The British winter

[alecstilleyedye]

1981 wasn't good, coz I was a bit skint and wasn't getting on with me girlfriend at the time....

was good for me, the school was twice shut due to staff shortages on days when it snowed like buggery

 

[graham56]

Funny how everyone is able to make it to work in the snow except teachers, they must have a phobia about it

 

[andy_wrx]

According to the news, any year when there's a bit of snow in London or the South East is a 'bad winter'

 

[marinyork]

I spoke to someone once about winter 1947. They said a main road had snow stacked up on it for 3 months solid and you couldn't walk down the road as such you had to walk on top of very tall walls which the stacked snow cleared. 93/94 or 94/5 was the last vaguely proper winter here. The worst winters I experienced was when I was very small 82/3 and 83/4. Quite a few relatives died in the bad winter of 1979.

 

[barq]

2001/2: I was living in Bearwood, Birmingham. The central heating was broken for over a month (landlord was overseas, although to be fair he had things fixed within hours once we finally got hold of him). My flatmate escaped to stay with her family in Bartley Green, my then boyfriend was back in Sussex so I got left with my kitten and a fan heater to stay warm. I moved the freezer into my bedroom because I discovered the back of it was warm - that's how bad things were. I could make an individual room warm with the heater, but the total lack of hot water was the real killer. I also had to divert heat to rooms like the bathroom to stop the pipes freezing. Outside the snow wasn't particularly deep but it had compacted into a sheet of ice which made any excursion from my house (on a steep hill) treacherous. I think I drank a lot of red wine that winter.

 

[gbb]

77 or 78 was bad in Peterborough.
We dont see much snow here...dont larff, something to do with the lay of the land.
But 77 or 78, i remember the dual carriageways were invisible for 1 or 2 weeks...just a snowscape with trees either side.
Thorpe Wood roundabout, which is kinda sunken and banked all round, the snow was compacted so deep, they had to use JCBs to dig it out...days after the rest of the snow had melted.
Was it last year or the year before when we had subzero temps for a couple of weeks....not much snow, but ferkin freezin

 

[velocipede2288]

My web site

http://pawild.net/alanherper

If you would like to brows my site, you will find many links to cycling and touring in particular.
It started off a hobbies site,but now is mostly cycling.
The worse winter I remember is 1963. Lots of snow.and very deep.

 

[graham56]

Don`t want to sound like a Monty Python sketch Barq, but as a lad lived in a house without central heating or inside toilet tilli was 13,can still remember the ice on the inside of the windows on winter mornings, we must have been as hard as nails.

 

[Blue]

Another vote for 1963.

I was 8 and had a week-end job on the local milk round. I still recall getting extra pay for turning out for work - I came from a dirt poor background and earning extra cash made an impact as I recall that rather than the snow itself!!

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

1963 for me. Sledging for weeks and weeks and weeks

My F-in-L was a conscript in the army in 1947. The lads burnt anything they could lay their hands on in camp (nissan huts) - loo seats, doors..... Eventually the army sent them home as they couldn't look after them in camp .

 

[Nortones2]

1963 was an annus horribilis if only for the spectacle of the external pipes from the bogs in the office block freezing, then splitting, then thawing.....

 

[gbb]

Don`t want to sound like a Monty Python sketch Barq, but as a lad lived in a house without central heating or inside toilet tilli was 13,can still remember the ice on the inside of the windows on winter mornings, we must have been as hard as nails.

That sounds familiar graham...
in the late 60s, early 70s we lived in RAF quarters.
One coke burner in the kitchen, a coal fire in the living room............and that was it.
Frost on the insides was regular. We used to wake up, lay under the covers shivering....and you could see the 'steam' coming out your mouth.


'Ard...i'll show you 'ard...

Where in Northumberland are you from graham ???

 

[barq]

Don`t want to sound like a Monty Python sketch Barq, but as a lad lived in a house without central heating or inside toilet tilli was 13,can still remember the ice on the inside of the windows on winter mornings, we must have been as hard as nails.

Well I don't envy you, but I bet you had an open fire. I think in my case it is more a story about the inadequacy of many modern homes to cope with lack of heating. Just don't have the equipment to boil large amounts of water, or even a decent blanket. It did change the way I view cold - I now stick another layer of clothes on rather than turn up the heat.

I remember stuff freezing up, pint glasses of water even. You could see your breath in the daytime. I'm sure others have had it worse, but it wasn't fun.

 

[graham56]

Where in Northumberland are you from graham ???

Heddon on the Wall now ,but as a lad Scotswood in Newcastle.

 

[noggin]

81/82 equalled coldes Uk temp. just up the road at Braemar -27c
I remember putting the bin out that night and even in the tenemnet steps where we stayed in first floor flat the stairs were gistening with frost inside
all pipes froze of course and had nae water for a week
decamped to mother-in-laws - one night the Mrs lasted- back to cold cold cold flat
got water by bucket from shop a couple of doors away