i was seven years old at the time
Mr PKL can remember snow to the top of the hedge tops, and it lasting for months and months. He was 5.
What can you remember Jim?
giant snow balls bloking the street, the snow house built by digging a ,large hole
the roof was of tree branches with snow pilled on top, power cuts, sandy our dog who loved the snow, a cold house or so my parents said but i thought it was all great happy days
Still just under the Gooseberry bush myself in 47, but I remember people saying how bad a winter it was,
I hope that a full health and safety assessment was done before you went into the snow house Jim.
;D
some good clips to watch on u-tube to jog the memory.
That's amazing Jim. I did not realize u-tube was around back then.
On flat ground the sow was up to my chest, where it drifted, it was much higher e.g.
Picture the road sign for a 'school'
When I was travelling to school the snow had drifted so high, that it looked liked the two children (on the sign) were walking on the snow.
That must have made the snow at least six foot deep at that point!
Another point here is;
The snow was this deep and we still went to school now adays 6 millimetres of snow causes chaos!
Ah! those were the days!
Yes - as OC Turnhouse - we were dropping supplies to the Scottish sheep!!
This was before the snow came, with Lord Nathan, Minister of Aviation, on right.
My school was an hour away from home involving two bus trips so I couldn't get to school for a while. Mother had to go to work but we children had strict instructions to stay indoors - the snow was a good three feet deep and we didn't have appropriate clothing or footwear for such weather. However, we thought we would be clever and went out thinking that if we would only step in her footsteps through the garden she would never know. Ha de ha ha! Our legs weren't quite long enough to step cleanly into her footsteps so our smaller footprints were quite visible. We all got a smacked bottom and no jam on our bread at teatime! It must be said that Mother was having to work to keep three children and really didn't need the extra washing and ruined shoes our disobedience caused. Times were hard after the war!
Tricia
I was born in October 1947 so presumably was keep well wrapped up and indoors through the winter! :)
I was born in 1943 so can just remember being impressed with the depth of the snow, coming in over my boots, and the vivid whiteness everywhere. However, I have my mother's diary of that time, and it sounds like one long struggle to keep a draughty house and two small children of 4 and 2 at all warm, with regular powercuts and lack of paraffin, coal or other substitutes.
My father was teaching in Midhurst Grammar School at the time, some way from our village of Cocking, with only a bicycle for transport, but as far as I know he did not miss any days, somehow. Not according to the diary. It seems he even brought boys home to tea, meaning a big effort to have something nice for them.
remind me of snow that my dad told me about in feb 1955
snow plow could not go up his street do to an unseen Packer in drift his neighs house had a 15 foot drift next to it. for me personal 2010 storms 2 storms in 1 week barely had time restock cupboard before second storm hit 2 days later 2009 had very bad snow or or dec 1992 blizzard to storms same day 5ft or more.
was there not coal strike in 1947? or was it shortage.
I was conceived Feb 48, perhaps without that Winter........................ ;) ;D.
plainleaf...i think it was a shortage of coal?
I was told the shortage of coal was because most of what we had got exported to help pay the Americans, don't know how true that is.
My dad was 16 in 1947, so I don't remember much of that year.
Love these old photos of 1947
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1242189/Cheer-At-1947--winter-power-cuts-TV-baths-children-sent-bed-dinner-wasnt-food.html
1947 for me was the year my Dad upgraded his degree in German to Honours level. He had studied French and italian before the war but then worked on decoding in Bletchley Park when he also learnt German and Japanese.
After the war he wanted to improve his German and graduated in 1947, just as his father was dying. Diabetes, gangrene in leg, amputation ........
I arrived in 1949 to put the smile back on his face.;0))
am I right in thinking that it was the winter of 46/47 not 47/48 that was the bad one :-\ no memory of either as I was born july 47.
marg
January 1947 which makes it; 46/47
I did not come along till 54 but my Mum remembers her Brother taking down internal doors and shelves so they could burn them for heat,things got so desperate. :(
I was 8 years old in '47. I remember waking up in Cardiff, South Wales, and we couldn't get out of the front or back doors due to snow drifting up against them. My Uncle had to climb out of a downstairs window and clear the doors so we could get out and use the toilet which was outside.
I remember watching the kids playing outside in the snow. I wasn't allowed out as I suffered with tonsillitis and in those days that infection could be a killer. Remember it was only just the beginning of the anti-biotic revolution, and they were very scarce.
I remember that the snow seemed to be around for weeks, and in all of that time I had to stay inside.
So my memories of those days? Misery and boredom.
Peter
Being carried on my Dad's shoulders & demanding to be put down, which he did & the snow came over my head
Although I was only just over 3 years old at the time I remember 08 February 1947 very clearly.
At our house in Portsmouth, Dad had shovelled a path through the snow from the front door to the kerb - I couldn't see over the 'mountains' on each side as I walked down to the road. With a little bag of clothes and toys, I was sent off - alone - in a taxi to go and stay with my Nan.
I was returned home, again alone in a taxi, a few days later to find that I was no longer an only child. In my absence my mother had produced a fat, ugly, little brother for me. :o
Heaven knows how the taxi managed to get through that much snow - or how the midwife got there on her bike!
I remember fuel was so hard to get, my mom said the coalman sold our ration on the black market, [I had to go and wait for the coal to come in to the yard, and then run home and tell mom. who ordered it at once, but thats another story]
My dad went into the fields and the lanes at the back of the house, and cut down a small tree so we could have some warmth. but that was not to be he had to have some help to get the tree home, and while he was away someone pinched it, so no fire for us, That year was hard, but us children loved the snow and we were out most of the day in it ,we had two buses on our local roads, and both got snowed in for ages, and we had to walk/
June.