Do any of our older members have any stories from their experiences lorry driving during that winter?
A family I know who I’ve worked with told me that local Intake Quarry froze for that long that Dave who’s now 76 plus and his father had to sell their 2 Dodges to his Dads brother who had a large fleet and go driving them employed as they had been with out earnings for so long .
It wasn’t just the winter in 1963 , our first daughter was born on June 12th , went to fetch mum and baby home on 26th and there was several inches of snow on the ground . Google it , county cricket was snowed off and was never played in Buxton again . The builders lorry I drove was parked up and I was helping dig a trench for sewer pipe , the ground was frozen down to 3feet and job was abandoned until the thaw in spring 63 .
Punchy Dan:
A family I know who I’ve worked with told me that local Intake Quarry froze for that long that Dave who’s now 76 plus and his father had to sell their 2 Dodges to his Dads brother who had a large fleet and go driving them employed as they had been with out earnings for so long .
I was a schoolboy at the time (indeed drivers of the period must be in their 80’s or older now) in what is now known as East London. It was Essex in my time. I remember the freeze being a blessing for one local company- P T Read were sand, gravel, skips and a ready-mix company. They could not work but the fleet of tippers and loaders were hired by the local council to clear the roads of snow and ice. I think they dumped the snow in their land-fill. I recall often seeing the diggers gouging kerb stones out from pavements! I guess they went to land-fill too…
I was only 12 years of age and living in the ‘sunny south’ so I don’t remember there being a massive amount of snow (I have seen it a lot deeper since living in Derbyshire) but it was certainly chilly. I’m told that Reading Corporation’s stock of anti-freeze froze. Dad would have been driving lorries then, possibly for either Thermalite or Booty’s of Oxford, but I don’t know if he had any problems?
Pete.
I remember going out day after Boxing Day in 62 with a Land Rover accompanied by a Scammell Explorer 6X6 finding and assisting farm milk collecting vehicle that were snowed up all round parts of Hampshire near Portsmouth, at one point even the Scammell had rescue itself out of a ditch, mighty cold in a L/Rover with a canvas body.
I too was still at school that winter. I remember the sea freezing up along the north Kent coast.
I was about 11 / 12 that winter and one of the main aspects of the family business was domestic coal and coke. Back then the bags were hessian and although hard wearing they would freeze overnight if wet. So every night all empty bags, probably enough to bag 15 or 20 tons were draped over makeshift hanging rails in the shed and a 45 gallon oil drum with air holes knocked through and a good fire was set up in the middle.
The house was virtually in the yard and it was my job, last thing at night to go out and put some more coke onto the fire. The embers were usually still hot next morning and bags were useable.
Tyneside
rigsby:
It wasn’t just the winter in 1963 , our first daughter was born on June 12th , went to fetch mum and baby home on 26th and there was several inches of snow on the ground . Google it , county cricket was snowed off and was never played in Buxton again . The builders lorry I drove was parked up and I was helping dig a trench for sewer pipe , the ground was frozen down to 3feet and job was abandoned until the thaw in spring 63 .
I must be losing my grip , daughter was born in 1965 the year the cricket was snowed off . But the bit about the deep frost in1963 was true enough . I had to transport the men in a petrol engined bmc van as the perkins p6 in the lorry wouldn’t start , the diesel was waxed up .
Well I remember bad winters, Heading to Manchester from Newcastle getting to Leeds and the Police informing every driver t hat Standedge was blocked so we had to go via the A 58, Todmoredon turn left down to Littleborough, And head for Manchester, It was allways a clear road for some reason or other, So the customers in Manchester got their Danish Bacon on time that I was loaded with from The Newcastle Quayside, Happy very cold journeys in those long gone days, Plus not maney wagons had a Heater in 
Mine didnt. Regards Larry.
I can only just remember standing on rock hard frozen ground late afternoon withe leaden skies. Mum had nipped out briefly to speak to Dad who was cutting up some wood at the small farm we lived on. Talking to Dad years later he reckoned it was the worst winter in his memory. It was not the snow in Essex but the deep penetrating frost that seem to last weeks that caused such havoc.
Dad was still running a small gravel pit and although normal bad weather meant a drop in gravel sales they would normally battle on to stockpile and get ahead. Also keep the men working. They tried that in the winter of early '63 including leaving a Motor Rail dumper running all night. That was then used to tow start other machines with manual boxes. The spare loader was an already obsolete Chaseside with a manual gearshift. Plenty of cans of easy start. The next problem was ice problems for the pumps and washing plant (everything had to be drained down. Finally some castings and stub axles on the dumper fractured in the cold. In the end Dad shut the pit for at least a couple of weeks possibly more.
Back on the farm water was the main problem for livestock. One continuous round of thawing pipes and carting water about.
I was only 4 then but can remember it.
I was working on the council during the winter of 1981/2 that was shorter but colder with silly amounts of snow.
weatheronline.co.uk/reports/ … d-snow.htm
Slightly off-topic but I recall, some years after the 60’s, being stuck in a massive traffic queue on the road leading North up to Dieppe in France. At that time the road was a simple two-lane Nationale. Snowploughs had cleared what was, in effect, a three metre deep channel through the snow. But traffic had come to a halt. For some hours! I remember my surprise and delight when the Gendarmerie battled their way past us all dishing out hot soup! A kindness that I have never forgotten and very much appreciated at the time.
But then I always found the French Gendarmerie Nationale to be a fine, well turned-out and disciplined force-even when I was on the receiving end of an admonition or (only once…) a fine for some (minor!) traffic transgression.
My first job after leaving school aged 15 in 1962 was butchers errand boy for the local co-op.
The winter was a nightmare, it seemed to go on forever. I regularly had 40lbs of meat to deliver to the shipyards on the North side of the Tyne, the ferry landing at Hebburn was scary with the loaded bike and a low tide at any time, but ice and snow doubled the problem!! I was very small for my age , the safest way down the ferry landing was to straddle the back wheel, steer and brake, and use my feet to keep upright over the cross ribs of the decking. The road traffic didn’t bother me too much as there wasn’t the volume of vehicles, but I did learn how to fall off safely on ice. 
. Regards Kev.
My dad always mentioned '63 but also '47 both eere bad apparently with the quote that you don’t get winters now like we used to … and we dont but it’s ■■■■ nippy today , i think someone is having our pants down with this global warming lark
Shovelling snow on the A 62 at the top of Standedge, 
(no M62 in those days), we all eventually got fed up, stuff the shovelling, some of us retreated to Ma and Pa Johnsons wood hut cafe just at the top of the hill, the lads lower down retreated to The Motormans Cafe. Eventually the gritters got up and got us moving again. It’s bloody hard work shovelling snow.
I try not to think about the '47 winter, I was only 8 but bye 'ell I remember the snow…and the frozen up outside kharzi’s
It started snowing on boxing day and the snow and ice was still covering the land in April. The cold was intense, not nice in those old Albions with the gaps between the footpedal rods,you could see the road below those gaps. My car engine froze up, the core plugs stood out 2inches from the sides of the block on the end of icicles so I couldn,t get to work anyway.
Somewhere around Powburn, Earlier of course, Regards Larry.
ramone:
i think someone is having our pants down with this global warming lark
Or at least they will do when they bring gas prices into line with electric.Or cut it off altogether meaning conversion to electric boilers.That’s a leap from 3p per kwh to 20p per kwh including VAT either way and we have to charge the electric car at 16p per kwh not including road fuel duty and 20% VAT, when a litre of petrol contains 9 kwh. 
