Cool runnings

Your review of Juliet Nicolson’s Frostquake (Books, February) reminded me of my own experience of the “great freeze” [of 1962–63]. Our road in Gosport abutted an incline that was the original railway cutting of the railway line to Stokes Bay (as [according to local legend] used by Queen Victoria, no less!). Because of the slope, the Co-op milk float couldn’t negotiate the icy surface, so I hired out my sledge (kindly made by dad) to the milkman at 6d a time so he could trundle his crates down to his customers – and very grateful he (and I) was. It still brings back happy memories of that innocent time. Ian Calder, Hampshire