Big freezes

Hi Tony, Just before we were married my Tony used to rent the neighbour's garage next door for 7/6d a week, not sure if that was a lot or not, but it was very convenient at the time (1959)

I seem to recall that was about the amount my father used to pay for his garage (the block of garages is still standing and I think in use to this today) - it would be about the same period as you mention. Goodness knows how/why I remember that scrap of information!

Probably because you are able to. Good job, hey, Tony?

Of course, what made the 'big freeze' worse was that the house was so blumming cold inside! I remember that, because the coalman couldn't get through, my brother and his pal took the old pram to the local (Keresley) pit and brought it home full of coal, along with half the village!

Hi all The first Saturday of 1963. I was at Barnwood near to Gloucester. It tells its own story.

I was hoping you'd find the shot, Philip! Somehow, I wasn't expecting it to look like that, the icicle seems to defy gravity or is is an optical illusion

Hi Foxcote, It was so windy with it. Two weeks later I returned (I loved trainspotting in the Gloucester area) to find the river Severn frozen right across.

Hi again, I was often in good company with my trainspotting as with these trips to Gloucester. Mr. Ashworth who I first met in warmer days at the vinegar works, has published several railway albums which included some of my colour slides. He, like me cycled to most of the locations, but not in this weather. He lived in Gloucester with his wife & two children. They accommodated me more than once.

My memories of the freeze relate to the City. Firstly two games against Peterborough - the first, on Boxing Day at Peterborough played in a blizzard with City winning 3-0 and the second three days later at home. This was played on about 6 inches of rolled snow with blue lines and an orange ball. This was 3-3 but two cracking games. It turned out to be the last league game played for almost two months and the City's third round cup match versus Lincoln was postponed 14 times. When play recommenced in March it was usually on very sodden grounds with at least two games per week. The season was extended to the end of May.

I would walk about a mile to school at Meriden - no closures then - and the first time I noticed that it was colder than usual was on entering the school gate, where the milkman had left the wire crates containing our third pint bottles of milk (three crates from memory). On this particular day the milk had frozen solid, expanded and pushed the creamy bit up about an inch with the foil cap sitting like a hat on top. (For the benefit of younger readers I should perhaps explain that in those days the dairy didn't pinch most of the cream and homogenise the remainder, a bottle of milk would settle out to give a layer of more yellowy coloured cream on top). Break arrived and having eaten the creamy portion in the manner of an ice lolly the remainder defied even our warm little hands, which weren't so warm by then as we'd been standing around outside of course. Next day the teachers realised there was a problem and brought the crate into the classroom, which was a high old church style building open up to the rafters and heated by a solitary coke stove at the front of the class. This was a cream enamelled cast iron affair about eighteen inches square and three feet high, refuelled by lifting a lid on top, whereupon the room would be filled with the most eye-watering fumes, and probably carbon monoxide too, but of course nobody worried about things like that then. The extremities of the room weren't any too warm as the doors and windows didn't seal very effectively (I sat at the back so I knew) whereas the pupils up front got a bit too much of a good thing. On this day the crate was perched on top of the stove where it spent the first lesson while we watched the cream lollies slowly melting and dribbling over the stove to make a stink. At break, outside of course, we were able to enjoy(?) our part bottles of warm, souring milk with a bit of ice floating in it. By the third day the teacher compromised and stood the crate beside the stove. Christmas Day was a busy time for our family, trying to keep the incoming water pipe from freezing. It was on the north side of the house and barely lasted two hours before it was time to blast it with a hairdrier again, in between heating kettles of water to pour over the waste pipes outside. Luckily the electricity kept working. We were too far outside the city to have gas. Heating was a coal fire. That was the time I learnt that it was actually possible to get tired of building snowmen and making snowballs.

Morning GlynD, I can remember the milk frozen up like that walking to school and seeing it on all the doorsteps and then suffering that nauseous, warm milk that was on top of the radiator.

Leading the Peterborough attack in both matches was the one and only George Hudson - perhaps JH was impressed by him in these matches although he didn't score And Peterborough (Posh as they were known) were managed by former CCFC manager Jack Fairbrother JH took the Sky Blues over to Ireland during the winter freeze for a number of friendly matches, including a 2-2 draw against 1st Division Manchester Utd

The big freeze I did not realise until I did my sums that the big freeze was the year I got engaged to my now wife Jackie, we had an engagement party at my mum's prefab at Holloway Fields. Mum had decided that she would stay at my gran's house that night as she thought it was going to be some party (she was not wrong there). Everything was set and people started to arrive covered in snow! We were young and snow was not a problem for us. About 10.30 ish one of the lads decided to make his was home on the bus which was about 10 minute walk to the bus stop in normal conditions. We said our goodbyes and he set off in the snow which was getting rather deep now. We thought no more and carried on partying. The party fizzled out and some people bedded down on the floor unable to go home due to the bad weather and being somewhat drunk (the law on drink driving was not enforced as it is today, I am not condoning drink driving but it was not unusual then to drink and drive). Next morning was bad, the snow was up the door, bodies lying all over the place, as for me I had to return to my bed, I think I may have had a bad pint! It was about 10am ish when I got up again to the sound of the vac being pushed round the lounge, most people were up and about and I could smell bacon and as everyone knows their is no better hangover cure than thesmell of bacon. I had to visit the loo (the loo was separate to the bathroom) during my visit I could I could hear noises coming from bathroom, on investigation I found my friend snoring his head off lying in the bath, fast asleep. Once he had come round we asked him how he ended up asleep in the bath? Bearing in mind he left for the busstop about 10pm. After a short time he told us that he had got lost and retraced his foot steps back to the party, not too sure which door to open he ended up in the bath. "Looked so inviting" he said, after a bacon batch he was back to normal (whatever he called normal.) Some party that was, although I am more than happy with my life I sometime wish I was back then. Colin.

Just when I thought we were going to hear about the party, but then it is about the Big Freeze. Our parties often went a bit longer than that Colin. Lost count of the times we walked home from our nights out on a Saturday in the snow and I never felt the cold in those days.

In 1973 we had started to build a house and as I could not stand to live with the mother-in-law I bought a caravan for £20. I will just say, I did not dislike the mother-in-law but I missed my independence, we only lived with them for three weeks while we were in between what we were doing. The 22ft caravan had been a site hut on a building site. I gutted it, installed a double bed for us and a cot up in the air to keep our little one warm. We had chairs to sit on, 12v lighting, gas cooker and a coal fire. It was quite snug even in the middle of winter. However, snoring away one night, the wife sat up in bed and said "we are on fire!!!!!!!" and promptly went back to sleep. Me, I could not see for smoke, I shot to the door and opened it, the smoke was now billowing out but I could not see what was on fire. Sticking my head out of the door I could now see the side of the caravan turning black, the fire was in the cavity. At this point I will now say, it is freezing cold, I have nothing on and the wind had picked up which had drawn the fire up until the metal stove was glowing red hot. The caravan was sited at Church Lawford on a hill, a proper site. I ran down to the fire buckets, which was about 50 yards away, grabbed two of them and then started to run back when I suddenly realised no water was sloshing out of them. Frozen solid. So I ran back to the 250 gallon water tank and realised that was frozen too. There I am in the nude trying to beat the ice to death with two frozen buckets of ice in the freezing cold wind while the caravan is turning even blacker. The icicle on the tap was resting on the ground, so no water there. I raced back to the caravan to find the wife is still asleep, so I grabbed the washing up liquid bottle and a hammer and then smashed a hole in the side of the van, lo and behold the fire. I will say, washing up liquid makes a good fire exstinguisher. Fire out. I then dampened the fire down and crawled back into bed, frozen to the marrow and the wife had no idea of what had happened until the morning. She is a sound sleeper, lol.