WHITE CHRISTMAS OR NOT, IT’S ALWAYS BEEN SPECIAL WHEN WE GET SNOW IN THE UK. AS THESE VINTAGE PHOTOS SHOW, OUT COME THE SKIS, SKATES AND SLEDGES TO NAVIGATE THIS WINTRY WONDERLAND
-
According to the Met Office’s website, here in the UK we get an average of a little under 24 days of snow or sleet each year. Whether this seems a lot or a little will depend hugely on where you live. In the Cairngorms, snowy conditions are an expected part of life, occurring around 76 days every year, while Cornwall gets at least a flurry on only 7.4 days.
But the days when the snow actually settles are even fewer (and despite the romance of a white Christmas, most of our snowy days come at the start of a year). It’s understandable, then, that there’s childlike excitement when it does stick around. These photographs – some from the new book London in the Snow 1930-1970 (Hoxton Mini Press), to which we’ve added vintage photographs from around the UK – date from the mid-1930s to the late 1970s but depict scenes that would doubtless take place on the streets and lanes near you if snow were to fall tomorrow. It’s an opportunity to get out the skis in places other than the Highlands, to make badly proportioned snowmen, or take on your neighbours in a snowball fight. Familiar places become somewhere to sledge and (in less safety conscious days) even skate.
More dramatic were the Big Freezes of 1946-47 (when the country was still recovering from WWII) and 1962-63. In her book Frostquake, Juliet Nicholson sees that second fierce winter as a break between two periods in British society, with the country emerging from the pause created by the weather into a more modern era.
Because that’s the thing about snow in the UK. Knowing that it’s not going to last, we can really throw ourselves into its exhilarating transience. The usual routine is cast aside – for better and worse – as we surrender to the white stuff. They’re the days that linger in the memory long after the snow has melted.
This milkman had to come up with an ingenious way to complete his round in London’s Earl’s Court on 29 December 1962. No doubt his customers were grateful for their cuppas, but it was still early days for the Big Freeze, which began on 22 December and stretched all the way through to March.
A woman on ice skates attempts to move swans towards open water on a pond in Wimbledon Common, south London, in 1954. Her intentions were clearly good, but when that same pond has frozen over in more recent icy winters – such as 2010 – ice-skating has been firmly discouraged for safety reasons.
This cyclist probably wasn’t dreaming of a white Christmas – 1935 wasn’t one of our snowiest winters and the famous song wasn’t written until 1942 – but you have to admire his skill as he cycles with his tree in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, on 21 December.
Well, that’s one way to attempt a commute. This skiing couple were spotted in Hampstead, London, in 1955. As one of the capital’s highest areas, Hampstead Heath is always a popular destination when snow falls. Visit hampsteadheath.net/snow for photos dating back to 1876.
The pleasures of your very own garden igloo are evident from the faces of Franz, 7, and Mark, 4, in Franz’s backyard in Linthorpe, Middlesbrough, in 1978. The North East was badly affected by snowy weather that year: in February (when this photo was taken), drifts reached up to two metres in height: by March, some were more than double that size.
While this narrow, twisty and slippery road would have been tricky work for drivers, it did create sledging opportunities, as shown by this group of children near Halifax in Yorkshire’s West Riding in the 1960s. Many winters in this decade (1962-63 most definitely not included), were frequently sunny, though there were also decent snowfalls, creating ideal playing – albeit not driving – conditions.
A car manages to navigate a path cleared by a bulldozer near Crediton, Devon, in 1963. The Big Freeze hit hard in the South West, with snowdrifts reaching more than six metres in height. Helicopters had to be used to reach some isolated homes.
The slopes of Ben Lawers, Perthshire, are snowier than many parts of the UK, with snow laying for roughly the first two months of each year. What’s unusual about this 1937 photograph is that it was taken in May – which may explain the picnickers’ outfits, but not their calm expressions.
Trafalgar Square, one of London’s most recognisable landmarks, gets a snowy makeover in 1947. The winter of 1946-47 was one of the UK’s coldest, with almost eight weeks of continuous snow on the ground. Even the southwestern Isles of Scilly got some white stuff.
Who needs the Alps when you have the Lake District? In this 1952 photograph, skaters are shown enjoying Rydal Water, while tobogganing apparently took place on the nearby hills. In 1947, an ice hockey match was held on the lake.
Even when snow means play for many, there’s always work still to be done somewhere. This snow plough did sterling work on the roads near Dover in January 1960.