Winter Of 1947

[nicebloke1]

Did anyone see this on TV last night. Dare say its a repeat, but its the first time I've seen it. Its normally a repeat of the sixties winter. Thats what you call a real hard time, worth watching if you've not seen it.

[nicebloke1]

Most if not all goods were transported by train, the tracks had like 15ft of snow and ice on them. Coal and food supplies came to a halt, not to mention no running water. Houses were like fridges due to no coal fire to which was the main sorce of heating your home.

[davebro3]

//the tracks had like 15ft of snow and ice on them//

What was it that was "like" 15ft of snow and ice? 🤣

[davebro3]

//Houses were like fridges//

That was handy as we had no fridge at the time.🤣

[Canary42]

Now now Dave 😁

[hellywelly4]

I remember it - I was 6 and had the measles. I remember looking out my bedroom window and there was a deep trench from the front door to the front gate. I know I was upset because I wasn't allowed to go out when I got better, but can't remember anything else.

[nicebloke1]

Let him play nicely on his own, he's got very little else to amuse himself with. Bless

[andres]

I remember how terrible it was . Lived on a farm back then. Had to help dig the sheep out from under the snow before going to school and break the ice on the well to give the animals and ourselves some water. Melting  snow in a bucket on a stove so that we could have a hot drink before walking on top of the snow covered walls, no buses  the lanes had drifts 6 foot high. We still got to school and people walked to work. No-one seemed to moan . They just accepted the situation and made the best of it. 

The fun part came when we made igloos and shelters for the sheep. Snowmen and snowball fights. Sledging and skating. I remember the 60s winter but by then we lived in a town and believe you me there was no comparison at all to country life in the winter. 

[nicebloke1]

According to the program last night the rationing of food was worse than when the war was on, especially when the snow melted, the floods were even worse.

[davebro3]

Food rationing didn't end until the early 50s I think. Any rationing for bad weather would have been made by the suppliers not officially (?).

[ladybirder]

I was born in 1930's so remember it quite well.  The inside of my bedroom window was all iced up.

[andres]

I can remember sent  to the shop with the ration book.  I think it was a ' D'  for 2oz sweets and an 'E' for a quarter. Then there were the B T Us for bread.  Once the shopkeeper had cut the right one out of the book then you had to wait so long before you could go again. 

[Henry1865]

Seen it? I experienced it in London, but unlike much of childhood I don't have many memories of hardship.

I went to school near to Regent's Park, a place frequently visited for recreation during lunchtimes, particularly boating on the lake.

After the first snowfall, the Headmaster announced at a morning assembly that it had come to his notice that boys were in the Park at lunchtime playing snowballs. I doubt that I was the only one that winced*, for much of the previous lunchtime had been spent tormenting the female student teachers at Bedford College, trapping and pelting them mercilessly with snowballs as they crossed their only exit, a metal lattice bridge across the end of the lake.

However, he obviously knew nothing of this and surprised us all by fully approving of what he regarded as healthy exercise and gave the whole school the first lesson off that afternoon!

* He had a cane - and he used it.

[Henry1865]

andres. Bread (and potatoes) weren't rationed.

[barry1010]

Bread was rationed in 1946 due to the shortage of flour 

[andres]

henry--- bread was rationed . I didn't mention potatoes.

[barry1010]

Bread was rationed for two years and it couldn't be sold fresh - it had to be a day old.

[barry1010]

Fish and chips were never rationed and the government proclaimed it a priority that chippies were kept supplied with all necessities as a moral booster as well as easy access to hot food 

[pastafreak]

What was the purpose of the bread being a day old?

[nicebloke1]

Everything was rationed because the trains couldnt get through, even coal, again because the coal came by train. Potatoes and every other veg perished in the fields, they even tried drilling the veg out the soil, what was left of them anyhow.

The British government at the time sent out a call to other countries for whatever food they could send. The fishing boats all around the coast couldn't get out either. They also tried explosives to try and clear the snow drifts on the railway tracks because they were so thick and high. The snow ploughs on the front of trains had little impact. 

[barry1010]

pasta, so the bread could be sliced thinner so that a loaf would go further