in 1963 I remember walking 3 miles to school across fields and country lanes..not once did we ever have school cancelled..I wonder how the poor little darlings of today would cope
The poor little snowflakes would not have managed in the real stuff. We all had to walk to school. It was my last year and it took so long as buses seem to have stopped. Mind you, a couple of children did not turn up and they were in trouble for it. These days the authorities would think it cruel to make children walk so far in difficult conditions.
Brought back lots of happy memories and lovely to read the comments too. I was 9 years old, almost 10 ( February 1st). I remember big coal fires and oil heaters which warmed the whole ground floor. Bedrooms were unheated as it was considered an unnecessary expense plus the safety factor. It was common for small children to share bedrooms, even beds! We shared 4 children in one room, one brother away at school, one brother unaccounted for! A total of 6 children. We were all quite healthy, my mother was a State Registered Nurse and looked after us extremely well. I don’t remember the schools closing at all, life went on as usual even though things were very unusual. We had a huge coal fire in our classroom each and every day, which would be burning brightly by the time lessons started. I had a long walk to school ( minimum 45 minutes each way). My chair was right next to the fire! I think my desk was placed there as I probably had one of the longest journeys. I remember clothes frozen on the washing line, you could literally stand a pair of jeans up which we did for fun. Jack Frost inside bedroom window panes in the morning and enormous icicles outside the back door. We wore lots of layers, gloves were often lost. I remember walking to school, hands in pockets and being ticked off by a passing adult in case I slipped and fell with my hands in my pockets. Lots of snowball fights but lots of ice as well which made walking very difficult.We had porridge most mornings ( made the night before) and a full cooked breakfast on Sunday.Cornflakes with hot milk,for breakfast , was a special treat during the bitterly cold weather. I lived and grew up in West London.We watched the news every night and we heard what was happening in the rest of the country. The sea freezing in Essex and herds of animals buried in snowdrifts, starving and unreachable up and down the country. We knew it was very serious. Watching this has brought back memories.
Wow, Bridget, You are a month older than me. i grew up in the west of Scotland and your memories of that time are exactly the same as mine, down to the very last detail . Jack Frost inside bedroom window panes, enormous icicles, porridge in the mornings and a full cooked breakfast on Sunday, coal fires in the schools, lost gloves. Thank you for posting.
@Willy Spinney, thanks for your lovely comment! We’re the same age too! It’s nice to be reminded of events that we lived through. I live just outside London now, the Thames definitely froze over in Sunbury, just 2 or 3 miles away. I remember reading in a book ( Surrey history) that people set up a card table on the ice and played a game of cards!
Now days you only have to have a bit off frost and they cant cope like leaves on the track, back then the train was still moving ether so there was a snow drift blowing
I was in my 20s in Birmingham and rode my 350cc motor bike to work throughout. My dad in the days of steam was a driver on the LMS railway and still rode his bike 8mls to work. He always hated snow, saying "The only good place for snow is on Christmas Cards"
I was 13 in 63, lived in Essex,we still went to school, and my parents still went to work,, yes it was tough, but in those days you had camaraderie and good neighbours, not like today when there is no such thing as a community!
Chris, how uncanny, I 'm the same age as you and from the same county! In common my parents worked right through and school stayed open. My school was a couple of miles away on the other side of what we locally called a park. It wasn't actually a park but the neglected grounds of an old mansion which had long been demolished. I can remember some of the snowdrifts being 3 to 4 feet deep through there. I also had a morning paper round which I actually managed to complete without missing a day!! The printed daily newspaper back then was essential for many people as there was of course no such thing as the internet or mobile phones at the time. I've lived through some amazing times and seen many changes but have to agree with you about community. Sadly the events of the last 12 months have really brought that to the fore.
I was 9 years old. Pipes froze at school and the boilers burst. We were off school for weeks. We went in once a week to get work to do. It was fantastic!
Being 7 at the time , what a memory , we built the longest lasting ice slide , seemed to last forever until Salford council salted it and spoiled the fun, snow on top ice , then more ice , like polished glass , our mission to make it a mirror finish.
Martin Smith...we had one in our school playground. One kiddy fell over and everyone was banned from using it...spoilsports. Adults will NEVER know how to enjoy themselves, will they?
same here , we had a good hill in our school , every mornin some one had started a slide so we would aw join in flattening then polishing , then the black strip of ice , job done , as it quite a long hill few made it aw the way down , ha great memz , aye !
I was 12 years old. We were cut off living on the Essex Suffolk border. Dad drove to town 4 miles away on a tractor with some Tea chests tied to the plough on the back, to fetch basic supplies for the village. Still look at photos taken on the farm during that snowy winter. This pandemic is a walk in the park for most people, compared to the hardship then.
My wife remembers it too (a little older than me). What she doesn't remember is anything like the fatalities over the last year. Quit with the sneering. You can't compare the two events. This pandemic is not and never will be a walk in the park. Certainly not for the NHS staff on the front line.
I was 4 so I can't really remember it but I certainly remember at about 10 going to school and walking through about 7 inches of snow in flat shoes lol.
My parents always talked about the coldest winter that they ever remember, don't forget it was post war and people had been through very hard times already...
I was 9 yrs old l remember my man couldn't open the back door coal fires hot water bottles and loads of blankets on the beds no central heating then funny l would go back in a heartbeat
@@davidwolstenholme3672 yes things have changed since then not sure everything is for the better people helped each other more l think everyone is so materialistic now
I was 9 too and can remember icicles inside our house! Also remember slides and old people putting salt over our slides. Old people are so uncool.... aren't we. But we had the beatles first album and fireball xl5 on tv. Cold didn't bother us then. Ha ha. And yes, I want to go back too.
I was 6 and living in the central belt of Scotland- got wildly excited when it started snowing on Xmas Eve. The snowman I built was still there in late March... Daddy went to work every day, I went to school, we came home to coal fires and hearty home cooked meals-nothing glamorous-stews, broths, shepherd's pie and traditional puds. Getting dressed under the bedclothes in the morning and ice on the inside of the window. And like you, I'd go back in a heartbeat.
@@Colin21454 It is a puzzle why anyone would move away from formats like "The World at War", where participants spoke without judgement and contemporary images illustrated. Otherwise, the likes of Diarmaid MacCulloch or Neil Oliver, and for natural history, take your pick from David Attenborough. The public prefer them and they are far more informative.
I remember it well. I started school in 1962, and had never needed to be outside in harsh weather before. I had no idea what was coming around the corner, after Christmas. I loved, I hated it, It could have stayed indefinitely, and I also wanted it gone. Yep, took a tumble in school yard, cracked my nut on the concrete KO'd and concussion. I remember the milk stick four inches out of the tops of the bottles, windows frozen up so much that you couldn't open them, and had to warm up the glass just to see out! As far as I can recall, it was the first time we ever had a fire in the grate in our bedroom, when no one was ill! Didn't see my grandparents for what seemed like weeks, even though they were only 75 yards up the street from us. It was an adventure, it was an experience, and people today think you're kidding when you tell them. All I can say is that at 63 years sold, I wouldn't want to see another winter like it.
I was four at the time can't remember what happened ( thank God ) but my parents must of went through hell then , and they said very few flu cases ,,, huh .
Who remembers Cliff Michelmore with fondness! Also I remember us all seven kids sitting around a paraffin heater and burning old shoes or anything to keep warm the kids now would never survive I was ten at the time .
@@rockabyebaby6111 yeah we used to burn most things on the fire........pretty sure garbage would be a huge problem these days if the binmen couldnt get round.
I remember 1963. Couldn’t get to school because we were snowed in 😁 and we had a 4x4 Landrover and the snow was deeper than that! No central heating. Coal fires. No loft insulation. No double glazing. Fleeces hadnt been invented. Duvets hadn’t been invented. Electric blankets hadn’t been invented. We slept under army blankets left over from the war. Ice on the INSIDE of the windows. What a life!
Yep I was 5 years old and you paint a familiar picture. It was so damn cold and I didn’t have an ounce of fat on me in those days. I’m surprised I didn’t snap! We are just so lucky now with all our creature comforts. God bless our parents and grandparents who lived through the wars and a couple of tough winters. Despite the current pandemic generally we’ve had it easy.
I was 9 during the Big Freeze and remember huge snow drifts up to the top of the front door. It was a wall of pure dazzling white which we had to dig out. I remember it as a fun time.
I remember it well with huge affection as we walked everywhere anyway and didn’t have a phone or television or bathroom in our house, or a car, and just one small open fire, and our parents just coped, having experienced 1947.
Remember it well. I was 6 years old. Frost on the inside of the bedroom windows, no central heating, no television then (parents couldn't afford one) but somehow Dad managed to get to work, Mum managed to drive me to school, the postman and the milkman arrived. These days, of course, and I quote "People need tranquillisers if the milk has gone off"
@@only-vans My grandad lived in a working class part of Belfast and had cars from the 40s onwards (first one was one of those ones with the running boards on the side used by Chicago gangsters in massacres, last one was a Triumph Herald) and he was just a shipyard fitter. My other grandad was a welder and also a communist, and didn't have a car. I think there's a lesson in that for us all - one of my grandads just really liked having cars.
@@only-vans Sorry mate, I had no idea. It is great though, I'm not really qualified to say what I feel about you having neither except a: you did, and b: they were both dead before you were around sadly. I'm hugely sorry for you on not having a father though, but as my own father often said, pointing at a children's playground, it's swings and roundabouts.
I remember this well,walking miles to school in snow drifts almost as tall as me.Then all the wellingtons lined up by the radiators in the school corridors to dry ready for the walk home.The wet hanky's in your pocket(no paper tissues then). Wet wool gloves from making snow balls.The kids nowadays don't appreciate how lucky they are.Lifts to school,padded coats,and schools closing as soon as a couple of flakes hit the ground.
And the schools were open! It was great fun, if you were young and had your parents to care for you, and enough food. Those are the bottom lines - not understood these days. They will always be slaves who do not know how to live upon a little.
My grandfather was a Fordson tractor fitter. I remember him telling me that working on a tractor outside during this freeze, he had to keep a small hammer in his pocket to knock the spanners free as they froze to the engine block when he put them down!
I was 13 at the time and I struggled to get to school the first day of the snow. Only 6 out of 30 in our class made it there. We had fun in school that day. Then we were sent home until the snow melted.
Oh how lovely to hear those great "received English" accents !Almost everyone spoke so beautifully back then and we were not ashamed to BE English, British etc and had not started to dismantle OUR culture !
What? the class bound hierarchy, where everyone was judged by their accent. And only public-school boys were allowed on the radio. Slums galore and a life in the factory for all. Not to mention a filthy Empire built on racism and violence. You can keep it.
The Welsh can also be cultured, albeit with a more lilting accent. I agree that clear diction would improve current reportage, but even someone as illiterate as you are should remember this Island's culture does not belong to the English.
Those clipped posh accents make me cringe , and really not real English accents . Upper class twits what, what , a load of bollocks . I remember that winter , but I was up North lad.
@@douglaspouch5313 You seriously think that people aren't judged by their accent today?!! Dream on! RP still opens doors - and, from the other end, people with RP diction are discriminated against. If you can't see that then you're cognitively deficient! Public schoolboys were not the only people on radio although clear accents were valued for practical reasons: transmission was generally weak and there was often interference, precise diction was a necessity in those days. Not everyone worked in factories; I'd be surprised if as many as a quarter worked in factories, less than on the land. I think you have a very jaded notion of life then. How old are you Mr Pouch? Did you get your education after the rise of the loony left in the UK?
I remember that winter very well. I was 7 and all the kids on our road were building snowmen in their gardens. My dad suggested that he and I should build our snowman together. What a touching moment of parent/child bonding....... well, not exactly. We got the body done but then my dad said lets do something a bit different and he suggested we make it into Huckleberry Hound ( a kids TV cartoon character). I just wanted a normal snowman like everyone else, but he went ahead and finished it off on his own. I remember staring out of the window for weeks, praying for it to melt. The precious memories of childhood........
I was 12 and lived in a prefab at Vauxhall in London , everyone was freezing , but that poxy prefab didn't help to keep the cold out at all , at least with brick built places ,you had half a chance , but we all survived it , and never forgot it
They would have called it Armageddon, I used to play out in it as did a lot of kids then. I believe there was a substantial nuclear testing programme by the superpowers just prior to this.
OMG I remember that. I was 13 and in Secondary School and having to walk to school in the beginning of all this. Had to put plastic bags inside my boots/shoes to try keep my feet warm and dry (always holes somewhere in shoes lol). Most children where the same. But omg, what great times. Yes we all were cold and hungry a lot, but we had love, and respect for each other and lovely neighbours that looked out for one another. It's so sad our children and grandchildren don't have the lovely memories we have growing older. Playing 2 balls up against a wall, playing knick knock, skipping in the middle of the road cos not may cars, being safe going to the park without an adult, having to go to A&E and being seen almost straight away and the nurses all remembering your names. Making Wheelies (go karts) and having races with neighbouring streets, Seasons being seasons and knowing when you broke up from 6 weeks holiday that you could go to the beach or park every day because you knew the sun would be shining. Wonderful memories for me 😊😊😊
Great video, thank you for sharing this. I really don't understand why this has not had more views. This was unheard of weather in the UK. I was almost ten at the time living in essex. For me and my friends it was a great time of fun and exitement but even as kids we did not want to stay outside for too long as it was so cold and I constantly had chilblains. I remember when the first snow drifts happened and my father opening the front door in the morning to be met by a blanket of snow to the top of the door. Once we got outside it was very surreal and I remember being able to walk onto the roofs of the garages as the drifting was so high. As a child I was not aware of all dangers and economical problems it was causing so it was great to watch this video. A time I will never forget and once again thanks for sharing.
Thanks Polar Ant, i did upload this about 8 years ago, you tube removed it, uploaded again, seems ok this time, i was 15 and half was my first winter working outside, great fun in those days out in the snow, i remember the frost on inside the windows
Ah ah, in Scotland we ALWAYS had snow in winter back then & plenty of it too but it was normal, pulling back curtains, scraping ice of the window, yes inside of window with all its Jack Frost fern style patterns & seeing snow was great excitement. Chilblains! we were hardy, no wellies just bare feet! Now we hardly get snow but saying that we've just had a few inches. Up here we still cope but England just collapses nowadays with just a dusting. Toughen up Sassenachs!
@@Colin21454 don't understand all this removal of old stuff by BBC it's been paid for by Lic. fee. It's all Public Domain. We always watched Tonight Show back then with Cliff, Fyfe Robertson & great Alan Whicker, Kenneth Allsop.
I worked for Woolwich Borough Council (S,E, London) back then, and Council workers were handing in work sheets summarising their days work; "snow-clearing on Plumstead Common", in May!
so true. I had a stickleback in a jam jar outside the back door. alas in the morning it was frozen in the jar poor thing I was 8 at the time. then I got up early and to surprise my parents. I thought I would get the fire going. small open fire in a wartime prefab. found some damp kindling, that would not burn, so I found a bottle of meth in the cupboard. within seconds I had the fire going and the floor and the meth bottle, I managed to throw it out the door, as luck would have it nothing else caught fire. lots of yelling Dad rushed out of his room cussing me for being a chump. lesson learnt.
@@bwghall1 that bought back memory's of my mother throwing the primus stove out the kitchen door when it caught fire . Mum had come from all mod com's to living off grid , lt took a while for her to get the hang of things..
Happy memories! Remember being picked up from my pre-prep school by my mother and our wonderful golden retriever, Beau, struggling about a mile back to our house in a raging blizzard and then being warmed up with a mug of hot chocolate and a slice of Parkin. Health and safety? Forget it!
my great Grandma went to get coal in a silver cross pram ..from the coal yard ! and when i was a lad we dug our own on the side of the railway enbankment ! we were in a mineing town near chesterfield ,we lived in the old house and one fire kept us warm ,but it did make hot water for a tank as well they used to bath me, thier first Great Grandchild in the big white pottery belfast sink till i was older ,im sure it had a wooden bung with cloth on it to hold the water in i was just a baby that year so probably slept through most of that winter thank goodness ,now ive got a gas boiler thats a pain in the Arse,,radiators that need bleeding all the time ,,and cost a fortune to get repared gimmie a coal fire and a backboiler anyday,,,,, great video thanks for shareing with Everyone .
Sounds familiar, when I was a baby/toddler up to about 10/11 we had a coal fire with a back boiler and my Mum did our washing by hand (using a wringer) up to the mid 60's when my parents bought a second hand washing machine; during this time the fire was in what would be my bedroom but all of us lived mainly in that room because we could only afford to heat one room. We lived in a small coastal village about 2/3 miles from Morecambe, Lancashire.
@@gilliankingston8259 hello Adrian here ,,my Great grandmother had a twintub at some point too ! you wheeled it out and filled it from a pipe you stuck onto the tap ,it had a big black turning thing inside,and a mangle on the other ,i remember being about 8 and watching her put the towels and sheets in it folded up and the water squeezing out it had a pump that went into the sink ,but she allways kept her old Galvanised wash tub and her copper posher ,(a stick with a copper bowl on the end for emerganceys in the old shed )do you remember them ? we lived in a 1924 now worth over 200,00 pounds ,council house ,with a black brick yard,with a huge long garden,Grandad grew lots of carrots potatoes,broad beans ,brussel sprouts and cabages and beetroot and runner beans ,,i remember that house so well,in clay cross .good old days ,harder but certianly happier times .
@@metaldetectingengland Hello Adrian it's Gill (my youngest daughter created my account, hence the Gillan) I had a twin tub myself in 1993/1994 when my daughters were young, one side for washing with the agitator (I think) and the other side to spin the clothes dry. My Mum originally washed the clothes in my old baby bath which was much larger than the modern plastic ones. Even though they were harder times in the 50's and 60's with fewer, if any, modern appliances (unless you had money) they seemed to be happier, it wasn't so much about posessions then. We had a postage stamp front garden but our back garden was divided into two, the top half was lawn and flowerbeds and the the bottom half (divided by a hedge) was for growing fruit and vegetables, apple trees, raspberry canes, rhubarb, potatoes, carrots, celery and spring onions. After my Dad had finished tidying up the garden and mowing the lawn he would sit at the bottom of the garden with his pipe and find peace in nature, including a robin who perched on the handle of his fork and the hedgehogs who used the compost heap as a hedgehog hotel in the Winter.
@@gilliankingston8259 hello Gill,you are right about the spinner at the other end of the machine i forgot about that part ,the mangle used to fold down into the top when not in use as well,and i belive it was a formica lid over the whole thing when not in use ! i rememer it being heavy to push ! your Dads garden sound lovely sadly now most gardens are slabbed,and have that horrible plastic grass put down ,i live in Birmingham now and we get hedgehogs pop in now and again when they are not hibernateing.its lovely to chat with you x
@@metaldetectingengland Hello Adrian, yes I remember the formica top but mine didn't have a mangle just a spinner, my Mums old washer had a mangle in the bottom half that you would have to take out and fit into the top just beside the tub. Sadly you're right about some gardens, when I googled our old house a lot had changed, including more concrete instead of garden and nature but no matter how much it changes in real life I still have a picture in my mind of the way it used to be also the way the house used to look inside when it was our home. Gill x
I was 15 just left school and started work on the railway, we had no central heating just the coal fire and the oven in the kitchen, the condensated water on the inside of the windows froze on the window board, powdered snow blew under the front door into the hall and did not melt, Mum put old blankets against the door. A brick was put in the oven and wrapped in a teatowel to warm our bed loads of birds died and the sea froze, we managed though, you had to!
@@bobheatliesongs Hello Bob, I think Mum just did what she could, fact we all did. I remember Mum giving us socks for our hands to walk to school in the 50's we had no gloves.(not1963) I remember Mum made my brother and me a scarf out of an old cardigan, as we walked into school a girl said, they've got scarfs made out of a cardigan, I've never forgotten it. Mind you some kids had even less, I remember one boy falling asleep at his desk and the teacher obviously realising the problem said to leave him don't wake him up. Dear me short pants and wellies.they always pulled your socks down and chapped your legs
@@bryang6061 Wow, our lives are so similar! The thing is, we didn’t feel underprivileged, because everyone in the area we lived in, were all in the same boat. I recently saw some photos of life in London, in the late 18th century. Most of the working class kids then, didn’t even have shoes. But I think all that stuff makes you realise how lucky we are today!
show this to a woke or snowflake and then talk to people that was there it might make them change their mind over puting today's standards onto the past yes i had shorts and wellies full of snow as well the milk freezing on the doorstep coal frozen
I was 10 then & in Scotland, when back then we always had snow, tho obviously a tad more in '63 & it was just WHOOOPEEE ..fun! And School NEVER shut it's doors, booo, and everybody trudged to work, buses ran. We all just got on with it.
Bungalow Bill that's how I remember it,I lived in a town 17 miles from Glasgow and lots of works had busses to take the staff to work,these still ran and my dad ,a miner never missed work ,don't know what's happened now a days that everything comes to a standstill for an inch of snow
Gosh,I remember it well,me and my mum had been up in Manchester to go to my grans funeral,we came home to Shropshire and dropped into about three foot of snow,we had to walk about a mile and a half back to our house carrying suitcases....memorable to say the least.When we finally got home the next door neighbour came round and told us not to light a fire as the back boilers were all frozen and the water in the toilet was frozen inside the house. We had to just put on one bar of a tiny gas fire to gradually thaw out the boiler before we could light a fire.The wood pigeons had been in our garden whilst we were away and had completely stripped the sprouts that we had been growing.
I'm in Shroqshire and wasn't born yet. My dad had just got the tenancy of a small hill farm below the Clee Hill and they were snowed in totally from Boxing Day until 8th March. Once it ceased snowing he could walk over the drifts to see if there was anything in the local shoq about 2 miles away but they had to kill some laying hens to eat. It didn't melt away very quickly because the frosts continued and he had ewes lambing outside in the middle of March and the newborn lambs were freezing to the ground without ever drawing a breath. Terrible times but he did take some qhotos of the tunnel (very nearly) he dug out to get the farm lane oqen down to the single track road.
I remember it well. I was 22. Having spent Christmas with my family in Hampshire, I drove back to London on Boxing Day evening. (No two weeks holiday for us then; back to work on the 27th!) My mother was snowed in, in Keyhaven, a tiny hamlet on the sea. The result of "the Big Snow" was, she sold/gave away everything she owned; bought two new suitcases and migrated to the desert in California, where she was very happy! Lived there for the rest of her life. (I also remember the sea freezing over in 1947; my brother skated on it!)
Did you not go with her Sally ? lots of my relatives headed from Gravesend to California ‘not my Mum 🤷♂️’ in the 1950’s just to bloody cold here my auntie once said. Best wishes.
I was 20 years old and was an excavator driver, soon the ground was to hard to dig so we worked in the yard repairing machines. I saw small birds sitting on fence wire just keeling over, larger birds like partridges, pheasants and wood pigeons came into the garden and were so tame they would be within ten feet of me, roe deer collected up in a small wood behind our house, again very tame. Buses, lorries that could move just stopped because the diesel froze, salt would not melt the ice on the roads because the temperature was to low, when the snow got removed we were driving on ice for many weeks, there were many different problems not mentioned but the spirit of the people kept up and we got over it.
@@hootenanny1001 in the 50s we had outside loos, open to the sky! In exceptional circumstances were allowed to use indoor ones with the row of basins. Notre Dame, Maryland St, Liverpool. It became part of John Moore's Uni, I worked in the Business school in the 90s. The old assembly hall was the language laboratory.
@@hootenanny1001 the galling thing was indoor Loos n basins, nice and warm had to pass them to go down to playground. Netball, games so cold, yet countrydancing indoors, which I loved, was often cancelled. I'm 80+ now. We survived🕊️
Yes, funny how things change when things change. I remember when there were those thick smogs near London. You could not see more than 6 inches in front of you and had to touch the walls and fences to check where you were along the road to school. Buses could not run, of course.
Global warming brings ice ages at the end, this back than was the most likely the pick of a global warming caused by oil and coal and maybe vulcan outbreaks? smog. First the heat from the sun gets blocked and it gets warmer,for a short period, than the sun totally gets blocked and the world/ or that world part cools down, causing an tremendous cool down. So yes global warming still can bring a repeat of this cold period.
Check out the World Economic Forum's planned 'Great Reset' - all based on 'bad science' as the late, great and real scientist Professor David Bellamy used to call Man-made Global Warming.
I was 11 years old living in Wishaw Scotland. The water in our "indoor" toilet systern froze up and my Dad had to pour hot water in to it. I recall standing in the playground at school and almost in tears as my feet froze inside my "plastic" sandals ! The windows all had ice on the insides. Bloody cold time it was.
I was heading for 16, working outside a training centre for the colliery, ground was frozen solid, river could walk across, will we ever see another like it
I went out yesterday and complained about how icy it was here and how I survived not slipping on it I never knew my mum and big sister s had lived through these conditions I'm sorry mum R.I.P 💔🥀🌹
There's been windy days in Toronto & Winnipeg when people on the downtown sidewalk were standing still being blown along on ice by the wind. It's fast & cheap travel is you have the intestinal fortitude.
I remember walking to school just over 1 mile each way short trousers and blue quilted anorak. Good job parents could afford good shoes. No school runs in a nice warm car with heated seats in those days.
I was 10 years old in 1963, I loved every minute of it. Then the schools closed, burst pipes. My dad bought us kids a sledge and oh what fun we had, wet woollen gloves frozen wet hands and I still had shorts on. Never heard anyone mention Global Warming.
@Blackporsche roadster silly little sod, it was a wonderful adventure for the kids and the adults still had a wartime mentality and just got on with it. So all these things that are “better” have done is breed sneering little twerps like you
@Blackporsche roadster see l have upset a troll , is that the best you can do for insults , if you are trying to upset my day you failed, and always will , never mind have a good day .
18/19 years of age. Left home living/working and studying in London. I was convinced I should not live in the UK any longer. Found a job in HK, arrived in Oct of 1963 and have been there ever since. I really am thankful to that dreadful winter. It changed my life for the better. So inside every snow storm there is a silver lining!
I remember 1963, I was 8 but just remember lots of snow so it's good to see how it actually was. I vaguely remember seeing on t.v. hay being dropped for cattle and sheep. We had one coal fire in the front downstairs room, sitting warm at your front and a freezing back. But we could make excellent toast! Frost on the inside of windows making patterns. I acquired our toasting fork after my Dad died. It reminds me of it when I go in one pub locally with their log fire. The Daily Mail would class 1963 as a disaster going off their exaggerated predictions this winter. People now expect to sit wearing just a T shirt, the heating is off right now until morning. My eyes and throat would dry up if I visited my sisters in winter, I'd feel ill, central heating making the house too hot and dry. My tiny garden has birds visiting most of the day for food and I make sure there is water.
There was a huge stove in one of the class rooms were cloths were dried we were sent out to play in all weathers between lessons and thought nothing of walking to and fro across the field for school .
My family moved from Speyside down to Clydeside in January 1963, I remember seeing the red deer going down to the main roads in search of food, the moss that they normally eat was several feet under the snow. The winter of 1963 was bad, but I remember my father saying that it wasn't as bad as the winter of 1947, that was the worst snowfall in living memory.
I was 5 years old i remember the snow was so deep it went down my Wellingtons playing with my brother and sister we all cried after as our hands were so cold 🥶 one day my mum went out for oil for the heater it was showing hard she was gone for hours 💔 😢 looking for it we kept looking out the window and crying 😢 💔 thinking she was lost 😢 💔 when she got home she was so cold 🥶 we could not stop cuddle her she said she had to find it to keep us warm l love my mum ❤xxxx
@@cliffrightmove1527 Much experience of what?..... tory incompetence ? yeah we got a a whole country full ,115,000 DEAD , millions of OUR TAX £s to their corrupt mates ....SERCO ( ring a bell or not ! ) but carry on pulling your little forelock down there on your knees .
I remember the Headmaster had the bright idea (to toughen us up?) for all the boys to run around a nearby park (half a mile or so) in only shorts, running shoes and T shirt. We were to run continuosly with teachers standing at intervals to force us along. We then went straight into the hot showers. Strangely, it wasn't as bad as we all anticipated. The Head was probably lucky to get away with it. Criminal charges nowadays, at least!
Same as our school good idea ,P E teacher said let's play football in t shirt and shorts ,I had a moan to the teacher about the cold he said don't be a wimp ,I pointed out to him you've got a track suit on sir didn't go down to well!
Born in 1957, I can remember this Big Freeze, to me as a child it meant nothing, back then, we all still went to school, classrooms nice and warm, bottle of milk at break time, and school dinner, then off home at 3.30. Yes the snow was really deep, and in some places so compact, it was great for sliding on, People used coal to make the snow melt. For me this was a great time, snotty nose, wet gloves, and balaclava, but you just got on with it. A Cup of tea, and toast before bed, lovely. Beds covered with big old coats, icicles dangling from the window inside the bedroom. Roaring fire when we got up made by our Mother. And by the way no one stayed off work, everyone got to their place of employment. Funny that in this new millennium, a bit of snow, and lots off work, kids no school, shops closed.
My family was visiting Northern Ireland during Christmas f 1962-1963. My father joked, at the time, that we wouldn't see snow. Boy, was he wrong! Thanks for this look back at me of the most exciting Christmas periods in our past.
I remember it well. I was 11 and lived on the south coast where we'd never had much snow. It was so deep and frozen us kids made pavement snow tunnels that were big enough to stand up in and use as rat runs to get us to school.
Jesus!, I remember it well, I was 8 years old in St Mathews school in Wishawhill Scotland, there was an ice slid along a track of railway perimeter wall, it was 250 meters long, I tore the arse out of my trousers sliding on it all through lunch break, Mrs. Heughs my 3rd grade teacher stood me up on a desk for there whole class to see then gave me 6 of the best on the hands with a Twase, unforgettable :)
I was 18 at the time and had an Austin 10 Litchfield, My friend and I decided to go to Wroxham Broad Norfolk as we were told it was frozen over, well it certainly was so much so that I had to park the car on the Broad as it was about 2 feet thick! We got out of the Car and walked across the ice and onto the river, We decided to carry on up river to the Broadland town of Wroxham. When we reached it and entered the Town going into a Pub and ordering a Rum and Black current [a popular drink of the day and very warming after two]. Later in the week we went on a treacherous drive to North Norfolk and walked out to sea at Wells, maybe this was a little crazy but the ice was very thick. And again to another pub for a warm up! On arriving Home my Mother kindly informed me that our pipes were frozen so it was no good if I was thinking of a Hot Bath, bear in mind that our pipes were 2 feet down and in a sort of in a permanent frost. The main London road which ran through our Village had many Pile ups up to 30 cars one night because we also had freezing rain as well as Snow so the Roads were always frozen with inch's of ice. I remember people were saying that it was the new Ice age, I often reflect on this period of my life and can just imagine what would happen with today's traffic and huge Lorries if we were to get these conditions again. Hope I have not bored you.
Can you imagine an equivalent report these days going on for so long without mentioning the word "government"? Today we would have random sports celebrity insisting on food parcels for the snow-bound needy, whilst one minister after another makes a series of inept promises and bumbling apologies. 🤔 At what point exactly did we begin to think our "celebrities" and overlords have all the answers ?
Great stuff! One amazing thing about old film is how they manage to have it snowing indoors, too. :) Kenneth Allsop's presentation of the charts in How and Why was spellbinding. I love the way he turned to semi-profile so often.
I remember that winter well. I was 13. Never known a winter like it. There was another blizzard in the January and we still went to school. I live in Somerset and I lived in Somerset then. Some of the villages were cut off and they had to have a helicopter deliveries to get them supplies. Terrible time. Hope to God we never get another winter like that! ❄️❄️❄️❄️
Meanwhile int north we dug each other out, villagers & farmers dug lanes & villages out. Not just so milk wagons carrying milk churns( no tankers) could be got out so the townies could get their milk but so no one was isolated.I was 7 & remember it well, walking on wall tops with long canes probing for sheep in snowdrifts, the farmer or older kids then dug em out,climbing out of our living room window down steps cut in the snow cos both doors were blocked by drifts.
I’m originally from Ayrshire. When I was a child my uncle kept a dairy and all us children had to help deliver the milk before school. I can always remember the snow in 1947 being so deep we had to cut through the fields because the roads were so bad, we were still using a horse and cart then. I remember arriving at an old ladies house one morning, several hours later then usual, to be greeted with “What time do you call this Bryce Dickie? My boys been waiting for breakfast!” She then proceeded to tell us that this was nothing compared with the winter of 18.....So something’s never change hahaha.
We still had steam trains which could batter through-mostly. The Somerset and Dorset kept going. I remember that the buses did not stop. We were London Transport Country area yet a few years ago, a bit of snow in Central London and tfl stopped all buses.
People still do that in natural disaster times, but it doesn't make the news, good news doesn't sell well. So you'll read about the smaller numbers of bad behaviours instead.
chris Yes! No pussy-footing around and whimpish stories such as we have these days. We all pulled together...just like in the war. Which is why I love this highly politically incorrect song! ruclips.net/video/m4zyfwtDIHE/видео.html
I went with a couple of friends to "winkle island" just east of Littlehampton harbour mouth. Armed with shovels and a bungalow bath we had to break the ice on the sea with the spades to shovel up the winkles (they were so many and piled so thickly!) Train back to Worthing, where the pier girders were clagged in thick ice, lug the bath home to clean the catch and I couldn't get my wellies off: solid ice filled my boots!! My Mum soaked my feet in a baby bathe of tepid water to thaw the ice in my boots and my socks were stuck to my skin and to the inside of the wellies, . I am left in old age with toes void of feeling but if you pinch them OUCH!! I was 13 then, now 113!!! Sold the winkles round Worthings' pubs with a costa-mongers barrow, cooked and vinager'd, 1/- a pint!!! Frank Ifield and Susan Maughan were pick of the pops! Alright?
In 1963, I remember bedroom windows with thick frost on the INSIDE. We had snow 8ft deep at the back door. 1963 had (lots) more snow, but 1981 was another belter with -25C (-13F) in Shropshire and -16C (3F) in Nottingham. Brand new cars refused to start. Roads were not salted because it won't work when it's that cold. We coped because there was much less snow.. I worked in a power station where the generators were all going flat out 24/7. A 120 Megawatt boiler failed when the control system froze up. Tube leak shutdowns were not unusual but frozen controls certainly were and that boiler was very badly damaged..
I felt so very pleased with myself as this was the time I was doing my paper round and I just had to battle on and to get the newspapers delivered. It was a really great time and school was only closed for a day or so. Just had to carry on!!!
I start in August collecting supplies for the winter months in case we are snowed in. I CAN'T understand people who don't prepare. Basic essentials are: powdered milk, canned evaporated milk, cans of soups & stews, cans of baked beans, honey & jam, oatmeal, semolina, coffee, tea, flour, butter & margarine, cat food, dog food, bacon, cans of salmon, tuna & other canned meats, fruits, vegetables & things. When my mother was alive & living alone in her own house I used to do a $500.00 non-perishable food shopping (This is pre 1990) for her for Christmas. I only lived 500 feet away but sometimes the conditions were so dreadful it was best to stay put. People still laugh at me but I won't be out there breaking a hip like they do & I ALWAYS have a plethora to eat. These same people will call me up & ask what's for dinner so they get the run down - meat (canned), instant potatoes, gravy (packaged), can of veg, fruit or rice pudding for rafters. The next thing I hear is "CAN I COME?" I ALWAYS answer NO. THEY COULD HAVE PREPARED BUT INSTEAD OF LAYING OUT THE MONEY FOR SUPPLIES THEY WENT OUT FOR FANCY DINNERS, WENT AWAY FOR A WEEKEND, OR DID SOMETHING ELSE FOOLISH WITH THEIR MONEY.
I remember I had four small children ,the house had no central heating , only a small coal fire In the kitchen ,which had a large pipe going through the ceiling . The windows were all frosted up with beautiful patterns of small flowers . One of my children bought a friend home and my four children Were playing in the back garden , and the friend my Son had brought home fell and fractured his arm It was literary. Showing the bone through his skin I got in touch with his mother and called for an ambulance. I remember how cold it was .but we were used to having 3-5 foot of snow in those days .
I'm 67 in December,and I well Remember the Big Freeze of 1962-63 and it started on my 6th Birthday on Saturday December 22nd 1962 and it lasted till the Spring of 1963 and I hated it as I'm frightened off falling on the ice and I still am and I was glad when it ended in the Spring
I was 10 years old and remember the school milk was frozen and popped up out of the bottles , I remember the massive drifts and ice on the inside of my bedroom windows .
We moved house in the January and as the new property had been unoccupied all of the water pipes and tanks were frozen solid. My neighbours attached a hose to their tap so my parents could fill our bath up with cold water which we used over the next couple of weeks whilst the coal fire gradually thawed everything gently so we didn't get burst pipes. We had stone hot water bottles and lots of heavy blankets to warm the beds, but the bedroom window panes froze on the inside and the flimsy cotton curtains were frozen rock solid as there were no heaters upstairs.
George Lee...at least you had a sidecar to stop you falling over! LOL I was then 18 yrs on a 125 Lambretta doing 16 miles a day to work in stables. AND I AM A GIRLIE...WELL, NOW 75 and just given up riding my GSXR 1000K 03.
I was a 9 year old kid in Birmingham...didn’t get to school for 3 weeks ....My Dad worked for M&B at Cape Hill in Smethwick ....they still eventually got the Beer to the Pubs
@@silasmarner7586I knew that, I just couldn't remember the name of the last upgrade. But it does make me think... it is getting globally warmer isn't it? So why is it important about what it's called?
I remember being told we were not to go on the river, as if the ice breaks we could be drowned... However when we saw two local doctors, who were highly respected in our town, we decided it would be safe for us the go on the river... Later when telling our parents, they said, it was OK while the doctors were there skating, but things can change so be careful....
I was an eight year old living in Kendal. I well remember travelling to Windermere with my family and we all walked on the frozen surface of the lake. I even have a black and white photo of it somewhere.
What a wonderful time for the kids I remember it well kids of today will never see this much. We got our water out of a well but if we couldn’t get it out that way we used snow to cook and wash in like I said a great time for us sadly we probably will never get this much snow again.
I was born in a small Canadian town in the wee hours of the morning of March first 1963. Of course it happened to be in the middle of a snow storm. We still had a multi party phone system at the time so dad rang the operator to let the hospital know that mom was in labor and they were heading to the hospital. It was snowing so bad that the operator had to call the town snow plow in. After waking the plow driver he immediately came to our house and dad had to follow behind the snow plow in our car all the way to the hospital.
I remember this - My older brother rode a Bantam motorcycle on the River Dee at Sandycroft North Wales & My mum made me a coat from my Dads Demob herring bone overcoat for school that was lovely and warm but itched like hell - One coal open fire in the lounge & a paraffin heater stood in the hall to stop the bedrooms freezing - no central heating & single glazed windows with amazing fern like frost patterns were the norm - bottles of milk on door steps would sport creamy white protrusions some with silver and gold foil hats on.
I was thirteen in 63, the animals never came into the conversation, we weren't so soft then, these days people seem more worried about the animals than the humans.
You've got to remember this was a generation who went through a war .a drop if snow wouldn't stop them, thick pair of socks and a cup of horlicks sorted
Nice to see you Chris Packham. I remember '63 and I think everyone who does, looks after our birds and wildlife as a full time job, more than younger people.
I was 6 in 1963. I remember the Thames froze and I still have a photo of my mother, my younger sister and myself standing on ice on the Thames in Windsor. We are holding on to a wooded sign which said “Thin Ice” Dad took the photo, not at all afraid for his family. I also remember my Dad pulled my sister and me, on a sled from our house to our Nan’s.
I was born in mid Feb that year, right in the middle of it, can't remember a thing for obvious reasons. My elderly mum has a habit of reminding everybody of it every time we get a cold spell each winter. Tales about the sea freezing etc. An older brother insists he saw Snowy Owls along the North Kent coast, a bird found around the Artic circle normally. Bit peeved I missed it really.
in 1963 I remember walking 3 miles to school across fields and country lanes..not once did we ever have school cancelled..I wonder how the poor little darlings of today would cope
rog bow Todays poor little darlings couldn`t walk 3 miles to school what ever the weather.
The poor little snowflakes would not have managed in the real stuff. We all had to walk to school. It was my last year and it took so long as buses seem to have stopped. Mind you, a couple of children did not turn up and they were in trouble for it. These days the authorities would think it cruel to make children walk so far in difficult conditions.
They'll fiddle with their iphones and arrive late.
By "poor little darlings" do you me the spoilt brat teachers?
@@russellsteventon8069 probably! It's simply too dangerous to drive in more than a light smattering, lol
Brought back lots of happy memories and lovely to read the comments too. I was 9 years old, almost 10 ( February 1st). I remember big coal fires and oil heaters which warmed the whole ground floor. Bedrooms were unheated as it was considered an unnecessary expense plus the safety factor. It was common for small children to share bedrooms, even beds! We shared 4 children in one room, one brother away at school, one brother unaccounted for! A total of 6 children. We were all quite healthy, my mother was a State Registered Nurse and looked after us extremely well. I don’t remember the schools closing at all, life went on as usual even though things were very unusual. We had a huge coal fire in our classroom each and every day, which would be burning brightly by the time lessons started. I had a long walk to school ( minimum 45 minutes each way). My chair was right next to the fire! I think my desk was placed there as I probably had one of the longest journeys. I remember clothes frozen on the washing line, you could literally stand a pair of jeans up which we did for fun. Jack Frost inside bedroom window panes in the morning and enormous icicles outside the back door. We wore lots of layers, gloves were often lost. I remember walking to school, hands in pockets and being ticked off by a passing adult in case I slipped and fell with my hands in my pockets. Lots of snowball fights but lots of ice as well which made walking very difficult.We had porridge most mornings ( made the night before) and a full cooked breakfast on Sunday.Cornflakes with hot milk,for breakfast , was a special treat during the bitterly cold weather. I lived and grew up in West London.We watched the news every night and we heard what was happening in the rest of the country. The sea freezing in Essex and herds of animals buried in snowdrifts, starving and unreachable up and down the country. We knew it was very serious. Watching this has brought back memories.
That's a lovely story.
Wow, Bridget, You are a month older than me. i grew up in the west of Scotland and your memories of that time are exactly the same as mine, down to the very last detail . Jack Frost inside bedroom window panes, enormous icicles, porridge in the mornings and a full cooked breakfast on Sunday, coal fires in the schools, lost gloves.
Thank you for posting.
@Willy Spinney, thanks for your lovely comment! We’re the same age too! It’s nice to be reminded of events that we lived through. I live just outside London now, the Thames definitely froze over in Sunbury, just 2 or 3 miles away. I remember reading in a book ( Surrey history) that people set up a card table on the ice and played a game of cards!
Remember knitted Balaclave helmets?
Now days you only have to have a bit off frost and they cant cope like leaves on the track, back then the train was still moving ether so there was a snow drift blowing
I was in my 20s in Birmingham and rode my 350cc motor bike to work throughout.
My dad in the days of steam was a driver on the LMS railway and still rode his bike 8mls to work. He always hated snow, saying "The only good place for snow is on Christmas Cards"
My late grandad also worked for the LMS railway as a fireman, then became an instructor to recruits.
Me too - see my post from 10/1/21
Birmingham is 'God's country' :-)
i was 19 back then harold
I was 13 in 63, lived in Essex,we still went to school, and my parents still went to work,, yes it was tough, but in those days you had camaraderie and good neighbours, not like today when there is no such thing as a community!
Chris, how uncanny, I 'm the same age as you and from the same county! In common my parents worked right through and school stayed open. My school was a couple of miles away on the other side of what we locally called a park. It wasn't actually a park but the neglected grounds of an old mansion which had long been demolished. I can remember some of the snowdrifts being 3 to 4 feet deep through there.
I also had a morning paper round which I actually managed to complete without missing a day!! The printed daily newspaper back then was essential for many people as there was of course no such thing as the internet or mobile phones at the time.
I've lived through some amazing times and seen many changes but have to agree with you about community. Sadly the events of the last 12 months have really brought that to the fore.
Just short of 16 then, my first winter working outside, good start to my career
I was 9 years old.
Pipes froze at school and the boilers burst.
We were off school for weeks. We went in once a week to get work to do. It was fantastic!
🤣🤣🤣 funny how some things don’t change.
Being 7 at the time , what a memory , we built the longest lasting ice slide , seemed to last forever until Salford council salted it and spoiled the fun, snow on top ice , then more ice , like polished glass , our mission to make it a mirror finish.
Martin Smith...we had one in our school playground. One kiddy fell over and everyone was banned from using it...spoilsports. Adults will NEVER know how to enjoy themselves, will they?
Happy days
Seems like so much fun!!
same here , we had a good hill in our school , every mornin some one had started a slide so we would aw join in flattening then polishing , then the black strip of ice , job done , as it quite a long hill few made it aw the way down , ha great memz , aye !
I was 12 years old. We were cut off living on the Essex Suffolk border. Dad drove to town 4 miles away on a tractor with some Tea chests tied to the plough on the back, to fetch basic supplies for the village. Still look at photos taken on the farm during that snowy winter. This pandemic is a walk in the park for most people, compared to the hardship then.
My wife remembers it too (a little older than me). What she doesn't remember is anything like the fatalities over the last year. Quit with the sneering. You can't compare the two events. This pandemic is not and never will be a walk in the park. Certainly not for the NHS staff on the front line.
I was 4 so I can't really remember it but I certainly remember at about 10 going to school and walking through about 7 inches of snow in flat shoes lol.
My parents always talked about the coldest winter that they ever remember, don't forget it was post war and people had been through very hard times already...
WELL said Oliver, yesterday they were saying oh no its going to be snowing in london.
@@janetgallagher618 That could have been 1947 which was also very bad...And the post war bit would have been more evident then.
That Packham’s voice is soooo grating.
I was 9 yrs old l remember my man couldn't open the back door coal fires hot water bottles and loads of blankets on the beds no central heating then funny l would go back in a heartbeat
i was 19 back then jennifer
I was heading for 16, working outside at training centre for colliery, will we see another winter similar
@@davidwolstenholme3672 yes things have changed since then not sure everything is for the better people helped each other more l think everyone is so materialistic now
I was 9 too and can remember icicles inside our house! Also remember slides and old people putting salt over our slides. Old people are so uncool.... aren't we. But we had the beatles first album and fireball xl5 on tv. Cold didn't bother us then. Ha ha. And yes, I want to go back too.
I was 6 and living in the central belt of Scotland- got wildly excited when it started snowing on Xmas Eve. The snowman I built was still there in late March... Daddy went to work every day, I went to school, we came home to coal fires and hearty home cooked meals-nothing glamorous-stews, broths, shepherd's pie and traditional puds. Getting dressed under the bedclothes in the morning and ice on the inside of the window. And like you, I'd go back in a heartbeat.
Its interesting to note the commentary style, just tells the facts, no negative slant like you get today, quiet refreshing really.........
Total different style then, but worked very well
no political spin, just facts
Really? Presenters were unreasonably sneering about the shortcomings of the authorities at the end of the documentary.
Yes, this was when the BBC could be trusted to report the facts, not slanted political opinions of the journalist....
@@Colin21454 It is a puzzle why anyone would move away from formats like "The World at War", where participants spoke without judgement and contemporary images illustrated. Otherwise, the likes of Diarmaid MacCulloch or Neil Oliver, and for natural history, take your pick from David Attenborough. The public prefer them and they are far more informative.
I remember it well. I started school in 1962, and had never needed to be outside in harsh weather before. I had no idea what was coming around the corner, after Christmas. I loved, I hated it, It could have stayed indefinitely, and I also wanted it gone. Yep, took a tumble in school yard, cracked my nut on the concrete KO'd and concussion. I remember the milk stick four inches out of the tops of the bottles, windows frozen up so much that you couldn't open them, and had to warm up the glass just to see out! As far as I can recall, it was the first time we ever had a fire in the grate in our bedroom, when no one was ill! Didn't see my grandparents for what seemed like weeks, even though they were only 75 yards up the street from us.
It was an adventure, it was an experience, and people today think you're kidding when you tell them. All I can say is that at 63 years sold, I wouldn't want to see another winter like it.
Thanks Yorkshire, that was my first winter working outside, great introduction, left school the previous Easter
Yet the winter of 1947 was even worse!
I was four at the time can't remember what happened ( thank God ) but my parents must of went through hell then , and they said very few flu cases ,,, huh .
Who remembers Cliff Michelmore with fondness! Also I remember us all seven kids sitting around a paraffin heater and burning old shoes or anything to keep warm the kids now would never survive I was ten at the time .
We were lucky, we moved into a house where the previous owner died and left the basement full of nice black coal ,
@@rockabyebaby6111 yeah we used to burn most things on the fire........pretty sure garbage would be a huge problem these days if the binmen couldnt get round.
6, here -
I'd forgotten how epic Mitchelmore's comb over was lol. He only died in 2016. He was 96, good innings.
@@fraggit Didn’t know he was still alive until 2016 I must find out more about him ,thanks!
I was 7 years old in South Wales, we lived in a prefab and I swear to God it was above the front door,where it had drifted unbelievable.
I remember 1963. Couldn’t get to school because we were snowed in 😁 and we had a 4x4 Landrover and the snow was deeper than that! No central heating. Coal fires. No loft insulation. No double glazing. Fleeces hadnt been invented. Duvets hadn’t been invented. Electric blankets hadn’t been invented. We slept under army blankets left over from the war. Ice on the INSIDE of the windows. What a life!
my dads false teeth froze in the glass as did the tea pot
Yep I was 5 years old and you paint a familiar picture. It was so damn cold and I didn’t have an ounce of fat on me in those days. I’m surprised I didn’t snap! We are just so lucky now with all our creature comforts. God bless our parents and grandparents who lived through the wars and a couple of tough winters. Despite the current pandemic generally we’ve had it easy.
Duvets were invented in the 16th century
Electric blankets with thermostat 1936
Fleeces
Sorry Moth's Mummy but I had an electric blanket in 1962 and used to read my Enid Blyton books by the little red light on the switch!
I was 9 during the Big Freeze and remember huge snow drifts up to the top of the front door. It was a wall of pure dazzling white which we had to dig out. I remember it as a fun time.
I remember it well with huge affection as we walked everywhere anyway and didn’t have a phone or television or bathroom in our house, or a car, and just one small open fire, and our parents just coped, having experienced 1947.
And the schools weren't cancelled. People just got on with life, as best they could, often with the help of their neighbours.
Elder brother aged 15; and me aged 6 (nearly 7) cleared a 6 foot drift in front of father's lock-up council garage. Happy days.
Remember it well. I was 6 years old. Frost on the inside of the bedroom windows, no central heating, no television then (parents couldn't afford one) but somehow Dad managed to get to work, Mum managed to drive me to school, the postman and the milkman arrived. These days, of course, and I quote "People need tranquillisers if the milk has gone off"
WOW, your family had a car! Was you mum a doctor?
@@only-vans My grandad lived in a working class part of Belfast and had cars from the 40s onwards (first one was one of those ones with the running boards on the side used by Chicago gangsters in massacres, last one was a Triumph Herald) and he was just a shipyard fitter. My other grandad was a welder and also a communist, and didn't have a car. I think there's a lesson in that for us all - one of my grandads just really liked having cars.
@@roberth1322 I just wonder what it would be like to have a dad or a grandfather. must be a good thing.
@@only-vans Sorry mate, I had no idea. It is great though, I'm not really qualified to say what I feel about you having neither except a: you did, and b: they were both dead before you were around sadly. I'm hugely sorry for you on not having a father though, but as my own father often said, pointing at a children's playground, it's swings and roundabouts.
I was born in the 1947 winter, and was 17 and going to work in 1963. (It was well nippy.)
well, you missed out on the 1947 big freez
I remember this well,walking miles to school in snow drifts almost as tall as me.Then all the wellingtons lined up by the radiators in the school corridors to dry ready for the walk home.The wet hanky's in your pocket(no paper tissues then). Wet wool gloves from making snow balls.The kids nowadays don't appreciate how lucky they are.Lifts to school,padded coats,and schools closing as soon as a couple of flakes hit the ground.
And the schools were open! It was great fun, if you were young and had your parents to care for you, and enough food. Those are the bottom lines - not understood these days.
They will always be slaves who do not know how to live upon a little.
My grandfather was a Fordson tractor fitter. I remember him telling me that working on a tractor outside during this freeze, he had to keep a small hammer in his pocket to knock the spanners free as they froze to the engine block when he put them down!
I was 13 at the time and I struggled to get to school the first day of the snow. Only 6 out of 30 in our class made it there. We had fun in school that day. Then we were sent home until the snow melted.
Hey - if that was now, the school would have been closed and a state of emergency declared...
So was I and I remember the school bus unable to get up a hill and we all got off and went home.
Oh how lovely to hear those great "received English" accents !Almost everyone
spoke so beautifully back then and we were not ashamed to BE English,
British etc and had not started to dismantle OUR culture !
What? the class bound hierarchy, where everyone was judged by their accent. And only public-school boys were allowed on the radio. Slums galore and a life in the factory for all. Not to mention a filthy Empire built on racism and violence. You can keep it.
The Welsh can also be cultured, albeit with a more lilting accent. I agree that clear diction would improve current reportage, but even someone as illiterate as you are should remember this Island's culture does not belong to the English.
@@wendyharper9454 That's very funny.
Those clipped posh accents make me cringe , and really not real English accents . Upper class twits what, what , a load of bollocks . I remember that winter , but I was up North lad.
@@douglaspouch5313 You seriously think that people aren't judged by their accent today?!! Dream on! RP still opens doors - and, from the other end, people with RP diction are discriminated against. If you can't see that then you're cognitively deficient! Public schoolboys were not the only people on radio although clear accents were valued for practical reasons: transmission was generally weak and there was often interference, precise diction was a necessity in those days. Not everyone worked in factories; I'd be surprised if as many as a quarter worked in factories, less than on the land. I think you have a very jaded notion of life then. How old are you Mr Pouch? Did you get your education after the rise of the loony left in the UK?
I remember that winter very well. I was 7 and all the kids on our road were building snowmen in their gardens. My dad suggested that he and I should build our snowman together. What a touching moment of parent/child bonding....... well, not exactly. We got the body done but then my dad said lets do something a bit different and he suggested we make it into Huckleberry Hound ( a kids TV cartoon character).
I just wanted a normal snowman like everyone else, but he went ahead and finished it off on his own.
I remember staring out of the window for weeks, praying for it to melt.
The precious memories of childhood........
Bet you and your dad had many laughs about it in later years
I was 12 and lived in a prefab at Vauxhall in London , everyone was freezing , but that poxy prefab didn't help to keep the cold out at all , at least with brick built places ,you had half a chance , but we all survived it , and never forgot it
Prefabs had a lot of asbestos sheeting. No insulation at all.
Now in 2020 they call a couple of inches of snow the beast from the east, what would they have called 1963. ?
now in 2020---6 days ago?---it's the 16th of January.
I think they would of called it in 1963 O gosh honey it’s your turn to go to the shops
They would have called it Armageddon, I used to play out in it as did a lot of kids then. I believe there was a substantial nuclear testing programme by the superpowers just prior to this.
@@sleepingdragonsstir7737 An interesting implication.
Joóllloooooà
Wow! Thanks for posting. As a youngster it was all big fun in our little world but we didn't realize. I remember these presenters on 'Tonight'
OMG I remember that. I was 13 and in Secondary School and having to walk to school in the beginning of all this. Had to put plastic bags inside my boots/shoes to try keep my feet warm and dry (always holes somewhere in shoes lol). Most children where the same. But omg, what great times. Yes we all were cold and hungry a lot, but we had love, and respect for each other and lovely neighbours that looked out for one another. It's so sad our children and grandchildren don't have the lovely memories we have growing older. Playing 2 balls up against a wall, playing knick knock, skipping in the middle of the road cos not may cars, being safe going to the park without an adult, having to go to A&E and being seen almost straight away and the nurses all remembering your names. Making Wheelies (go karts) and having races with neighbouring streets, Seasons being seasons and knowing when you broke up from 6 weeks holiday that you could go to the beach or park every day because you knew the sun would be shining. Wonderful memories for me 😊😊😊
Great video, thank you for sharing this. I really don't understand why this has not had more views. This was unheard of weather in the UK.
I was almost ten at the time living in essex. For me and my friends it was a great time of fun and exitement but even as kids we did not want to stay outside for too long as it was so cold and I constantly had chilblains.
I remember when the first snow drifts happened and my father opening the front door in the morning to be met by a blanket of snow to the top of the door. Once we got outside it was very surreal and I remember being able to walk onto the roofs of the garages as the drifting was so high.
As a child I was not aware of all dangers and economical problems it was causing so it was great to watch this video. A time I will never forget and once again thanks for sharing.
Thanks Polar Ant, i did upload this about 8 years ago, you tube removed it, uploaded again, seems ok this time, i was 15 and half was my first winter working outside, great fun in those days out in the snow, i remember the frost on inside the windows
Ah ah, in Scotland we ALWAYS had snow in winter back then & plenty of it too but it was normal, pulling back curtains, scraping ice of the window, yes inside of window with all its Jack Frost fern style patterns & seeing snow was great excitement. Chilblains! we were hardy, no wellies just bare feet! Now we hardly get snow but saying that we've just had a few inches. Up here we still cope but England just collapses nowadays with just a dusting. Toughen up Sassenachs!
@@Colin21454 don't understand all this removal of old stuff by BBC it's been paid for by Lic. fee. It's all Public Domain. We always watched Tonight Show back then with Cliff, Fyfe Robertson & great Alan Whicker, Kenneth Allsop.
I worked for Woolwich Borough Council (S,E, London) back then, and Council workers were handing in work sheets summarising their days work; "snow-clearing on Plumstead Common", in May!
1947 snow so bad in November my Uncle walked on top of hedges from upcountry to nearest town to get Doctor to help with my birth!
ycul21...My brother was born in November 1947 (6th)
Same here in Ireland
Walked on the top of hedges in cattistock dorset in 1963 .
so true. I had a stickleback in a jam jar outside the back door. alas in the morning it was frozen in the jar poor thing I was 8 at the time. then I got up early and to surprise my parents. I thought I would get the fire going. small open fire in a wartime prefab. found some damp kindling, that would not burn, so I found a bottle of meth in the cupboard. within seconds I had the fire going and the floor and the meth bottle, I managed to throw it out the door, as luck would have it nothing else caught fire. lots of yelling Dad rushed out of his room cussing me for being a chump. lesson learnt.
@@bwghall1 that bought back memory's of my mother throwing the primus stove out the kitchen door when it caught fire . Mum had come from all mod com's to living off grid , lt took a while for her to get the hang of things..
Happy memories! Remember being picked up from my pre-prep school by my mother and our wonderful golden retriever, Beau, struggling about a mile back to our house in a raging blizzard and then being warmed up with a mug of hot chocolate and a slice of Parkin. Health and safety? Forget it!
my great Grandma went to get coal in a silver cross pram ..from the coal yard ! and when i was a lad we dug our own on the side of the railway enbankment ! we were in a mineing town near chesterfield ,we lived in the old house and one fire kept us warm ,but it did make hot water for a tank as well they used to bath me, thier first Great Grandchild in the big white pottery belfast sink till i was older ,im sure it had a wooden bung with cloth on it to hold the water in i was just a baby that year so probably slept through most of that winter thank goodness ,now ive got a gas boiler thats a pain in the Arse,,radiators that need bleeding all the time ,,and cost a fortune to get repared gimmie a coal fire and a backboiler anyday,,,,, great video thanks for shareing with Everyone .
Sounds familiar, when I was a baby/toddler up to about 10/11 we had a coal fire with a back boiler and my Mum did our washing by hand (using a wringer) up to the mid 60's when my parents bought a second hand washing machine; during this time the fire was in what would be my bedroom but all of us lived mainly in that room because we could only afford to heat one room. We lived in a small coastal village about 2/3 miles from Morecambe, Lancashire.
@@gilliankingston8259 hello Adrian here ,,my Great grandmother had a twintub at some point too ! you wheeled it out and filled it from a pipe you stuck onto the tap ,it had a big black turning thing inside,and a mangle on the other ,i remember being about 8 and watching her put the towels and sheets in it folded up and the water squeezing out it had a pump that went into the sink ,but she allways kept her old Galvanised wash tub and her copper posher ,(a stick with a copper bowl on the end for emerganceys in the old shed )do you remember them ? we lived in a 1924 now worth over 200,00 pounds ,council house ,with a black brick yard,with a huge long garden,Grandad grew lots of carrots potatoes,broad beans ,brussel sprouts and cabages and beetroot and runner beans ,,i remember that house so well,in clay cross .good old days ,harder but certianly happier times .
@@metaldetectingengland Hello Adrian it's Gill (my youngest daughter created my account, hence the Gillan) I had a twin tub myself in 1993/1994 when my daughters were young, one side for washing with the agitator (I think) and the other side to spin the clothes dry. My Mum originally washed the clothes in my old baby bath which was much larger than the modern plastic ones. Even though they were harder times in the 50's and 60's with fewer, if any, modern appliances (unless you had money) they seemed to be happier, it wasn't so much about posessions then. We had a postage stamp front garden but our back garden was divided into two, the top half was lawn and flowerbeds and the the bottom half (divided by a hedge) was for growing fruit and vegetables, apple trees, raspberry canes, rhubarb, potatoes, carrots, celery and spring onions. After my Dad had finished tidying up the garden and mowing the lawn he would sit at the bottom of the garden with his pipe and find peace in nature, including a robin who perched on the handle of his fork and the hedgehogs who used the compost heap as a hedgehog hotel in the Winter.
@@gilliankingston8259 hello Gill,you are right about the spinner at the other end of the machine i forgot about that part ,the mangle used to fold down into the top when not in use as well,and i belive it was a formica lid over the whole thing when not in use ! i rememer it being heavy to push ! your Dads garden sound lovely sadly now most gardens are slabbed,and have that horrible plastic grass put down ,i live in Birmingham now and we get hedgehogs pop in now and again when they are not hibernateing.its lovely to chat with you x
@@metaldetectingengland Hello Adrian, yes I remember the formica top but mine didn't have a mangle just a spinner, my Mums old washer had a mangle in the bottom half that you would have to take out and fit into the top just beside the tub. Sadly you're right about some gardens, when I googled our old house a lot had changed, including more concrete instead of garden and nature but no matter how much it changes in real life I still have a picture in my mind of the way it used to be also the way the house used to look inside when it was our home. Gill x
My friends and me uilt a snowman in our local park , it was still standing 4 months later . I was eleven at rhe time ,a great time be alive .
I was 15 just left school and started work on the railway, we had no central heating just the coal fire and the oven in the kitchen, the condensated water on the inside of the windows froze on the window board, powdered snow blew under the front door into the hall and did not melt, Mum put old blankets against the door. A brick was put in the oven and wrapped in a teatowel to warm our bed
loads of birds died and the sea froze, we managed though, you had to!
Hah! A brick with a tea towel? You were lucky! We used dream about having a brick with a tea towel! Tell the kids today? They won’t believe you! 😢
@@bobheatliesongs Hello Bob, I think Mum just did what she could, fact we all did. I remember Mum giving us socks for our hands to walk to school in the 50's we had no gloves.(not1963) I remember Mum made my brother and me a scarf out of an old cardigan, as we walked into school a girl said, they've got scarfs made out of a cardigan, I've never forgotten it. Mind you some kids had even less, I remember one boy falling asleep at his desk and the teacher obviously realising the problem said to leave him don't wake him up. Dear me short pants and wellies.they always pulled your socks down and chapped your legs
@@bryang6061 Wow, our lives are so similar! The thing is, we didn’t feel underprivileged, because everyone in the area we lived in, were all in the same boat. I recently saw some photos of life in London, in the late 18th century. Most of the working class kids then, didn’t even have shoes. But I think all that stuff makes you realise how lucky we are today!
@@bryang6061 remember this very well, today, if a kid hasn't a mobile phone he's classed as underprivileged...
show this to a woke or snowflake and then talk to people that was there it might make them change their mind over puting today's standards onto the past
yes i had shorts and wellies full of snow as well the milk freezing on the doorstep coal frozen
I was 10 then & in Scotland, when back then we always had snow, tho obviously a tad more in '63 & it was just WHOOOPEEE ..fun! And School NEVER shut it's doors, booo, and everybody trudged to work, buses ran. We all just got on with it.
Bungalow Bill that's how I remember it,I lived in a town 17 miles from Glasgow and lots of works had busses to take the staff to work,these still ran and my dad ,a miner never missed work ,don't know what's happened now a days that everything comes to a standstill for an inch of snow
The year I was born. January 7th 1963. No heating upstairs in those days so my mums bed had to come downstairs in front of the fire.
Gosh,I remember it well,me and my mum had been up in Manchester to go to my grans funeral,we came home to Shropshire and dropped into about three foot of snow,we had to walk about a mile and a half back to our house carrying suitcases....memorable to say the least.When we finally got home the next door neighbour came round and told us not to light a fire as the back boilers were all frozen and the water in the toilet was frozen inside the house. We had to just put on one bar of a tiny gas fire to gradually thaw out the boiler before we could light a fire.The wood pigeons had been in our garden whilst we were away and had completely stripped the sprouts that we had been growing.
Thanks Sheila
I'm in Shroqshire and wasn't born yet. My dad had just got the tenancy of a small hill farm below the Clee Hill and they were snowed in totally from Boxing Day until 8th March. Once it ceased snowing he could walk over the drifts to see if there was anything in the local shoq about 2 miles away but they had to kill some laying hens to eat. It didn't melt away very quickly because the frosts continued and he had ewes lambing outside in the middle of March and the newborn lambs were freezing to the ground without ever drawing a breath. Terrible times but he did take some qhotos of the tunnel (very nearly) he dug out to get the farm lane oqen down to the single track road.
I remember it well. I was 22. Having spent Christmas with my family in Hampshire, I drove back to London on Boxing Day evening. (No two weeks holiday for us then; back to work on the 27th!) My mother was snowed in, in Keyhaven, a tiny hamlet on the sea. The result of "the Big Snow" was, she sold/gave away everything she owned; bought two new suitcases and migrated to the desert in California, where she was very happy! Lived there for the rest of her life. (I also remember the sea freezing over in 1947; my brother skated on it!)
Did you not go with her Sally ? lots of my relatives headed from Gravesend to California ‘not my Mum 🤷♂️’ in the 1950’s just to bloody cold here my auntie once said.
Best wishes.
@@mmm091000 No. I was engaged to be married at the time. Wish I had now!!!
@@sallygardiner7150 I bet to...I love California best wishes take care.
I was 8 and now the thing I remember most clearly was it finishing and seeing the colour green again.
I was 20 years old and was an excavator driver, soon the ground was to hard to dig so we worked in the yard repairing machines. I saw small birds sitting on fence wire just keeling over, larger birds like partridges, pheasants and wood pigeons came into the garden and were so tame they would be within ten feet of me, roe deer collected up in a small wood behind our house, again very tame. Buses, lorries that could move just stopped because the diesel froze, salt would not melt the ice on the roads because the temperature was to low, when the snow got removed we were driving on ice for many weeks, there were many different problems not mentioned but the spirit of the people kept up and we got over it.
One of Ridley Scott's first gigs in production design! Little did anyone know at the time what he would come up with many years later...
Love that man's films.
" Do you like our owl ? " - " Is it artificial ? " - " Of course it is,you numpty ! " " Have you ever retired a human by mistake ? " Classic...
My primary school's toilet block was frozen up as they were outside and so we were sent home!
Yay, for outdoor loos.......result😀
@@hootenanny1001 in the 50s we had outside loos, open to the sky! In exceptional circumstances were allowed to use indoor ones with the row of basins. Notre Dame, Maryland St, Liverpool. It became part of John Moore's Uni, I worked in the Business school in the 90s. The old assembly hall was the language laboratory.
Irene.......was a child of the 50’s but had a newly built school with indoor plumbing.....we was spoilt😀
@@hootenanny1001 the galling thing was indoor Loos n basins, nice and warm had to pass them to go down to playground. Netball, games so cold, yet countrydancing indoors, which I loved, was often cancelled. I'm 80+ now. We survived🕊️
I have gone from being taught we were in danger of an ice age, to global warming in one life time !
Yes, funny how things change when things change. I remember when there were those thick smogs near London. You could not see more than 6 inches in front of you and had to touch the walls and fences to check where you were along the road to school. Buses could not run, of course.
It went from the ice age warnings , to global warming, then when the trend turned again, they rebranded it "climate change" to hedge their bets.
Global warming brings ice ages at the end, this back than was the most likely the pick of a global warming caused by oil and coal and maybe vulcan outbreaks? smog. First the heat from the sun gets blocked and it gets warmer,for a short period, than the sun totally gets blocked and the world/ or that world part cools down, causing an tremendous cool down. So yes global warming still can bring a repeat of this cold period.
They said there was a new ice age coming in Los Angeles in the early “70’s.
Check out the World Economic Forum's planned 'Great Reset' - all based on 'bad science' as the late, great and real scientist Professor David Bellamy used to call Man-made Global Warming.
I was born in 63, but luckily missed the winter by 6 months. I remember my Mum talking about it, and the winter of 47 in later years.
I was 13 and it was so cold it froze the Boston dock and the river haven,amazing walking around the ships in the dock.
I was 11 years old living in Wishaw Scotland. The water in our "indoor" toilet systern froze up and my Dad had to pour hot water in to it. I recall standing in the playground at school and almost in tears as my feet froze inside my "plastic" sandals ! The windows all had ice on the insides. Bloody cold time it was.
I was heading for 16, working outside a training centre for the colliery, ground was frozen solid, river could walk across, will we ever see another like it
I went out yesterday and complained about how icy it was here and how I survived not slipping on it I never knew my mum and big sister s had lived through these conditions I'm sorry mum R.I.P 💔🥀🌹
There's been windy days in Toronto & Winnipeg when people on the downtown sidewalk were standing still being blown along on ice by the wind. It's fast & cheap travel is you have the intestinal fortitude.
@@grindupBaker sounds fun but maybe for the young .
I remember this as a toddler, freezing cold in the garden, but fun, and, it was white everywhere.
I remember walking to school just over 1 mile each way short trousers and blue quilted anorak. Good job parents could afford good shoes. No school runs in a nice warm car with heated seats in those days.
I was 10 years old in 1963, I loved every minute of it. Then the schools closed, burst pipes. My dad bought us kids a sledge and oh what fun we had, wet woollen gloves frozen wet hands and I still had shorts on. Never heard anyone mention Global Warming.
@Blackporsche roadster yes it was .
@Blackporsche roadster silly little sod, it was a wonderful adventure for the kids and the adults still had a wartime mentality and just got on with it. So all these things that are “better” have done is breed sneering little twerps like you
@Blackporsche roadster see l have upset a troll , is that the best you can do for insults , if you are trying to upset my day you failed, and always will , never mind have a good day .
I have snow in my country ,every year .⛄⛄⛄❄
@@sanjanewmoonlife you are very lucky .
How many young people these days can name a part of the country or city and point to it on a map without hesitation!
One of my earliest memories, I was 5 living in Notting Hill Gate
18/19 years of age. Left home living/working and studying in London. I was convinced I should not live in the UK any longer. Found a job in HK, arrived in Oct of 1963 and have been there ever since. I really am thankful to that dreadful winter. It changed my life for the better. So inside every snow storm there is a silver lining!
May your good joss contiinue
Where did you come from?
I remember 1963, I was 8 but just remember lots of snow so it's good to see how it actually was. I vaguely remember seeing on t.v. hay being dropped for cattle and sheep. We had one coal fire in the front downstairs room, sitting warm at your front and a freezing back. But we could make excellent toast! Frost on the inside of windows making patterns. I acquired our toasting fork after my Dad died. It reminds me of it when I go in one pub locally with their log fire. The Daily Mail would class 1963 as a disaster going off their exaggerated predictions this winter.
People now expect to sit wearing just a T shirt, the heating is off right now until morning. My eyes and throat would dry up if I visited my sisters in winter, I'd feel ill, central heating making the house too hot and dry.
My tiny garden has birds visiting most of the day for food and I make sure there is water.
I remember walking to school in snow up to my hips. I was 5 Soaking wet when I got there and had to stay wet all day. Brrrrr
Yeah, I remember my brother fell in a huge puddle when the snow melted and he was cold and wet all day.
There was a huge stove in one of the class rooms were cloths were dried we were sent out to play in all weathers between lessons and thought nothing of walking to and fro across the field for school .
I remember my friend Gary Bell who went to school in Devon at the time telling me about the winter of '63.
My family moved from Speyside down to Clydeside in January 1963, I remember seeing the red deer going down to the main roads in search of food, the moss that they normally eat was several feet under the snow. The winter of 1963 was bad, but I remember my father saying that it wasn't as bad as the winter of 1947, that was the worst snowfall in living memory.
My goodness,this has brought back so many memories.I lived through that Winter,even risking high heels.??
I was 16, I walked to work 1and1/2 miles in my wellies changed to shoes at work (as did most people). Very few absentees. We just got on with it.
Same here, it was different then, we just got on with it, came from our parents who struggled during WW2
I was 5 years old i remember the snow was so deep it went down my Wellingtons playing with my brother and sister we all cried after as our hands were so cold 🥶 one day my mum went out for oil for the heater it was showing hard she was gone for hours 💔 😢 looking for it we kept looking out the window and crying 😢 💔 thinking she was lost 😢 💔 when she got home she was so cold 🥶 we could not stop cuddle her she said she had to find it to keep us warm l love my mum ❤xxxx
There are more snowflakes today than during that blizzard.
Yeh Peter, but in my experience, it comes as much from the right as from the left.
@@roberth1322 you haven’t got much experience,that’s for sure,typical liberal 😉
@@cliffrightmove1527 Much experience of what?..... tory incompetence ? yeah we got a a whole country full ,115,000 DEAD , millions of OUR TAX £s to their corrupt mates ....SERCO ( ring a bell or not ! ) but carry on pulling your little forelock down there on your knees .
@@Paul-md8de another Democrat,Russia awaits you ,go and play with your train set,god what’s happened to our country with turps like you
@@cliffrightmove1527 what country are you on about dear ?
I remember the Headmaster had the bright idea (to toughen us up?) for all the boys to run around a nearby park (half a mile or so) in only shorts, running shoes and T shirt. We were to run continuosly with teachers standing at intervals to force us along. We then went straight into the hot showers. Strangely, it wasn't as bad as we all anticipated. The Head was probably lucky to get away with it. Criminal charges nowadays, at least!
Same as our school good idea ,P E teacher said let's play football in t shirt and shorts ,I had a moan to the teacher about the cold he said don't be a wimp ,I pointed out to him you've got a track suit on sir didn't go down to well!
@fred McMurray at least there was a purpose for what you were doing ,not just for sake of someones twisted pleasure.
called character building, a thing of the past now...
@@metaldetectingengland ah the 70s start of the snowflake, cry baby generation...
@fred McMurray Did you have a Union Jack with you?
Born in 1957, I can remember this Big Freeze, to me as a child it meant nothing, back then, we all still went to school, classrooms nice and warm, bottle of milk at break time, and school dinner, then off home at 3.30.
Yes the snow was really deep, and in some places so compact, it was great for sliding on, People used coal to make the snow melt.
For me this was a great time, snotty nose, wet gloves, and balaclava, but you just got on with it.
A Cup of tea, and toast before bed, lovely.
Beds covered with big old coats, icicles dangling from the window inside the bedroom.
Roaring fire when we got up made by our Mother.
And by the way no one stayed off work, everyone got to their place of employment.
Funny that in this new millennium, a bit of snow, and lots off work, kids no school, shops closed.
My family was visiting Northern Ireland during Christmas f 1962-1963. My father joked, at the time, that we wouldn't see snow. Boy, was he wrong! Thanks for this look back at me of the most exciting Christmas periods in our past.
I remember it well. I was 11 and lived on the south coast where we'd never had much snow. It was so deep and frozen us kids made pavement snow tunnels that were big enough to stand up in and use as rat runs to get us to school.
I was seven at the time and I remember the news showing someone driving a car on the river at oulton broad
Jesus!, I remember it well, I was 8 years old in St Mathews school in Wishawhill Scotland, there was an ice slid along a track of railway perimeter wall, it was 250 meters long, I tore the arse out of my trousers sliding on it all through lunch break,
Mrs. Heughs my 3rd grade teacher stood me up on a desk for there whole class to see then gave me 6 of the best on the hands with a Twase, unforgettable :)
I was 18 at the time and had an Austin 10 Litchfield, My friend and I decided to go to Wroxham Broad Norfolk as we were told it was frozen over, well it certainly was so much so that I had to park the car on the Broad as it was about 2 feet thick! We got out of the Car and walked across the ice and onto the river, We decided to carry on up river to the Broadland town of Wroxham. When we reached it and entered the Town going into a Pub and ordering a Rum and Black current [a popular drink of the day and very warming after two].
Later in the week we went on a treacherous drive to North Norfolk and walked out to sea at Wells, maybe this was a little crazy but the ice was very thick. And again to another pub for a warm up!
On arriving Home my Mother kindly informed me that our pipes were frozen so it was no good if I was thinking of a Hot Bath, bear in mind that our pipes were 2 feet down and in a sort of in a permanent frost.
The main London road which ran through our Village had many Pile ups up to 30 cars one night because we also had freezing rain as well as Snow so the Roads were always frozen with inch's of ice.
I remember people were saying that it was the new Ice age, I often reflect on this period of my life and can just imagine what would happen with today's traffic and huge Lorries if we were to get these conditions again.
Hope I have not bored you.
Can you imagine an equivalent report these days going on for so long without mentioning the word "government"? Today we would have random sports celebrity insisting on food parcels for the snow-bound needy, whilst one minister after another makes a series of inept promises and bumbling apologies. 🤔 At what point exactly did we begin to think our "celebrities" and overlords have all the answers ?
I think it was when they started to narcissistically lecture us at every opportunity about their superman/ saviour powers.
u k tv was good back then , but it went down hill after opportunity knocks , an that stupid body builder , aye !
@@thomasw.glasgow7449 Mind thon Shuggie Green?
@@lairdkilbarchan Aye .
Great stuff! One amazing thing about old film is how they manage to have it snowing indoors, too. :)
Kenneth Allsop's presentation of the charts in How and Why was spellbinding. I love the way he turned to semi-profile so often.
I remember that winter well. I was 13. Never known a winter like it. There was another blizzard in the January and we still went to school. I live in Somerset and I lived in Somerset then. Some of the villages were cut off and they had to have a helicopter deliveries to get them supplies. Terrible time. Hope to God we never get another winter like that! ❄️❄️❄️❄️
Meanwhile int north we dug each other out, villagers & farmers dug lanes & villages out. Not just so milk wagons carrying milk churns( no tankers) could be got out so the townies could get their milk but so no one was isolated.I was 7 & remember it well, walking on wall tops with long canes probing for sheep in snowdrifts, the farmer or older kids then dug em out,climbing out of our living room window down steps cut in the snow cos both doors were blocked by drifts.
I’m originally from Ayrshire. When I was a child my uncle kept a dairy and all us children had to help deliver the milk before school. I can always remember the snow in 1947 being so deep we had to cut through the fields because the roads were so bad, we were still using a horse and cart then. I remember arriving at an old ladies house one morning, several hours later then usual, to be greeted with “What time do you call this Bryce Dickie? My boys been waiting for breakfast!” She then proceeded to tell us that this was nothing compared with the winter of 18.....So something’s never change hahaha.
In london and other areas They said not to go out unless its absolutely vital , In my neck of woods Manchester we were told to put a coat on.
LOL
@Blackporsche roadster Yes the tough Scottish people are very tough too. As a half breed I carry the genes through.
@Blackporsche roadster Haha love it :) us up north of England were told to put ya big coat on :)
Oh i remember this so well.we had water carts coming round because all the pipes had frozen.i was 8 years old
I was born in November 1963, I guess my parents wanted to be warm for a while😁
Very cute☺️
I was born December 17 1963 hiya :)
@@jackiesmithsmetaldetecting Hi Jackie, you must have been nearly the last of the Boomers😁
@@iainrenton7527 Haha yes
@@jackiesmithsmetaldetecting Subscribed to your channel, give me something good to watch😘
Those were the days when the British worked together through adversity
not now though...
We still had steam trains which could batter through-mostly. The Somerset and Dorset kept going. I remember that the buses did not stop. We were London Transport Country area yet a few years ago, a bit of snow in Central London and tfl stopped all buses.
People still do that in natural disaster times, but it doesn't make the news, good news doesn't sell well. So you'll read about the smaller numbers of bad behaviours instead.
E-bi gum it wur a col dun. 🇨🇦 72 yr Yorkshire expat Not much warma ear guys ...oops n gals
chris Yes! No pussy-footing around and whimpish stories such as we have these days. We all pulled together...just like in the war. Which is why I love this highly politically incorrect song! ruclips.net/video/m4zyfwtDIHE/видео.html
I remember that very well.
I also remember the BBC when they simply presented the facts without a political slant...
Pretentious gammon.
@@thetruth495 Pretentious? How?
@@thetruth495 Yawn Zzzzzzz
@@Choraldiscourse Yes, very much the case.
Crikey, yes, I remember that too. I used to like the BBC although we rarely watch TV anyway.
I went with a couple of friends to "winkle island" just east of Littlehampton harbour mouth. Armed with shovels and a bungalow bath we had to break the ice on the sea with the spades to shovel up the winkles (they were so many and piled so thickly!) Train back to Worthing, where the pier girders were clagged in thick ice, lug the bath home to clean the catch and I couldn't get my wellies off: solid ice filled my boots!! My Mum soaked my feet in a baby bathe of tepid water to thaw the ice in my boots and my socks were stuck to my skin and to the inside of the wellies, . I am left in old age with toes void of feeling but if you pinch them OUCH!! I was 13 then, now 113!!! Sold the winkles round Worthings' pubs with a costa-mongers barrow, cooked and vinager'd, 1/- a pint!!! Frank Ifield and Susan Maughan were pick of the pops! Alright?
In 1963, I remember bedroom windows with thick frost on the INSIDE. We had snow 8ft deep at the back door.
1963 had (lots) more snow, but 1981 was another belter with -25C (-13F) in Shropshire and -16C (3F) in Nottingham. Brand new cars refused to start. Roads were not salted because it won't work when it's that cold. We coped because there was much less snow..
I worked in a power station where the generators were all going flat out 24/7. A 120 Megawatt boiler failed when the control system froze up. Tube leak shutdowns were not unusual but frozen controls certainly were and that boiler was very badly damaged..
I felt so very pleased with myself as this was the time I was doing my paper round and I just had to battle on and to get the newspapers delivered. It was a really great time and school was only closed for a day or so. Just had to carry on!!!
I start in August collecting supplies for the winter months in case we are snowed in. I CAN'T understand people who don't prepare.
Basic essentials are: powdered milk, canned evaporated milk, cans of soups & stews, cans of baked beans, honey & jam, oatmeal, semolina, coffee, tea, flour, butter & margarine, cat food, dog food, bacon, cans of salmon, tuna & other canned meats, fruits, vegetables & things. When my mother was alive & living alone in her own house I used to do a $500.00 non-perishable food shopping (This is pre 1990) for her for Christmas. I only lived 500 feet away but sometimes the conditions were so dreadful it was best to stay put.
People still laugh at me but I won't be out there breaking a hip like they do & I ALWAYS have a plethora to eat. These same people will call me up & ask what's for dinner so they get the run down - meat (canned), instant potatoes, gravy (packaged), can of veg, fruit or rice pudding for rafters. The next thing I hear is "CAN I COME?" I ALWAYS answer NO. THEY COULD HAVE PREPARED BUT INSTEAD OF LAYING OUT THE MONEY FOR SUPPLIES THEY WENT OUT FOR FANCY DINNERS, WENT AWAY FOR A WEEKEND, OR DID SOMETHING ELSE FOOLISH WITH THEIR MONEY.
I remember I had four small children ,the house had no central heating , only a small coal fire
In the kitchen ,which had a large pipe going through the ceiling . The windows were all frosted up with
beautiful patterns of small flowers . One of my children bought a friend home and my four children
Were playing in the back garden , and the friend my Son had brought home fell and fractured his arm
It was literary. Showing the bone through his skin I got in touch with his mother and called for an ambulance.
I remember how cold it was .but we were used to having 3-5 foot of snow in those days .
I'm 67 in December,and I well Remember the Big Freeze of 1962-63 and it started on my 6th Birthday on Saturday December 22nd 1962 and it lasted till the Spring of 1963 and I hated it as I'm frightened off falling on the ice and I still am and I was glad when it ended in the Spring
It was a Winter with a difference, i was just shy of 16, my first Winter working outside, what and introduction to work
I was 10 years old and remember the school milk was frozen and popped up out of the bottles , I remember the massive drifts and ice on the inside of my bedroom windows .
The scenes of animals dead from exposure, and lack of food, are very sad.
We moved house in the January and as the new property had been unoccupied all of the water pipes and tanks were frozen solid. My neighbours attached a hose to their tap so my parents could fill our bath up with cold water which we used over the next couple of weeks whilst the coal fire gradually thawed everything gently so we didn't get burst pipes. We had stone hot water bottles and lots of heavy blankets to warm the beds, but the bedroom window panes froze on the inside and the flimsy cotton curtains were frozen rock solid as there were no heaters upstairs.
Mya Purple ... My father was a Master Plumber and this winter kept him real busy...
@@rosemarydudley9954 yes I can imagine that it would have done. I think my parents were extremely lucky that the pipes didn't burst ! 😉
The winter of 63 only seems like yesterday to me . As a child it was wonderful .... I was 8 year's old and me and my friends ENJOYED it IMMENSELY . .
There was still piles of frozen snow in out road in May. I used to ride my motorbike and sidecar to work all through winter.
WELL ,WE WERE TOUGH BACK THEN. I ROAD MY MOTOR BIKE TO A FRIENDS HOUSE PARTY, BOXING NIGHT, AND WAS MAROONED THERE FOR A WEEK.
I laid my Triumph speed twin up for the winter and bought an old AJS and sidecar for £5.
George Lee...at least you had a sidecar to stop you falling over! LOL I was then 18 yrs on a 125 Lambretta doing 16 miles a day to work in stables. AND I AM A GIRLIE...WELL, NOW 75 and just given up riding my GSXR 1000K 03.
@@terryfletcher6465 Dear gone days, do you know how much that ajay an chair would cost you now/?!
Anita Burley I was 16 yesterday old and remember it very well I had been working for 6 months and it was hard to get to work.
I was a 9 year old kid in Birmingham...didn’t get to school for 3 weeks ....My Dad worked for M&B at Cape Hill in Smethwick ....they still eventually got the Beer to the Pubs
We are well overdue another winter like this one.
Or are we ? What with global warming.. I don't know.
well, I'll see what I can do.
@@straighttalking2090 oh nooooo.. it's c-c-c-c-c-lliiiiimmmmaaate change!!!!!
I was 11yrs old in Scotland I remember it well so cold.
@@silasmarner7586I knew that, I just couldn't remember the name of the last upgrade. But it does make me think... it is getting globally warmer isn't it? So why is it important about what it's called?
I remember being told we were not to go on the river, as if the ice breaks we could be drowned... However when we saw two local doctors, who were highly respected in our town, we decided it would be safe for us the go on the river... Later when telling our parents, they said, it was OK while the doctors were there skating, but things can change so be careful....
I was an eight year old living in Kendal. I well remember travelling to Windermere with my family and we all walked on the frozen surface of the lake. I even have a black and white photo of it somewhere.
What a wonderful time for the kids I remember it well kids of today will never see this much.
We got our water out of a well but if we couldn’t get it out that way we used snow to cook and wash in like I said a great time for us sadly we probably will never get this much snow again.
I was born in a small Canadian town in the wee hours of the morning of March first 1963. Of course it happened to be in the middle of a snow storm. We still had a multi party phone system at the time so dad rang the operator to let the hospital know that mom was in labor and they were heading to the hospital. It was snowing so bad that the operator had to call the town snow plow in. After waking the plow driver he immediately came to our house and dad had to follow behind the snow plow in our car all the way to the hospital.
I remember this - My older brother rode a Bantam motorcycle on the River Dee at Sandycroft North Wales & My mum made me a coat from my Dads Demob herring bone overcoat for school that was lovely and warm but itched like hell - One coal open fire in the lounge & a paraffin heater stood in the hall to stop the bedrooms freezing - no central heating & single glazed windows with amazing fern like frost patterns were the norm - bottles of milk on door steps would sport creamy white protrusions some with silver and gold foil hats on.
I was thirteen in 63, the animals never came into the conversation, we weren't so soft then, these days people seem more worried about the animals than the humans.
dave evans, me too. I was 13 too but I don't remember this being colder than any other winter that we used to get
You've got to remember this was a generation who went through a war .a drop if snow wouldn't stop them, thick pair of socks and a cup of horlicks sorted
Now everything is a right horlicks.
Nice to see you Chris Packham. I remember '63 and I think everyone who does, looks after our birds and wildlife as a full time job, more than younger people.
I was 6 in 1963. I remember the Thames froze and I still have a photo of my mother, my younger sister and myself standing on ice on the Thames in Windsor. We are holding on to a wooded sign which said “Thin Ice” Dad took the photo, not at all afraid for his family. I also remember my Dad pulled my sister and me, on a sled from our house to our Nan’s.
I was born in mid Feb that year, right in the middle of it, can't remember a thing for obvious reasons. My elderly mum has a habit of reminding everybody of it every time we get a cold spell each winter. Tales about the sea freezing etc. An older brother insists he saw Snowy Owls along the North Kent coast, a bird found around the Artic circle normally. Bit peeved I missed it really.
Me too. 7th Feb in Scotland.
@davidoffon Touche. But Baltic non the less. lmao
Me to born 1963
I love the voices,Derek Hart makes the Queen sound common
The queen is common...
I was amazed that the end credits included Ridley Scott!