Big freezes

Do you remember the big freeze of December 6th 1968? The city came to a virtual stop. I was working in Birmingham then, just off Longbridge Lane, in West Heath. It started snowing heavily - unexpectedly - at about 1030; by 3 o'clock, we were under 6 -8 inches of snow. At 3:30, we were sent home. None of the roads had been gritted; it took me an hour to get up Parson's Hill at King's Norton, not because I couldn't do it, but many others couldn't. I got all the way to the A45, passed Stonebridge, and reached the back of a stationary queue stretching into the distance. I was bursting for a loo by then, did an illegal U-turn, and got back to Stonebridge, where there was a public loo in those days. I decided to go home via Balsall Common, reaching home, 29 miles from where I worked, at 8 p.m. My brother, however, had to cross Coventry. It took him 5 1/2 hours. The elevated ring road was jammed up because of all the buses that had got stuck on the slip roads, blocking them; and the queues that built up blocked everywhere else. Some people tried to go along pavements - notably on Ball Hill, where the pavement was wider, and one got stuck between a post box and shop front. A long queue of cars etc., was stuck all night in freezing conditions on the A45, and it wasn't cleared fully until early next morning. Once the snarl-up began, naturally the gritters couldn't get to do their job, and it just got worse and worse. Quite a day/night! The irony for me was that I had a Beetle then, and didn't get stuck anywhere; it was a lot of other vehicles that caused problems. Happy days, eh?

I remember it well!! I lived in a flat in Earlsdon at this time, and I recall waking to find about a foot of snow on the ground and everywhere at a standstill. I worked at the very far end of Charter Ave in Canley and decided to gain some brownie points by walking to work - which resulted in me being rather late for my 7:30am start. The only problem was I hadnt counted on the weather being as bad when it was time to go home - so I ended up having to walk back as well! Happy days!

I remember it well, my husband Gary was working at the Torrington Company. He was due home at lunchtime and the snow was coming down heavily. When he finally arrived home he had walked to our home in the Green Lane area. He had tried to start the car using the starting handle hurting his wrist in the process, but still could not get it going. As the day progressed his wrist became more and more painful stopping him from getting any sleep that night. The following day my father-I need-law managed to get to us in his car and took Gary off to Coventry and Warwickshire casualty department. After a very long wait and an XRay it was discovered that he had broken his wrist trying to get the car going using the starting handle. He arrived home some hours later with his wrist in plaster and pain killers.

I am too young to remember that one but I do remember the one in November 1990. We had a 3 week old daughter who wouldn't sleep so we got up around 4am as the first flakes fell. By breakfast time it was several inches deep. I had to get to Ball Hill for supplies & electric cards & the journey was a nightmare, when I got home I just drove into the snowdrift outside our house! Sewall Highway was closed by snow that night & I walked down to the shops in the the middle of the road - very eerie indeed. Luckily we had a coal fire & had just had a coal delivery so we just had that blazing away - others were not that lucky! I remember the snow watch programme on Mercia Sound that weekend where they were trying to coordinated resources. Happy memories now! John

Gosh John, Mercia Sound. "If you wake up feeling ghastly, tune to Gordon Astley" was one of the jingles. I usually walked to Courtaulds from Holbrooks most days, so bad weather would only interrupt work schedules. My memories of bad winters go back further, to 1963, when I was late for an interview. I need not have worried as no one else even turned up. Best wishes.

There was a big freeze about 1981, too. I had an MCP Mini, that had the typical Mini problem of a water leak into the passenger footwell. Being MCP, I was forced to wait to get it put right, and the carpet got soaked. Then it froze - bulged up about 2 inches in the middle - if it had been on the driving side, it would have been undriveable - it would have jammed the pedals! The temperature went down to about -20 something, a bit of a record, as I remember. Another time, in '73, I had a Toledo then, I found one morning it didn't want to start. Warmer next day, no problem. Then the following day, a real frost, and it would NOT start! After quite a bit of diagnosis, I found the problem - the moving contact breaker point had a nylon cam follower, which had shrunk in the cold and was so tight on the post, it would barely turn. Quick bit of filing with a rat's tail file, and it never failed again. Those were the days when we could fix them ourselves, eh? (And often needed to!!)

I have joined this seasonal topic of 'harsh, snowy weather' in the hope that we get some Christmassy snow-bound memories in. I have been trying to find some footage of the 'Coventry Freeze-up' of 1962 but I'm not having much luck. I found a super, nostaligc video of that period for nationwide for now. It has sound and loads of details of the weather and further into it, there are loads of cars and a bus! Also, I forgot about this, but it shows a bedwarmer, they were fantastic, two metal spheres with a lightbulb in! Soooo snug tucking into bed with your flannelette sheets after the bed warmer had made it so cosy! Sorry it's not got Coventry on and hope that we find some more. The Big Freeze, 1963

Hello Foxcote, Heavens above, I thought 1947 was bad enough. Great footage that. I remember I had to walk down the front garden and not on path because the path was too slippery to get to the front gate. My daughter was only about 4 months old and pushing the pram was a nightmare. Give me two hot water bottles any day.

I'd have the two hot-water bottles AND the Bed-Warmer!

I remember that winter very well. I was only 9 at the time and had to take 2 buses to school every day, from Binley to KHVIII Juniors. We were expected to get there every day and not once, no matter how bad the weather, did the school close. In those days we weren't allowed inside until the bell went, so had to remain outdoors no matter what time we arrived. Breaktime also saw everyone out in the snow. And we were never allowed home early even in heavy snow. On the worst days buses were gridlocked and I had to walk home on a few occasions. My parents had bought a brand new bungalow a couple of years earlier, but he had not had central heating, or even gas, installed. So we had a coal fire and a couple of electric radiators and the house was freezing most of the time. My bedroom window was iced over on the inside every day for many weeks during the freeze, and I had to sleep in several layers of clothing. After this winter, father eventually agreed to have central heating installed, although he insisted on it being coal-fired so it was never much good! During January of 1963 our water pipes froze up and we had no water for about 2 weeks. We relied on filling buckets from the woman next door. I remember one occasion when my friend and I poured some of this water on our sloping drive to make an ice run for the sledge. The woman next door took this personally and told us 'We don't give you our water to do that!' Although us kids made the best of it with snowball fights, sledging etc, it was a miserable time because it just seemed to go on for ever. It started with a heavy snowfall on, I think, Boxing day, and didn't thaw until about the end of February or even later. We always seemed to be cold, and clothing was always wet. Drying out sodden shoes was a particular problem. But we survived.....

Remember that year well, mostly for my paper round. Our bedroom window was one of those small pane ones that took up the whole wall from waist height to the ceiling, which we did not have as that followed the roof trusses. There was as much ice on the inside as the outside and the room was bitterly cold. It took a brave man to go to the outside loo in the middle of the night, I think buckets were the order of the day. Even my dad was late for work, considering he only lived three hundred yards away this took some doing. Mind you, when he was eighty I found his old clocking cards from the BTH which he had saved. He was late at least 3 times a week, lol. On the paper round, dressed for the cold, the last thing I expected was a warm wind. I walked down Lower Ford St and it was bitterly cold but by the time I came back to walk up the other side the wind was blowing warm. Weird. By the time I had finished the round I was sweating and sodden wet from all the water dripping from the icicles hanging from the roofs. That was the start of the big melt. Also, that the council had used the Sherbourne by the Pool Meadow as a dumping place for all the snow, full to the brim, it was dangerous to walk near there in case you fell in.

I recall it too when I was 8 walking to school on my own having to push the snow with my knees to be able to walk in it.

There's some great descriptions and memories coming on here about it. Sounds as if the novelty soon wore off after a week or so with everyone as it made life so miserable and uncomfortable for getting to work and school, imagining Morgana struggling through the snow like that, I didn't realise that the kids would have still gone to school.

If my memory serves me correctly, even the buses stopped for a few days. It was rather fortuitous (or not, from my point of view) that a boy who lived about half a mile away had a father who would take him to school by car and he was prepared to take me and my brother as well. Yes we woke up with ice on the inside of the windows, yes we slept in our school uniforms, no there was no consideration given to closing the school. I now live in a small village in Wales and they tell me that what we experienced was nothing in comparison to their stories.

Honestly enjoyed helping.