Think it's bad now?
WE think today's weather is bad, but compare the following culled from my parents' scrapbook.
February 25, 1933: Historic storm. Heavy snowfalls previously were December 12, 1901 and February 10 and 11, 1900.
The longest duration of frost was 12 weeks in 1895. It was tragic for outdoor workers as there was no government aid, so soup kitchens were set up for them and their families.
The 1933 storm was described as the worst for 40 years. Men had sleepless nights keeping roads open, and armies of them were given shovels by the cleansing dept. and set to work clearing the streets. It was reminiscent of the Great Blizzard of 1916 and the Great Storm of Crimean days.
The Irish Mail train was ten hours' late getting into Euston.
May 17, 1935: Heavy snow. 'Complaints' of the season. (Halifax Courier & Guardian).
January 29, 1941: Worst blizzard for 40 years (they must have had short memories unless it was worse than in 1933!). Drifts in Wharfedale up to 14 ft deep. Troops employed to clear it.
A Mrs. Richardson walked 14 miles from Lippington to Stamford Bridge and back after being cut off for six days. Her family were starving and the village had run out of food. She carried three stone of provisions on her back for the return journey, much of it being uphill (Yorkshire Post).
February 18, 1947: Photograph of houses and a road after snow clearance. A drift had obscured the bedroom windows (Halifax Courier & Guardian).
Neither my father (a teacher) nor I had any days off school because of the snow and I can remember the slides in the playground.
The Courier & Guardian had a resident astrologer, R. H. Naylor, who in 1938 said that Hitler had reached his highest point and predicted trouble between England and Germany in 1940.
The other interesting news item was of big spending cuts in 1931, then,
as now, a time of economic
depression and my father's salary as a teacher was cut by 10 per cent. The
Exchequer was making savings of £6 million.
So this is the worst winter since ... when?
Letter in the Daily Mail 27/12/2010
Mrs. S. C. A. Hants.
Ulster Star
29/12/2010
