Cor blimey Rindy, aint heard that one in a month o' Sundays!Feed a cold, starve a fever.![]()
i remember..i was only 6 but we still had to walk to school even though the snow reached the top of our wellies,,no namby pamby excuses in those daysIf anyone was around during the winter of 1947, now that was cold and it lasted for well over a month.
Even the sea at Blackpool froze. Not enough to walk on but nonetheless the surface was ice. 6 feet snowdrifts was the norm with the general snow fall at around 12 inches.
Schools didn’t close though, we just didn’t take off our hats and coats when we got there. And of course we walked to school.
Any transport that did manage to venture out (not that there was much anyway) had to have chains on its wheels otherwise it got nowhere.
Thick ice on the INSIDE of bedroom windows. We got very adept at getting undressed and into bed to curl up around the hot water bottle in a few seconds flat.
Come the morning it was high speed getting dressed and downstairs to wait for mum or dad to clean out the fire and light it again. Once lit we huddled close to it to try and get warm.
Yet life went on more or less as normal.

I was in London the last time it snowed in 1991...
I'd gone for a drink after work with my friend Sara. When we'd gone in Harry's Bar at sixish it was fine. When we left at about eleven the whole of Piccadilly was covered by about six inches of snow. It was magical, and everone was in a playful mood. There wasn't much traffic, but the buses and tubes were running as normal, as they were the next day also.
It was unusual, but the city coped, and carried on as usual.
If you recall, the snow started about lunchtime on the day the Provo's (originally thought to be Iraqi's, for this was the time of the first gulf war) let loose a mortar attack on Downing St and continued throughout the day. However, your memory and the BBC are playing you tricks.The snow fall was no more than 2 or 3 inches in the capital. The BBC yesterday referred to the 'heaviest snowfall since 1991', but they were in fact referring to the country as a whole.
At 9am yesterday morning, the snowlayer was about 10'' here in the East End; I have been here since 1978 and as such is far worse than anything I can recall. Still, that is no excuse for the total failure of the authorities - who had plenty of advance warning - to keep things moving.

Eighteen years later it seems sad that even though buses ran whilst the city was being Blitzed, this is no longer possible, and our capital city ground to a halt. A halt that will have cost the country many millions of pounds.
Some progress.
As mentioned before, people travel further to work and school these days, and not always within walking distance and are more aware of the dangers on the roads during such adverse weather conditions so take advice and stay at home.
I seriously don't think most people look at it as an excuse to stay off work, even though we joke about it.

A bit of snow and the all bloody country comes to a standstill, scotland get it most of winter and ya never hear them complaining
Soft southern sods!!
We use essential cookies to make this site work, and optional cookies to enhance your experience.