Blast from the Past: Severe Winters from Calderdale History and Beyond

We can all think back to winters in our past that have left an icy imprint on our memory; however, quite a few of us were not alive during the most recent, truly harsh winters to hit the United Kingdom and none of us have experienced the worst winters on record.

How do we know which were the worst winters? The Central England Temperature records (or CET) extend back to 1659 so an exceptionally bad winter tends to stand out. Once you start looking into severe winters it can get a bit confusing, with numerous gruelling spells popping up defined as ‘The Great Frost of…’ so, for the sake of clarity, I’m going to keep it largely to what I will call the Big Four…

The Big Freeze of 1962 – 63

This is our most recent severe winter. From Boxing Day 1962 until March 1963 most of Britain was under snow with average temperatures 5 to 7 degrees below average. It was dubbed the Big Freeze and referenced by The Dream Academy in their 1985 song ‘Life in a Northern Town’:

“In winter 1963/ it felt like the world would freeze/ with John F. Kennedy/and the Beatles.”

The song was an elegy to British folk musician, Nick Drake, who died in 1974.

On January 21st, after a weekend of the worst snowstorms since 1947, snow blocked virtually all trans-Pennine routes (the M62 had not been built at this point) and only the A646 Burnley Road, running along the bottom of the Calder Valley, remained passable. At the time the Halifax Courier reported that:

“Every available Halifax Corporation workman was out in a monster operation to relieve road chaos… The convergence of commercial vehicles was so great that police were on special duty to keep traffic moving to and from Lancashire.”

Amongst those stuck in traffic on this icy route were officials of the Ministry of Transport and West Riding County Council Highways Department. One of the Ministry travellers subsequently compiled an urgent report and by February 1963 a proposed route for the M62 had been unveiled. The motorway scheme had been talked about as early as 1934 but as is with a lot of potentially difficult projects, it took a disaster to finally get it off the ground.

The extreme conditions put an end to most sporting events and unable to go ahead with football fixtures, the Shay Stadium, in Halifax, set itself up as a public skating rink and hundreds of people came to skate on it.

March the 6th was the first day of the year when there wasn’t a frost. Temperatures quickly rose and the snow melted.

Winter of 1946 – 47

The winter of 1946/47 was also particularly gruelling. The country was still recovering from World War II, so life was already difficult. During this time the UK experienced prolonged freezing temperatures and snowstorms that left huge drifts and brought disruption to travel and energy supplies. Roads and railways were blocked for long periods which caused problems transporting coal to power stations. Quite a number had to shut down which led to restrictions in power use. Domestic energy use was limited to 19 hours a day whilst some industrial supplies were cut completely. Radio broadcasts were limited, television services were suspended, some magazines were ordered to stop publishing and newspapers were reduced in size. The Minister of Fuel and Power, Emanuel Shinwell, received death threats and had to be placed under police guard. Meanwhile, animal herds froze or starved to death and vegetables were frozen into the ground. In some areas they used pneumatic drills to extract them!

Whole villages in the Calderdale area were completely cut off. On the 10th of February, supplies were dispatched to Blackshaw Head by horse-drawn sledge. It was to be the village’s first contact with the outside world in 11 days.

On January 30th, the Halifax Evening Courier reported:

“18 degrees of frost were recorded at Halifax’s Belle View meteorological station in the 24 hours ended at 10am today. The lowest reading since January the 6th, 1941 when there were 19 degrees.”

‘Degree of frost’ is a non-standard unit of measure. In England, it is the number of degrees Fahrenheit that the temperature falls below the freezing point (32 degrees).

But how was all this affecting the people of Calderdale? On February 5th, the following letter was published in the Evening Courier:

“Sir, I sometimes wonder if the schools have really progressed. When I attended school at Bolton Brow we had the choice of a mug of warm or cold milk every day. How we appreciated that warm drink in the winter! Now, 20 years later, with the temperature below freezing point, the children are faced with a bottle of half-frozen milk or nothing at all. I know some teachers place the milk near the fire or steam pipes in an effort to take the chill off, but I think this method is more inclined to turn the milk sour than to warm it. I feel sure that the children would not have so many “off days” if they had this very necessary service – Yours, etc. MOORSIDE”

On the 8th of February, there is a report under the title ‘TWO MORE BUSES STRANDED’:

“Much of the improvement in bus services reported yesterday has been set back by last night’s renewal of the blizzard. Yesterday afternoon a service was started to Heptonstall Slack and continued until teatime, but then the blizzard caused the drifts to cover the road again – and two more buses were stranded to join company with the two that have been isolated at Heptonstall for several days.”

By mid-March, warmer air melted surface snow which ran off the frozen ground and caused flooding in many areas. It is said that snow remained in the lea of walls well into summer…

*In part two we will cover two of the most severe European winters on record – The Great Winter of 1708 – 09 (or Le Grand Hiver as it was known in France) and The Great Frost of 1683 – 84.

* Image: Scar Head, Norland, from the Jon Bates collection at Sowerby Bridge Library.