Snow offers distraction during crisis

With the lowest temperatures the country has seen for many a year and several inches of snow falling in the last week, the inclement weather has detracted from the dominant feature in our everyday lives the Covid-19 pandemic.

In normal circumstances, many of us would loathe the snow and the disruption that comes with it and I’m sure there were many across the country that cursed the arrival of the white stuff, but to many of us it was a deviation of all the doom and gloom and the negativity surrounding televised updates and news reporting surrounding the pandemic.

There is a sure fact that the presence of snow comes with a novelty unlike any other weather medium insomuch you can have so much fun with snow as opposed to rain or thunderstorms, for instance.

This year, unlike many others in memory, the snow was sporadic and isolated with variable snowfall and coverage across the county, but many of us of a certain age will agree that the snowfall of today is nothing like that of our childhood.

There seemed to have been so much more snow when we were young, and not only thicker but seemingly lasting for weeks - or is it my imagination?

As pretty and picturesque as it looks, in reality, snow is a huge burden and the problems it causes outweighs any possible benefit to any of us.

It can isolate and cut off homes and businesses in rural areas, it can be treacherous and disruptive, and it can be dangerous in some respects.

It doesn’t happen often but it certainly makes its presence known to all when it arrives.

This week’s Remember When focuses on 1957 and takes a look at the snowfall in a deserted and desolate town centre of past times.

Many thanks to Sue Cowan of Reflections Images Past and Present for this week’s trio of images taken by the late

Douglas Weaver.

Sue owns the copyright to these images.

■ Do you have any photographs or slides of old Ashford you would be willing to loan me, to enable them to be scanned for a possible feature in the Kentish

Express?

Please don’t delay, get in touch!

Please email me: rememberwhen_kmash@ hotmail.co.uk

Write to me: Steve Salter, Kentish Express Remember When, Unit 4, Park Mall Shopping Centre, Ashford, Kent. TN24 8RY.

Or you can also leave a telephone message for me with brief details by calling 01233 623232.