Winter watch 1963 .....The Big Freeze

Here it is!

I think that was the first time I ever saw snow growing up in the balmy Southwest! I thought it was wonderful (I was only 8) and I still get excited when we get snow now, slightly more frequently in the Midlands.

I was born in August 1958, so would have been 5.

Living in a house where the only heating was a coal fire in the living room

I was 26 and have no memory of the freeze !

Oh my goodness, Urmstongran we had a very similar paraffin heater to that, though a different make. Valor maybe?

Another memory for me is my poor chapped legs, where my wellies rubbed. We weren’t allowed to wear trousers to school so staggered though snow and ice in dresses or tops/skirts, fawn school socks and rubber wellies. It was not fun.

To this day, I hate being cold.

I missed this and would like to have watched it, but annoyingly, it is not available on catch up

I missed this programme too.

I was 10 and remember going sledging at Tettenhall Rock. This is all I can really remember. It was the only time in my childhood I went sledging.

We lived in a Bungalow that came with Dad's job with the council. It was rent and fuel free, so I imagine the electric heaters were on constantly as I was never cold.

Try YouTube to watch it? Sometimes possible that way!

aggie ‼️
You’ve made me feel better though! I was 9y and cannot recall anything about The Big Freeze.

Sadly my mum died just over 2 years ago and this was the kind of thing I’d have rung her about to ask her recollections.
She was 86y.

They do say don’t they that when an old person dies a library of information goes with them.

Just looked that up.
It’s ‘when an old person dies a library burns to the ground’.
An African proverb apparently.

I was 11yrs in the winter of 62/63.
We were all tucked up in bed at nights but our dad had to walk to work over 4 miles through the blinding snow as he was an electrical power engineer, keeping everyone's electricity on. No cars on roads and snow piled high on the main road.

I remember that winter we skated in our local park on the football pitches!

Bathsheba we have just watched it on iplayer.

I was 6 and my brother was a few months. He was christened on Christmas Day 1962 and my parents had to carry the pram to the church because of the snow. I got a baby doll from Santa and I called him Michael. My DM has photos of that day and me holding my doll.

Yes, It's available for all on bbc iplayer . check it out!

Watched this last night and loved the trip down memory lane.
I can remember that we lived in Compton Abdale in Gloustershire and we were at the top of hill. My dad did farm work and we had to climb out of the ground floor windows to get out and clear snow from the front and back door. We had to take care with the dogs when we let them out as snow drifts from surrounding fields were very deep. Can't remember how our dear mum managed with food shopping etc but can't remember going hungry. Always toaty warm in the house with the rayburn in the kitchen which also cooked food and heated water. As we couldnt get to school in Cheltenham us kids helped dad feed the cattle which luckily were in the cattle sheds for the winter, played snowballs and made snowmen. We also had to trudge through the snow to the nearby woods to try and find twigs, fallen branches etc for the rayburn to keep it going.

Urmstongran

Just looked that up.
It’s ‘when an old person dies a library burns to the ground’.
An African proverb apparently.

Going off thread, but remember watching tv when it was 80 years since WW1 had ended.

Casually asked Mum if she could remember the day the war finished, she would have been 6.

She said “I remember it as though it were yesterday” and went on to tell me how the headmaster announced it, the children were sent home, she cycled home alone,( 3 miles away!) and was able to impart the historic news to family and neighbours, as they had heard nothing out in the country.

It was fascinating to listen to, she was a good storyteller, I could picture it all in my mind, wish I had recorded her memories.

My father was seriously ill in hospital 10 miles away that Christmas. I remember my mother and I standing in freezing cold bus shelters waiting for buses that often stopped short of their destination because of the snow. On Christmas morning a very dour man from the village very kindly drove us to the hospital and we had to revise our opinion of him. My father never forgot and always gave him spare plants for his garden. Whilst the snow stayed around dad was home recovering and didn’t have to struggle to work.

I also remember helping my friend deliver the Evening Standard to hamlets cut off with just a single pathway cut through the snow.

I was commuting from West Lothian to Edinburgh for teacher training. The trains ran surprisingly well, though the countryside was frostbound for at least six weeks. All along the railway line, field drains had frozen, forming spectacular icicles the size of cathedral organ pipes. The loch in our town was frozen hard enough for curling; water fowl sat disconsolately on the ice but managed to get out of the way when our dog tried vainly to reach them, spreadeagling her frontpaws on the ice.

Thanks for the tip off about this programme. I watched it last night. I’m glad other people have no memory of it as well as me, though.

MayBee70 ?

My cousin got married on 1 January 1963 (1st Jan wasn't a holiday in those days).

My sister and I aged 6 and 8, were to be bridesmaids.

Our Dad was a very experienced driver and risked the drive down to Slough. It snowed all the way and we ended up in a ditch somewhere near Baldock.

A farmer pulled us out with his tractor. Some of this I remember and some of it I remember from my parents re-telling the story. We stayed in the car, dressed in our off-white full length bridesmaids dresses that our Mum had made. They were trimmed with fake fur and she had made us little pillbox hats and little muffs with the furry material to match.

The only thing I remember about the wedding was that there was a cheeseboard at the reception and I tried Wensleydale for the first time and thought it was wonderful.

We also have a couple of photos of us pulling a sledge with a washing basket full of washing on it. Our pipes were all frozen but the lady down the road let us have the use of her washing machine. My father thought it would be a clever idea to place the box of Fairy Snow washing powder on the top.

In another photo, I am holding out a shirt, washed and frozen stiff.

We had a Rayburn in the kitchen, too, to cook with and dry the clothes. Dad had fixed a washing line above it and the clothes horse was stood in front of it.

The shirt was frozen stiff, not me.

I remember washing frozen on the washing line but don’t think it’s from that particular winter. But maybe it was.