Winter Weather

click Social Snapshot articles by Joan West for more.

click Social Snapshots for different years.

From the Lacey Green head teacher’s logbook.  1912. January 18^th. Very severe weather.   January31st. Very severe weather.  February 5^th. Ink wells frozen this morning.

Lacey Green School then consisted of just the old part next to the road, which was not made up with pavements as we know it.  All the children walked to school, some even from as far as Green Hailey and near Saunderton Station.   Here are some more reports just for good measure :-

1919. January 13^th. Weather very severe.  January 20^th. Very stormy. Road unfit for children to stand about in, so kept all the children that were remaining for dinner inside the school to take their meal.   From January 22^nd to February 3rd weather was reported as very severe.  Children cannot work well.  Heavy snow  has rendered the roads almost impassable. All the children are wearing their coats, arranged to be as near the fire as possible.  Drill taken frequently to keep warm.   February 4^th. Thawing slightly.   February 5^th. Snowing heavily all day.   Allowed children living in outlying districts to leave early as the snow was deep, notwithstanding the plough had cleared the first fall.  Attendance good considering the severity of the weather, and the long distance many had to come and the cold of the main room.   February 7^th and 12th Weather still unusually severe. On February 12^th Thermometer 32 degrees at opening of school.   February 18^th. Attendance very reduced owing to heavy snow falling.

From March 4^th to 12^th Heavy Rain impossible to go out to play.  Roads in a very muddy state.   March 18^th and 20^th. Heavy snowstorms, raining, more snow.   Roads in very bad condition, almost impossible for children coming long distances.  March 24^th and 31^st. Weather very severe.   April 8^th. 10^th and 14^th Rained heavily every day.  April 28^th. After Easter. Very cold.    37 degrees at 9am.   Showers of snow and hail at intervals during the day.

1947 is renowned as being a very bad winter.  I have a photo of me, aged 8, holding an icicle that was as tall as my shoulder.  It wasn’t an exceptional one, there were dozens of them.   In 1963, living at no 1 Stocken Cottages, John and I were going on holiday (February is a good time for farmers to get away).  We had to dig our way through a snowdrift to get out of our front gate.   The snowdrift was still there on our return a fortnight later.  That same winter I took a photo of Slad Lane with the snow completely filling it up to the top of the hedgerows.

In the 1950’s and 60’s the snowplough came down the Main Road throwing the snow to the side, heaping it onto the pavements.   When it came through Walters Ash it then cleared the way into Bomber Command.  The snow it threw aside there, effectively blocked the New Road to Lacey Green.  Gerald Bedford who worked at Stocken Farm, Lacey Green, would go home to Naphill on a tractor, and would open-up the road in the evening and morning.   This let the villagers in and out.

There is much more from the Teachers’ Logbooks, Bill Cleaver’s regular reports on the weather and how the Council eventually stopped snow blocking the open roads reported on the Media Wiki -www.LaceyGreenHistory.com  in which I am putting together our local history.  Put ‘Weather’ into ‘search’, (top right) to access.

I would welcome any comments or information you might be able to provide to add to the wiki about our local history, on any subject or photos of people or events.  Please email to [[1]]  Thank you to those who replied to my report on dentistry.

                                                                                                                                                               Joan West