In the winter of of 63 we had no water in our house for 13 weeks but we survived we had school everyday and the busses continued run. we had no central heating just a coal fire in one room. but as a child the winter of 63 was fun.
both my siblings are older & been around since the 1950s & both seem to either watch way too many tv news broadcasts or daily newspapers & take the diet of misery, pessimism or plain fear with almost enthusiasm - conversations become hijacked by their re telling of shock & drama news .it’s their choice but last week i devoted an hour on Google & emailing sister to point to official crime statistics of Britain which demonstrate the incredible reduction in reported crimes of property theft & personal or physical assaults since peaking in 1996 & without wanting to patronise her as she does me , explain how crimes like these are & should be reduced - given the expense of hi security in & outside homes & the paranoia devoted to hypothetical violent monsters about to jump out from any lamppost or from the cupboard beneath the stairs….” it’s still terrible though how you don’t know what can happen nowadays “ dear sis replied . I was about to shout how competition between god knows how many newsrooms’ owners needing maximum views weren’t around in earlier times & when daytime radio is no longer satisfied with hourly news bulletins as with R1 on the half hour & Radio Victory or Capital ot the top of the hour & today it’s every 15 minutes or less on repeat - & how perspective is something 70 year olds should really appreciate but no. Next time my brainwashed siblings mention some poor souls’ fate amongst a population of 400,000 ( in the case of Bournemouth Poole) & how “ it’s bad “ , I’m gonna say how the 70s & 80s was so utterly civilised with mere daily Ulster bombings, nightly booze fuelled beatings outside clubs & glorious riots of smashed properties with tens of slashings at most big soccer games’ followers …& burnt out railway carriages . That was just most cities & the British media hadn’t the means to instantly access doom & gloom & worse from across the seas….🙄👍🐢❤️
….she could say “ that’s just reported crimes ! “ - & yes but the news today would never tell anyone how in the good old days of utter safety, no crime went unreported… you mentioned Brainwash & by golly after my older brother ended up with his mug on fb just for delivering leaflets for a window cleaner, i reckon there’s millions whom would bring back the GDR whilst voting Tory because they support personal freedom ... God help us 😃
You mean the assholes that control the TV didn't use natural events to scare the shit out of people like they do these days. When a person is in fear they are easier to control this is why the TV pumps out so much negativity. It's all by design by our overlords. Put a hammer through that device already, it's controlled by demonic entities. It's called TV "programming" for a reason. You are being PROGRAMMED. See the other comment on brainwashing.
Mum and Dad had us all in their bed to.keep warm (3 of us). Windows were iced up,blankets and coats on beds. We survived unscathed, no panic buying or moaning
I was a six year old boy back in 63, one of 6 children, and we had a coal fire, Gas mantle lights, outside toilet, no bathroom, I do remember this freeze up, But it never stopped us kids making lots of snowballs. apart from digging our way out of the front door, I have nothing but fond memories of a cold but enjoyable time.
Yes I remember this the snow was above the front door, shops struggled to get fresh supplies and in those days the only toilet in the house was OUTSIDE. Luckily my brothers and I collected fallen branches from the local woods as we soon ran out of coal. Ah yes the Winter of 1963
Oh yes the outdoor loo, I remember dad leaving a shovel next to the back door for those late night visits… wellies and a shovel to go to the loo… what a palaver 😎
I was 9 at the time and loved it, we lived on a steep hill and us children used a piece of upturned Nisson hut to climb onto and fly down the hill, no one stopped us no concern about health and safety then great fun.
Buses were running and I still went to school! Perhaps might have closed for a couple of days but as long as roads were cleared buses still ran in the Midlands. I was 11.mom and I had to shovel garden path. Snow drifts at side of road and up the door. We walked in the footsteps of man who had forced his way through to get to work about 7 in the morning! Those days ..no whinging..you just got on with it!😊
One thing I do recall was that the Council had cleared passages in the snow to the Shops and Schools. I could hear my friends but couldn’t see them and every now and again a snowball would come over the top! School was still open and so were our shops. Amazing experience.
Reading these comments I assume a lot of you will have heard first hand about the 1947 winter. The thing usually overlooked is that the main problem was not the amount of snow, although that was extreme, it was that the temperature did not get above freezing for six weeks. " So if it was froze it stayed froze": as I heard it.
I remember it well, cleared the front path with dad, but two hours later as deep as it was before. I was in the cubs, my job was to drag the soapbox to a shop about a mile away to fill up with paraffin for the heaters, which i had to fill, trim and keep working. Extra school holiday as school pipes all froze and split. At one time, mother got the washing in and stacked it against the wall, all frozen solid. Also had to riddle the fire from the night before, to get the ashes to put on the back steps, to get more coke to re-light fires and rayburn for the next day, chilly work indeed. Waking in the morning and cracking the bedroom curtains to get the frost off. I was seven at the time in Kent.
I can remember our school was closed for two days only, we went back to tunnels through the snow from one classroom to another, today they would shut them till April when it had all gone, the world and people today just wouldn't cope.
I was only three at the time but my parents often spoke of it - Tunnelling through the snow to get out of the house, no central heating, coal fires if you could get coal, struggling to get to work - but we all survived. Recently a friend commented about the temperature of the room her baby was in - huh we had ice inside the windows during winter into the 80's 🙂Cliff Michelmore a blast from the past, a stalwart of the Beeb!
We moved house on the 27th December 62. No van, only help was the neighbours and spades. I was 4, but I can still remember dads little car with the double bed mattress flapping on its roof.
That brought back some memories!! Snowed in for 6 weeks on the north side of the Mendip Hills in Somerset. Have to think how folks would survive now. Most have no idea of basic survival living.
Despite Packham the wildlife recovered. Just time. Had to walk four miles in snow to catch bus to work then home again in the snow for about two weeks. No problem as we were all in the same boat. No centrally heated home then but had a rayburn on coal in the kitchen.
I was 6 years old, I remember it so well. We lived in a little village in Buckinghamshire called Hillesden. We were snowed in for weeks, There was talk of the possibility of a helicopter food drop at one stage. Snow came up to the bedroom windowsills and we had to use our neighbour's path climbing over the fence to get into our house. fortunately, we had a good supply of coal and wood for the fire!
I doubt I will ever walk around Eastbourne pier on sea ice again! It is only in looking back that I realize just how hardy, helpful and practical folks were back then. At the time it seemed sort of normal that life went on one way or another and it was amazing how quickly services and transport were got back into use, albeit limited.Though many things were in short supply but we just 'got on with it'. I sincerely doubt that the country would cope so well if we were to get another winter like that.
I have seen this documentary elsewhere on you Tube. I was a paper boy in East London during that winter and the documentary is the best that I have seen on the topic. The papers arrived everyday for delivery. My school was open every day. My father worked for London Transport on the buses and they ran every day. I know that elsewhere in the country it was worse but London functioned almost normally.
Meanwhile in the North of England in Grimsby the snow was above the front door or two meters deep and even if you could get to the shops a 5 minute walk away in summer would maybe take you twenty minutes through the snow drifts, only to find out there was no overnight restock as the wagons could not get through the deep snow.
Yes it did,I went to London every day,the train might be late occasionally, but they ran,so did the busses.We had one coal fire in back room,and by the beginning of February we were having to ration the coal,no gas,sometimes the power failed. We kept candles and a primus stove,I remember once the riser into the house froze. Many days were sunny as I recall,but then there would be another blizzard. When it finally went,the spring flowers were underneath
I was a Junior Soldier at the time but we carried on soldiering despite the weather. We had chemical toilets set up in our barrack blocks and water came in large bottles for washing and shaving etc. We were still fed hot food and even went out on an "exercise" around the Blackdown / Deepcut area. The same winter in October 1962 the Cuban Missile Crisis and yet again in November 1963 JFK was assassinated and to top it all the worst winter for decades and yet I had already survived at six months old equally freezing the winter of Dec 1946- Jan1947.
And most people rolled up their and got stuck in digging g and helping people the was the Wartime Generation who knew the meaning of Keep Calm and Carry on and also knew the meaning You do your worst and we will do our best.. I was about 10 and my sister and I took milk and bread to our Nan and Grandad locally in London we were treated like cavalry coming to the rescue of our nan and grandad I cleared Nans neighbour front patches and they sent home cakes to Nan for wonderful her grandchildren (I.e. Us ) we felt useful and our snowtime was remembered for many years..
I was 9 when this weather came, only remember that most of us were snowball fighting on the main road near home. Not much traffic was getting through but most had snow chains on their tyres and anyway roads then were not congested as now. I well remember coming indoors wet through and warming my hands near the coal fire and suffering chilblains.
Oh God! Yes, the chilblains. I remember them well. Mum used to take me to the clinic for some ointment to put on them. Can't remember what it was called but I loved the smell!
This brought back memories, I remember snippets of the 47 freeze, being only eight, but i remember a lot of th 63 freeze, I was lucky I was kept working in a joiners shop making all the doors and frames for some houses we were building. I wouldn't like it to happen again.
I was 6 at the time in London - I also remember the smog masks we also had to wear when venturing down the road to get water from the council standpipe...the shop on the corner was also handing out small bundles of kindling to help start our fire.
Thank you for this Nigel. I was born during this time, I have cine film of deep snow on the hospital steps with my mother carrying me down wearing her stilettos of course! I still get that rebellion in my very bones when it snows.
During that winter, my dad found a rare bird, frozen to death ( literally), and took it to Reading museum, where it was taxidermied. I remember him taking us to see it in the display case. No, I cannot remember what it was, just remember being told it was rare.
You had to pay the coal man on time in those days! Keeping your coal merchant happy was a matte of life and death! My mother said people thought the sun would never shine again.
I was 15 at the time and had a job at the weekends selling logs. A sack full was 2 /6 (went up to 5 bob a year later) and we had a lorry load. The sacks had to be filled on the back of the lorry, the sacks were wet and heavy and chaffed the neck. I remember well the snow driving into my face and wishing that I was at home with the family. It was bitter cold, and the people were glad to see us. They gave us hot drinks and lots of sweets. It was such hard work and all we got at the end of the day, was 5/-. Without sounding like a Monty Python skit, "you were lucky". After a day like that, we would go out and spend the money on fish and chips and go home at 9ish.What would the woke society do today?
Our house backed onto a park which was fantastic for us kids. I remember walking through the park to school and, yes they stayed open in those days. No snow days for us! Then after school and at weekends we would start snowballs at the top of the hill and roll them all the way down until they crashed into the ditch outside our back garden. They'd be huge by the time they reached the bottom and we couldn't have stopped them if we'd tried, lol. Good thing there wasn't anyone walking along the path in-between the bottom of the hill and the ditch.
I remember it well. I was 17. No rugby for weeks, so the problem was how to stay match fit. Yes, I was keen despite being an exile having to play bloody union. We thought we'd be playing again next weekend or the one after. It was bound to thaw soon, wasn't it? Err ... no, it didn't. So a few of us decided to go for a run. We did 6 miles, nearly all in deep, untrodden snow. I reckon the effort of that made it the equivalent of 3 or 4 times further. Some were wearing tracksuit bottoms, but I was one of several in shorts. We didn't reckon on the layer of ice on top of the snow, which we had to break. Those in tracksuit bottoms got them soaked, of course, but that was a minor problem compared with wearing shorts. We got our legs cut to ribbons by the ice. It didn't seem much at the time, but when we finished and saw the state of our legs it was a different matter! The depth of the snow varied a bit in different places, and so did the level at which our legs got butchered, from below the knee to mid-thigh. . What that proved, I suppose, is that the snow did thaw from time to time, but only for a few hours, and then it froze again, good n' hard, on top of the soft snow below.
I remember that winter only too well. I was 14 and had a paper round to do before school each day. No such thing as "Thinsulate" or heated gloves back then. I used to come home with my hands frozen to the bike handlebars. Had to bring the bike into the kitchen so I could thaw out in front of the coke boiler enough to let go of the bike. Then came the joy of the burning sensation as blood started to circulate through the fingers again. My mother called it "hot aches", what I called it isn't repeatable. The paper round earned me 17/6 a week (87.5p for those too young to remember £.s.d). Was it worth it? I thought so at the time.
Ha! My mother worked for the BeeBeeSee and had a particularly plummy eksent which mint we all had particularly plummy eksents. Now in my 60’s the extreme plumminess has somewhat diminished 😂
The day after my birthday. I AM the antichrist. Well that's what my mother called me since I prevented her getting the only decent meal she was going to get in hospital in 1962.
i remember walking to school in the snow 6ft above our head where it had been cleared either side of the road. long walk to school as well lived in rural are of what was then Cumberland. i doubt we will ever see the like again now that worlds weather has changed so much, sad in a way as i like the snow.
The cold killed nearly all the wrens and they took decades to start flourishing again. I remember celebrating their return to London, which had been famous for them, in the late 1990s.
The only thing I remember as a ten year old back then is getting about of the frozen lake of Victoria Park and taking the falls. Also wondering how on earth the swans and ducks were coping because I never saw any of them.
@goinghomesomeday1 Hello, Wow I can only imagine the hardships that everyone must have experienced. We should never underestimate the power of nature over us. Glad you survived and thank you for sharing.
Imagine if this happened in 2024, the climate change propaganda would be gargantuan 😂 governments would be rubbing their hands with glee knowing it’s a perfect example to green tax us to oblivion 😂
That sour, sad sh!tbag has cost farmers millions by getting pigeons protected without any thought for how such stupid actions would impact other ppl. The minister responsible for actioning his proposals obviously didn’t check how it would affect others either.
I was hardly born( Just like tomcat; Tom Cruize. I'm born in June 28 1962. Tomcat Scientology Tom Cruize is form the same year, only some days youger; TC that it,
