come round the back to look for me when I hadn't answered the door.
A glorious summer - the best ever!

I remember it, as i was on a school camping trip to Mersea and i got so badly burned that the teachers, were taking turns rubbing lotion on the students back.. lots of red burned faces & backs!

I have a wonderful photograph of my 8 month old son sitting up
in his pram in the garden in the shade watching me trying to garden in the heat. We were saving water like mad although I had to wash the nappies.
Happy days.