Back to ice age

That contrasts sharply to one of Yorkshire's bitterest winters 40 years ago.

It all began just before Christmas 1962. December had already been cold, with a brief respite as temperatures climbed for a couple of days. Then, on the 22nd of the month, the mercury plummeted, heralding the beginning of a big freeze which would last for weeks.

York didn't enjoy a white Christmas, although the rooftops and grass did take on a frosty gleam. At this point, the snow had yet to arrive in any quantity.

A few days later, Rowntree Park keepers began to allow skaters the use of its frozen lake, for a small charge. By the end of the month, York had shivered through its second coldest December for 62 years.

If people had expected the New Year to bring new weather, they were disappointed.

The freezing temperatures put an end to outdoor revelry in York on New Year's Eve: "As midnight heralded the start of 1963, the streets of the city were almost empty," the Evening Press reported.

"In Exhibition Square, the only 'revellers' were a dozen or so people shivering in silence as they waited for taxis to take them home."

But the dances, at the Assembly Rooms, Chase Hotel, City Arms Hotel, Railway Institute and elsewhere went ahead as normal.

Early in January, it was the south which was suffering heavy snowfalls. York was merely very, very cold. By January 4, angling clubs were reporting difficulties as the River Ouse was frozen upstream of Rawcliffe.

A week later, the Evening Press carried a photograph of a man walking his dog along the Ouse at Clifton (the publication of which was derided as "lunacy" by one correspondent). His walk took him across the river near to where the new Clifton Bridge was about to be built.

It was stressed in the article that parts of the Ouse were not frozen thick enough to support even a child's weight.

That was dramatically proven days afterwards. Some walkers warned a group of four boys to get off the frozen river at Water End. Three did; the fourth "began to dance up and down on the ice". It broke and he fell in.

The three walkers had to edge across the thin ice and form a human chain to pull him out. As for the lad, aged about 11, he "dashed away with his friends, his hands scratched from the ice".

The next day, police officers visited city schools to warn them of the danger of walking on the ice, including at the brick ponds.

Outside York, large snowfalls had blocked roads. On one night, more than 40 cars and six buses were trapped in drifts on the Pickering to Whitby road. Whitby was completely cut off, as were many Ryedale villages.

Even a snow plough became stuck. An AA Land Rover was despatched from York laden with soup and food for the motorists.

Trains from York station were cancelled; it was becoming increasingly difficult to go anywhere.

Just as the weather looked like it could not get any worse, it did. On the night of January 20, Yorkshire was hit by 80mph gales. The wind created five foot snowdrifts in ten minutes in the North and East Ridings.

"Even the most modern equipment - 200 snowploughs were out in the North Riding - and teams of men working non-stop, could not keep pace with the drifting snow," the Evening Press reported. Some of the people worst affected were trapped at the Fylingdales Early Warning Station. In what was described as "one of the biggest airlifts ever staged in Britain", 300 personnel were rescued from the base by helicopter.

The sports programme was devastated. So many football matches were called off that the pools panel was invented, to deliberate on the scorelines of the abandoned games.

Anglers could not find enough unfrozen water to compete. And a new record was set when York Rugby League Club saw its seventh successive game cancelled, making it a worse run that the legendary harsh winter of 1947.

The Ashes series provided some much needed succour for sports lovers. Bathed in Australian sunshine, the English cricket team won one, lost one and drew three.

The longer the bitter winter continued, the more havoc it caused. By January 22, 300 building workers had been laid off in the York area. It was too cold to make concrete, so construction work, including that for Clifton Bridge, was held back.

Farmers were finding it increasingly difficult to feed their livestock. Sheep were being buried in the snow, and animal feed was costing three times as much as normal. One dairy farmer's milking machines froze up.

But it was not bad news for everyone. Those shopkeepers who stocked woollen clothing, electric blankets and solid fuel were enjoying booming sales.

Even the telly was affected. Electricity supplies were rationed because of frozen coal stocks, difficulties on the roads and labour unrest.

In some parts of the country, that meant power cuts. In York, it meant supplies being cut by five per cent or more, enough to impair TV picture quality. And just when Tony Hancock was beginning his first series since switching from BBC to ITV, too.

Still the freeze went on. On the coldest night, 19 degrees of frost were recorded in York. The sea froze in the harbour at Bridlington. Swans had to be rescued from the River Foss; an oil tanker was stuck in the Ouse at Selby. A cat in Bishopthorpe needed help when its tail froze to the corrugated iron roof of an outbuilding.

The ice on the Ouse was now so thick - four inches in parts - that the police placed a "No Parking" sign on it. Some men played a game of football under Lendal Bridge.

Northern Dairies rewarded their milkmen for doing their rounds in such difficult conditions with an extra £1 in their wage packets, on top of the coffee and rum they got every morning after finishing their round.

Then, on the night of January 25, temperatures rose in York by 18 degrees Fahrenheit in five hours. Plumbers worked almost around the clock to battle the new problem: burst pipes.

Even though the cold spell had been broken, it wasn't the end. Soon the freezing temperatures and blizzards were back, keeping everyone shivering through February.

It turned out to be Britain's coldest winter since 1740. And the thaw brought with it a new worry... floods.

Updated: 11:17 Monday, January 27, 2003