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Subject Topic: Winter 1981
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PersonMrs. Bonce
via mobile 07/12/2023 at 10:19am
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I see that there is to be a TV programme about it which mentions the snow at Christmas. I remember snow before and after, but a milder interlude over Christmas, anyone else? I think it started on the 18th December and that it was -25 degrees outside our back door quite early in the evening of 10th January.


Personmarg6
07/12/2023 at 10:36am
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i remember my first encounter with snow in 1976 when i was 12 years old after moving to the north east of england, my igloo building skills where surprisingly successful! then another of 1980 where i had been stopping at a friends house and remember being took home by the friends dad who found it amusing that my father refused to drive in the snow, friends dad was a postman so was well used to driving in such conditions. the next real dump of snow came in 2010 where we had 3 months of snow


PersonColin21
07/12/2023 at 11:05am
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I don't think I can ever remember a proper white Christmas, although that could just be my bad memory. There was of course 1963 which I remember well, but if I remember right even that started on Boxing Day. Wow, -25 degrees is positively arctic conditions, I don't remember seeing much under -10. In Scotland possibly, but not normally this far south. I don't think you are much further north than us Mrs Bonce.

Thinking about it more, 1981 we would have been living in west Norfolk. I remember bad snow there but I don't remember when. We were stuck in the village for about 3 days until the RAF from nearby Marham airbase sent out a snow blower and cleared the main access road. I think that was mainly because some of their personnel came to work that way.

I'll have to look out for that programme.


Post last edited on 07/12/2023 11:12:23

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PersonDevonatheart
via mobile 07/12/2023 at 11:09am
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I do remember that Mrs Bonce!

I was dating a very, very, very attractive young lady at the time, we went to my local village pub and it started snowing hard. An hour or so later nobody was going anywhere, so I could not take my girlfriend home……..She had to stay the night! 😳😉

We have been married for 40 years now, and she is STILL very, very, very attractive, 😁👍


PersonMrs. Bonce
via mobile 07/12/2023 at 11:24am
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Much more likely to have a white Easter. We lived in south Warwickshire in 1962/3, it had been very cold, frost all day on Christmas day and then the 36 hours of snow on an easterly gale. We had snowdrifts in our back garden and at school, which I had to walk to and from every day, the north east side where the playing fields were was deep in drifts.


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PersonColin21
07/12/2023 at 11:58am
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Quote: Originally posted by Mrs. Bonce on 07/12/2023
Much more likely to have a white Easter. We lived in south Warwickshire in 1962/3, it had been very cold, frost all day on Christmas day and then the 36 hours of snow on an easterly gale. We had snowdrifts in our back garden and at school, which I had to walk to and from every day, the north east side where the playing fields were was deep in drifts.


I was living in north London in 1962/63 and I had to walk to school every day with deep snow on the ground which lasted for weeks. No buses running and I certainly couldn't use my bike, so it was a 3 mile walk each way. Big snow drifts everywhere, including in the school grounds. I think we had one or possibly two days off at the very start of it.


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Person664DaveS
via mobile 07/12/2023 at 12:17pm
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We were living in a pre WW2 RAF married quarter at RAF Cosford . Single glazed, uninsulated with expensive electric storage heaters and a coal fire. It was hard to keep warm. Upstairs was heated by a portable gas fire we owned.
They recorded -26 at nearby RAF Shawbury.

We had a couple of feet of snow.All of us airmen were issued shovels and sent off to clear paths and side roads on main camp deep joy.
My wife got a chicken out of the freezer to defrost in the kitchen overnight. It didn't I walked to work as it was too icy to cycle most days.

We also had our rescue pup,we got that year. She slept in her box next to a storage heater until I made up the fire when she relocated in front of it! I remember letting her out and her disappearing into a snowdrift bigger than her. She soon found it was fun playing in the snow.
We had moved there in August 81 from Germany, where we had a double glazed centrally heated flat!
After finishing at Cosford we bought our first house, no more quarters!

Post last edited on 07/12/2023 12:21:59

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PersonMrs. Bonce
via mobile 07/12/2023 at 12:22pm
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That -26 was also on 10/1/82, googled it.


Persontango55
07/12/2023 at 2:16pm
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I remember the winter of 1981 very well. I was unemployed at the time so I applied for a job with the Post Office as a casual about 6 weeks before Christmas. Several days later they phoned me to tell me that I hadn't been successful with my application but all casuals were supposed to have a few days training prior to the inundated impact of the Christmas post deliveries. All the training had been accomplished but the day before the start, the snow came down and it came down thick and fast. The Post office phoned me that day which was on a Thursday afternoon to see if I was still interested in the job as many of the people that applied had cancelled and let them down. I wanted to do it mainly for the commitment and dedication of getting a job with the Post office in 1982. I accepted and walked the next day the two miles into the town at 4.00 am. in the morning to reach the Post Office by 5.00 am. with a minimal of 1 hours training. The Christmas post was delivered on foot as scheduled with a second post delivery in the afternoon each and every day for 2 weeks. At the end of the deliveries the snow was beginning to thaw just a few days prior to the Christmas holiday but by Christmas eve the snow had completely melted and the roads were clear. So all in all, even though we had a heavy downfall of snow that winter it wasn't actually a white Christmas.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a full time job with the Post Office as they we not taking on any new applications at that time.


PersonMrs. Bonce
via mobile 07/12/2023 at 2:34pm
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That's a pity, but at least you have seconded my recollection of that winter. I was doing a "TOPS" course (remember them?) in accountancy at a local college, usually cycled but often couldn't that winter. I may be wrong, but I thought that it was 18/12/81 which started off as a normal winter day but during the morning it froze hard.


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PersonPixie_Hez
07/12/2023 at 10:15pm
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I was still at school but I remember it! I remember walking to school through the snow before we broke up for Christmas and thinking how wonderful it was! My mum had a different perspective as she tried to get ready for Christmas.

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PersonJoannaLesley
08/12/2023 at 8:41am
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I remember it so well! I had my first baby on Christmas Eve of that year.

You are right that there was a short mild interlude around Christmas, but then it came back with a vengeance. I had no car during the day and didn't really go out for about 6 weeks as I was afraid of falling over with a new baby. The baby (he's 42 this year!!!) was in a carrier inside a coat when I did go out.

Our flat only had storage heaters and it was altogether a very stressful time.

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PersonColin21
08/12/2023 at 9:10am
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The memory of 1981 is starting to come back to me now. It was 2 years before our son was born but we already had 2 young daughters. We were renting a big old former farm house in a village in Norfolk and it was freezing! The main heating was a coal fire in the main living room and there was nothing upstairs. All the rooms were massive and the ceilings 11' high, it was impossible to heat. There was a small Calor gas heater that I had installed in the kitchen out the back of the house. Two 47kg gas bottles stood outside and supplied the cooker and gas fire. Large single-glazed windows all round too. We really needed a coat on to walk down the long unheated corridor between the kitchen and the living room. Winters were a nightmare there. Handy in some ways though as the house was owned by the coach company I drove for and that was next door so at least I didn't have to commute to work.

Post last edited on 08/12/2023 09:14:59

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Colin


Personfiona f
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I remember December/January 1981/82 & the snow very well. I was pregnant with my daughter (born in Feb 1982) & also couldn’t drive. It started snowing in Manchester around the 8th Dec; my husband had taken a school rugby team up to Lancaster & they struggled to get home cos of the snow! As said previously, the ice & snow continued ,with a short thaw over Christmas, well into January. Memories of walking, wrapped up in a duffel coat & wellies, 7 months pregnant in what felt like a blizzard, to my parents house 30 minutes away! But they’re happy memories

Fiona


PersonEwen c
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I would have been 15. I lived on the Ayrshire coast and we didn't get much snow any year. It doesn't strike me as being a white Christmas. I do remember snow on the links opposite the house one year but couldn't tell you of it was then.
Funny thing is I grew up spitting distance from a beach but only saw snow on a beach for the first time at the age of 31 and that was at New year on the Baltic coast.

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Personthetootells
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Winter 83 I was at home with a 8 month old baby. A neighbour had a baby of similar age but 2 children of school age. She couldn't get up the road with the
pram so each day she dropped the baby off with me and hurried the other children to school



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