The winter of 1962/62 in the UK was known as the Big Freeze where for 10 weeks the Met Office recorded temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees, with blizzards, snowdrifts, with lakes, rivers and even seaports freezing over. The Big Freeze stated on Boxing Day 1962 with heavy snowfalls and deep frosts that continued until the 6th of March 1963 There hasn't been one since, the previous known freeze was in 1740!
Public Transport and industry struggled and often stopped, along with the supply of food. Farmers lost their stock, unable to access their fields and wildlife froze to death. It took many years for the bird population to recover.
Milkmen suffered exhaustion performing their deliveries under the poor road conditions and the milk would freeze and pop their foil bottle tops!
I turned 5 years old in 1963 and we were living in Whittington. Ice formed on the inside windows and the toilet bowl and cistern would freeze overnight. Dangerously huge icicles formed under the eaves of our home. The nearby canal froze over and I had a homemade sledge (toboggan) which sent me straight through a hedge one time.
Pipes buried 5 feet down in the playground at my school burst! School was closed most days and not all students could get there due to the treacherously icy conditions. At times Dad couldn't get to work by bus and had to walk the 5 miles into Lichfield. The factory then closed unable to deliver and lacked raw materials. The local pubs and co-op store ran low of many items and we were cut off for several days. Our house was completely electric, so we worried when the power would go out. Lucily, it would return after an hour or so....
The people back then had memories of the war and were resilient and resourceful. You put on another layer of clothing, another pair of socks and wore wellington boots outside.
Once the thaw started there was water and mud everywhere!
