The Great Freeze...

[Guest tsavo]

I was five in 1947 and just started school during this awful winter. The drifts at Crookes were so high that tunnels were dug through the drifts to allow the crossing of roads. My Father took a sledge from Crookes to the Neepsend Gas Works and hauled two bags of coke back as we had no coal. This is a description of the snowfalls and temperatures.

The winter continued at its most savage in March, 1947, hitting particularly hard at a time of fuel and food shortages after the second World War. The worst of the weather began in late January and the spell did not finally relinquish its grip until mid March. Some very heavy snowfalls - a sequence of severe blizards led to accumulations estimated at between 50 and 120 cm across the English lowlands, with drifts often in excess of 10 feet, sometimes 15 feet (quite remarkable compared with late 20th / early 21st century experience). The Second World War had been over for only 18 months, fuel was rationed, as well as food and clothing. Power cuts were common, frequent and widespread, and there was a shortage of coal (the main source of heat other than gas), due to transport problems, and the need to divert coal to the power stations. Mean temperature below 0degC for 9 weeks. Bulldozers were diverted from bomb clearance to snow clearance. Ice-breakers had to be used in the River Medway (no dates or further details for this). There were severe losses to agriculture; 2 million sheep died, and the frosts destroyed much of the late potato crop. The aftermath was equally severe, with widespread burst pipes, local flooding as snow melted: winter of extreme misery.

THE SNOWY WINTER OF 1947: This event began late, as up until mid-January, although there had been cold spells, the weather was not particularly extreme. Includes the coldest February minus 1.9degC) in that series, and you had to go back to 1895 for a comparable value (minus 1.8). This is now thought to be the snowiest winter of the 20th century (and perhaps the snowiest since 1814), with some snow falling somewhere across the country between 22nd January and 17th March & the greater part of the UK had some form of snow cover continuously from 27th January to the 13th March. Level snow depths exceeded 2ft (circa 60cm) and there was much drifting. Much dislocation (railways particularly badly affected - a vital part of the infrastructure at this time) and great hardship emphasized the reduced circumstances the general population were enduring after the recent War.

[RichardB]

Pictures of this, I would assume, would be few and far between, film for cameras not being of the highest priority at this time :rolleyes:

[Guest tsavo]

Been looking but not found the right one yet. Will keep looking.

[Guest tsavo]

Assume this was 1947...don't know where...

http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/pi...ff.refno=t03502

[syrup]

Pictures of this, I would assume, would be few and far between, film for cameras not being of the highest priority at this time

Hi RichardB Managed to find some Black and White silent film on clearing the Railway on this site.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nationonfilm/location/north/

[Sheffield History]

Great stuff - good find !

[Bayleaf]

I'm a bit younger than Tsavo, but funnily enough one of my first memories is of two of my uncles taking a pram from Firvale where we lived to Grimesthorpe Gasworks for a couple of bags of coke! My parents and I lived with my grandparents and their eldest daughter, and their other two daughters and their families lived in the next two houses. I remember when they came back with the coke all three families huddled round the grate in my grandma's front room!

[Guest tsavo]

It certainly wasn't blamed on global warning at the time!