Baby it’s cold outside

 

Boxing Day 2021 marked the 59th anniversary of the 1962/63 winter, when the country experienced hardships due to the heavy snowfall, which lasted for over 10 weeks.

However, this wasn’t the worst winter, as 15 years earlier, in the winter of 1946/47, Europe suffered from the harsh weather. The United Kingdom at this time was suffering economic-ally from the effects of the Second World War. On 23rd January 1947, it started to snow. The heavy snowfall caused drifts several meters thick in some places, which resulted in havoc on the roads and the railway network. This in itself brought problems, as coal was in short supply as the mining industry hadn’t recovered from the war years, and what coal that was being produced couldn’t be delivered to the electric power stations.

Domestic power consumption was reduced to 19 hours a day. The reduced power affected radio stations and the television service; the BBC was only 19 years old at the time. Emanuel Shinwell, (below, left) Minister of Fuel and Power, was held to account for the coal shortages and was made a scapegoat. There were food shortages by the end of February, as many winter root vegetables couldn’t be harvested due the conditions. For the first time potatoes were rationed as the frost had destroyed 70,000 tons.

By March, with warmer weather arriving from Europe the United Kingdom started to thaw out (far right), however, this brought widespread flood-ing and 1947 marked the worst flooding for over a hundred years.

December 1962 began foggy. London hadn’t seen such bad fog, since the Great Smog of London, in 1952. Like in the Smog, there were numerous deaths. By the end of the month, on Boxing Day, it started to snow. It wouldn’t stop until March.

The temperature fell for January 1963 across the whole country to -2.1˚C, the coldest since January 1814. The effect of the low temperature caused rivers and some parts of the sea to freeze. During January 1963, there was a brief thaw which lasted for 3 days. But in February it continued to snow, finally stopping on 6th March, when the temperature rose to 17˚C.

Apart from daily life being affected, the 1962-63 FA Cup was also disrupted. The Third Round Games originally were to be played on 5th January 1963, thus games were postponed until February and March. It was during the brief break in the weather in January that a handful of games were played.

During this time the Swans won 2-0 against Queen Park Rangers. The ground staff made the pitch playable, and the match turned out to be an entertaining game. The goal scorers were Eddie Thomas and Brayley Reynold. In attendance was a crowd of 12,500. The Swans progressed to the Fourth Round.  This Round was scheduled for the end of January, but the games were postponed until March. In this Round the Swans lost 1-0 to West Ham United. This was the end of the line for the Swans in this competition.

Prior to the start of the snow on Boxing Day, in December David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia was showing in cinemas starring Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinness and Omar Sharif.

March 1963 saw the release of Please Please Me, the first Beatle’s album, which resulted in the ‘start of the new era’ Beatlemania (pic right: The Beatle’s, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison). Following a short poll, carried out on Swansea People’s History Facebook page, the top three Beatles songs of this era are. 1. I Saw Her Standing There; 2. I Want To Hold Your Hand and 3. Love Me Do.

 Copyright - Bay Magazine, February 2022