glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
Ch 5 now
Winter 1981
- Thread starter glasshouse
- Start date
- Location
- Welshpool Powys
Couple of winters were the same 82-3 bad as well.
- Location
- Ceredigion
Cut off for two weeks , no electric no phones
glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
Bankrupted the local veg man
Supermarket bought against him as he couldnt supply sprouts
Supermarket bought against him as he couldnt supply sprouts
Hilly
Member
- Location
- Scottish Borders.
My memories are bad ones , watching my father on crutches in severe pain defrosting milking
Parlour everyday if not twice , id rather forget it but somethings as a child stick with you .
Parlour everyday if not twice , id rather forget it but somethings as a child stick with you .
grainboy
Member
- Location
- Bedfordshire
But was it Global warming,
No,
Just a severe change in the norm,
No,
Just a severe change in the norm,
- Location
- Exeter, Devon
Our school shut for a week because of the snow just when we were supposed to be doing our mocks. 
How would global warming bring very cold winters?
- Location
- Durham, UK
Funnily enough today my uncle was on about a bloke who was bankrupted in the sprout job in 81 around the darlo area, wounder if it was the same reason
Hilly
Member
- Location
- Scottish Borders.
My dad said 47 was the king of all winters , when the thaw came they went to the shop, an old couple came in and said phew pleased its thawed … we got hungry And had to eat our hens , then we got cold so had to burn the hen house … we are down to nothing …..
grainboy
Member
- Location
- Bedfordshire
- Location
- South Pennines ol14
1981, I was a second year apprentice in vickers, 15 mile journey to work from the village by motorcycle, if we didn’t clock on we got questioned why ! Weather was never an excuse back then
- Location
- sw scotland
On Christmas day I was working in Fife and drove to Dumfries for the holiday. Snow packed on the road and my car gave up at the Red Barn near Biggar. Used their phone and sat there for 2 hours in the frozen car almost hypothermic until my father came and towed me 40 miles home.
Ice in the carburettor and a rag stuck in the air intake behind the radiator sorted it.
Ice in the carburettor and a rag stuck in the air intake behind the radiator sorted it.
- Location
- Yorkshire coast
Think that was the year our school closed when the outside toilets froze up!
Also remember father and a few neighbours digging out a snow blower that got stuck trying to cler the road..
Also remember father and a few neighbours digging out a snow blower that got stuck trying to cler the road..
Devil's advocate
Member
- Location
- Posh side of Barnsley
Might have been 1979 not 1981, I was at school. But a neighbour who worked on the oil rigs used to help Dad & they went cutting swedes together, oil rig man (He was top notch university trained engineer) said it was as cold as the rigs. Wholesaler even sent his own Men to help carry the crop out of flooded fields (only 2 wd tractors at the time).
Spent a lot of time with Peter the engineer defrosting pipes & carrying water. We then played chess he did not like his own house two young noisy kids so came round to us, kept us supplied with rigger gloves too.
Carrying water used to wear one pair & the other pair was drying by the fire.
glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
Why not 81?
glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
I remember i crashed my mk 1 escort into a gritter lorry on black ice on new years day 82. It was written off
Pistonbroke
Member
I remember Dad ramming his way through snowdrifts to get the road clear to the village and he drove up into a car that had been abandoned and covered 🫣. New David Brown 1490, who was the d**kh**d who designed it with the glass bowl lift pump about a foot from the fan? Lost count of the times it waxed up ferrying people and supplies for neighbors in a link box
Devil's advocate
Member
- Location
- Posh side of Barnsley
I don't know, can't remember both bad years.
I keep remembering a bit more, they were cutting swedes only in bits of the field because most was covered in snow & standing in water (swedes on ridges) because the water could not get away. No matter how many they cut all were sold in 24 hours. But frost turned some of the crop to mush.
We thanked goodness that we had decided not to sell Xmas trees because we were snowed in. Mum & Dad went Xmas shopping to Barnsley 7 miles away on the tractor Xmas eve, we had a great Xmas with all the neighbours around .
I remember carrying bags of potatoes to the end of the lane for customers too, 220 metres.
It froze so hard on New Years Day it did a lot of damage in the potato store.
The lane to our hamlet 200 metres long was level with snow & 5 of us dug it out (one from each of the six houses, number six bought us all we could drink at the pub) by hand we had no tractor bucket, just a cabless DB780 with link box. I was the star at digging out despite been only 16 because I had a big grain shovel. It was a really happy fun day.
Winds filled the lane in overnight so one of the neigbours rang the council & said she thought her baby was coming early. Local lime spreading contractors came with a 4wd Zetor Crystall & shoved a lot of drystone walling down to dig out the lane quickly. Dad was pretty annoyed contractor had his wheels up on top of the toppers. Stone shoved well into the field. I rebuilt the entire wall 200 metres long on a grant 1990.
If winters like that were normal we would all have snow blowers or side tip buckets.