Fork out for fences that can withstand storms

SIR – Storm Isha has caused a lot of damage (report, January 22), particularly to fence panels. The cheap overlap-style panels sold by most DIY outlets are frankly useless. Storms make matchsticks of them in seconds.

Close-board panels slotted into concrete posts with concrete gravel boards are the answer. They may cost more but they are much stronger, are able to withstand most storms and will save you money in the end.

Stan Kirby

East Malling, Kent

SIR – Sunday’s gale was a four-chair wind. Gusts can blow one patio chair down the garden, and for a couple to go is not unknown. Only twice in our 10 years here have three chairs taken flight. So Isha has set a record.

Roger Fowle

Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire

SIR – I, too, remember the winter of 1963 (Letters, January 20). My brother and I purchased surplus Second World War Army boots and screwed ice-skate runners to the leather soles.

The Eye-brook reservoir in Rutland froze over. The son of the headmaster at Uppingham, where my father was a master, had an ancient, three-wheel, electric invalid carriage, and he towed many willing young skaters over the ice – without any concern from parents. This was before the time of the health and safety brigade.

Geoff Pringle

Long Sutton, Somerset

SIR – My family visited relatives in Chippenham for Christmas in 1962. We were snowed in – unable to go home.

As members of the local angling club, my cousins and I fished most days, and to keep warm we rolled a giant snowball between bouts of fishing. On my next visit in March, it was still there, albeit greatly reduced.

Alan Belk

Leatherhead, Surrey