1947 A Bitter Winter

this item is listed in Social Snapshots 1900-1968 inc

The record breaking winter of 1947 set in on 23^rd January after a mild start to the year.    Snow fell every day, somewhere in the country, for 55 days.    Driving easterly winds built deep drifts everywhere.

The whole village of Lacey Green was completely cut off, roads were completely blocked and people walked on the hedges.    Snowploughs only came as far as Bomber Command at Walters Ash.

The frost penetrated so deeply that the mains water pipes froze.    The black Horse and surrounding properties were without water for weeks on end.   Icicles hung from gutters over two feet long.    The children built snowmen, played snowballs and made slides on the ice, the adventurous walking on the frozen ponds.   Many layers of clothes were worn but that didn’t prevent terrible chilblains on fingers and toes, which were common anyway, even in mild winters.

The winter broke in mid-March, causing much flooding.    Fortunately that was not such a big problem on the hills.   Even so the melt water was known to have carried off whole stacks of hay and straw.

That winter caused much loss of wildlife, the birds taking a particularly heavy knock.

Report by Gordon May. Albert & Sarah Hickman lived in Turnip End Cottage at Turnip End about 500 yards down a woody stony lane.   The house had no electricity or gas.   In the winter 1947 I was detailed, as one of the scouts, to go and live there.   It was so cold that it froze the hot water bottle.    I always had to get up very early to break the ice and feed the chickens and rabbits, before running home for breakfast and then on to school.

Report by Christabel Grimmer, nee Goffin. We lived at Dawn Cottage,Turnip End. Arch Janes was always ferrying us about (we didn’t have a car) . I am sure he brought my mother and baby sister back from the nursing home in that terrible winter.   I was ten and well remember the snow was so deep at Turnip End that mother was unable to come home for some time. click Archie and Elsie Janes for more about Arch Janes

My father was a Theatre Designer and often had to stay in London during the week.   When mother was stuck in the nursing home I stayed with the Cheshire family who lived behind Rose Ellis’s pub in Speen.  I remember when my father came to collect me, we struggled through the snow from Speen to Turnip End and then had to dig our way through the snow to find our front door!   It certainly was a never to be forgotten winter.

Report by Doug Tilbury. The privvy was very cold in winter and I can still see the frost on the seat.   In the very severe winter of 1947 the rest of the family would try to wait until father had been.   Then, at least, the ice on the seat would have been melted, but it was still damp and cold.