Snow removed from the roadsides and
piled up at Barry Avenue by the railway arches

  Of the 2000 gullies (drains) in Windsor there was concern that only 15 could be found under piled up snow and this would mean that localised flooding would result in the event of a quick thaw, or heavy rain. Efforts were made therefore to find the gullies and ensure that they were kept clear.
   Come the 16th there was more snow and the frosts continued such that by Saturday 19th January Gordon Cullingham wrote in his diary "An AWFUL day. Waterworks turbines frozen. ...get electric or other form of heaters - One "Comet" found. Aircraft heaters secured from Pan American Airways, British European Airways and BOAC at Heathrow."
  In addition, the power failed at the waterworks (Tangier Island). The river had frozen at Romney Weir, the weather had turned much colder and on the night of January 19th-20th there was a north east gale with blizzards and further snow drifts.
   The road salting was becoming ineffective - it requires a certain amount of traffic to 'stir it up' and make it melt the ice and snow. But traffic movements were much reduced, especially at night and over the weekend and anyway the temperatures were so low that even salt water froze.

  The river was now frozen for much of its length at Windsor, with pools of clear water where the ducks and swans gathered. Locals remarked that the ducks were keeping the water clear, but it is also possible that fractionally warmer water from the bottom was rising to the surface and keeping some areas clear.
  The swans and ducks were well fed by Windsorians, although the weather remained miserable, with a fine hail and freezing rain falling on the 20th January.
   One of the heaters from the airport was installed at the Corporation Depot in Alma Road because the piles of 'grit' (rock salt) were frozen solid into boulders, making it impossible to load and use on the gritting lorries.
   Food prices were beginning to be affected. Cox's apples and tomatoes were both 6d per lb (2.5p per 450 grammes), eggs 4s 6d (22.5p) per dozen and potatoes 7d (3p) per lb (450 grammes).
   Birds were "ravenous" Gordon Cullingham noted in his diary, and although many residents put out food for them, seemed to be less numerous. There were also ingenious ways of providing them with drinking water (almost more important than food) by placing 'Nitelite' candles under dustbin lids (metal in those days) filled with water. Gordon also noted that "the cold spell is in 5th week, one of three greatest cold spells this century..." and "End of Electricity work to rule, but not end of power cuts."
   And still the weather stubbornly remained very cold. From 21st - 25th temperatures were still below freezing and now freezing fog returned which made driving extremely dangerous. In addition diesel fuel froze causing many breakdowns. Water mains burst and on 23rd January a tarpaulin had been slung on the downstream side of Windsor Bridge to protect the 'main' that crossed the river at that point. It was planned to hang similar tarpaulins on the other side and somehow draw them together under the bridge filled with insulation, to prevent the main from freezing in the bitterly cold winds.

It was reported that some 200,000 gallons of water a day were pouring to waste in the Windsor area as a result of leaks and broken mains. The town's daily demand was in the region of 1,700,000 gallons a day and was supplied by the Water Works at Tangier Island. Heaters loaned from Heathrow Airport had already been installed to keep the turbines running as outdoor night-time temperatures were often recorded as low as ­5° Fahrenheit - 36° of frost.
  Mains bursts were reported in St Leonard's Road, Clewer Hill Road and Sheepcote Road and leaflets were distributed throughout Windsor advising residents about lagging and insulation as well as to make sure they knew where stop cocks were, and that they worked, in the event of a burst in their own homes.
  The greatest alarm was being felt by the Thames Conservancy and the officers of Windsor Borough Council. Geoffrey Baker, Borough Engineer, and George Waldram, Town Clerk, had a flood plan ready. The local Womens Voluntary Service (WVS) was ready with bedding and feeding arrangements for anyone made homeless as a result of flooding. The Adjutant of the Life Guards said that his men would be ready to co-operate if needed.
   There was one amusing incident reported in the Windsor Express. Two children aged 5 and 6 were found sitting in a dentists's waiting room each clutching a toothbrush 'ready pasted'. "Please," the children asked, "can we clean our teeth here 'cos we are all frozen up at home and they haven't been done since yesterday!"
  Less happily, many injuries were sustained by young and old alike. The Express reported in January that a policeman had slipped and fractured a rib, while an Express reporter had also fallen and fractured his wrist.
   When a gas shortage was announced in Wales Gordon wrote: "...gas cuts up to 50%. Sale of equipment stopped. Southern - 12 hours ban on use. Adverts were replaced by appeals for economy. Anti-freeze iced up in car radiator. Walked across old Baths [to Baths Island] on ice - some walked across river at Ferry [to Brocas], 27 accidents on the M1. Pack ice and ice floes around coast."

   On 24th January "Continuing very cold, some thaw in extreme west and Scotland. High pressure slipping to S. Stand pipes in use, Birds noisy at lunch time - weather change??"
   On 25th January the ice at the Ferry crossing (from the promenade to the Brocas) was measured at 3.5 inches thick but there was a 4" air gap under it due to the lowering of the river.
  By the 26th a very slight thaw had started and 1947 records were now checked for possible information about likely flooding, but this time there was very little risk as the previous six months had been very much drier and so a quick thaw would be more readily absorbed by the sub-soil.
   But the thaw was a false dawn. By 30th January the cold weather had returned with some snow flurries. Fuel deliveries were unreliable at best, or non-existent at worst with Gordon writing that only two buckets of coke remained for the boiler.  Around the Borough water supply pipes into homes were reported as freezing up and by the 1st February the ominous comment in Gordon's diary was "Colder still. 1/2" snow. Still no coke... last bucket."
   Little did we know in Windsor that we were barely half way through the coldest winter of the century.

February 1963

The end of January saw the return of the cold weather after a brief respite.  By Friday 1st February the ominous comment in Gordon's diary had indicated that the really cold weather was returning. Gordon also mentions that frozen water supply pipes were a problem. "7 Hanley Close site... very badly frozen from main." Apparently attempts were being made to thaw pipes by passing low voltage current through them, but not with total success.
  On the 3rd February the diary entry reads "Siberian weather. Bad forecast. Car badly affected by salt, rust stains." Indeed any car that had been used regularly on the permanently wet, salty roads, would have suffered badly, the salt having a very corrosive effect.
   Old oil heaters had been put back into service - though many were probably past it - often by those who had no idea how to use them safely. The result was many fires were started either when a heater was knocked over, or was refilled whilst alight, or perhaps had been left unattended in a loft in an attempt to defrost frozen plumbing. In any event the fire brigade were kept busy!
  Priority in the distribution of coal was given to steam trains carrying supplies of food, coal, oil and petrol.

The weather map for 5th February 1963 showed a deep depression to the south west of the UK.The Air Ministry forecast for much of England, Wales and southern Scotland was for cloud with moderate to heavy falls of snow at times, Rain was only forecast for the West Country, with some sunshine, the rest of the country was in the grip of a cold air flow from Europe. In London the minimum temperature in the previous 24 hours was -3°C with a maximum of 1°C. As this was in the centre of London, temperatures would not have risen above freezing out of town.
  The efforts of "meals on wheels" - deliveries of hot meals to the elderly - were much appreciated to say the least and the help also extended to taking buckets of coal to those who had run out. It was clear that many old people were suffering severe hardship as a result of the shortage of fuel. This was at a time when smokeless zones were being introduced despite inadequate supplies of these fuels being available.
  Militant union action aggravated the situation with 'work to rule' orders to the staff of power stations. The result was power cuts that closed cinemas and theatres, darkened streets and traffic lights. It became necessary to carry a torch and also to keep matches and candles readily to hand at work or at home.
  On February 5th a thaw was forecast in the west, but a blizzard resulted with a very low depression moving up from Madiera. On 7th February the temperatures had warmed up, but only to about freezing and this led to more problems at night as the pavements became 'glazed' with ice from daytime melted snow. These were extremely dangerous conditions for pedestrians.
  On February 8th at Vansittart Road Recreation Ground photographs were taken of what seemed to be the long awaited thaw - pictures below - but by 10th February Gordon's diary records yet another frost warning and north easterly winds with more snow at midday. That evening, the BBC broadcast a TV programme about 'The Big Freeze'.

February 8th - Vansittart Road Recreation Ground

 The whole of the following week, from Monday 11th February through to Friday 15th, a very slow thaw alternated with night frosts such that by the end of the week there was still snow lying. There was more light snow on 20th February in the morning and again the next morning but nothing substantial, and Gordon's garden was by now almost clear of snow near the house, apart from a pile created when an attempt was made to clear the garden paths six weeks earlier on 5th January!
 22nd-26th February was half-term for the Grammar School boys who had a great game of bicycle hockey on the backwater by the school boathouse. By now the ice was almost 6" thick and so there was no danger of the ice cracking, but in mid-stream it was a different matter where areas of clear water still remained with very thin ice around them.
  Still there was no significant change in the weather and come 24th February freezing weather had returned by day as well as hard frosts at night. A few days later, however, by the 27th, the daytime temperature reached 40°F (4°C), warm enough to be noted in Gordon's diary and for the snow to have disappeared from all but the most sheltered and shaded areas.

March 1963 - it is all over!

By the 1st March the diary entry read 'warmest day since 21st November' yet there was still a frost by night. Gordon drove to Oxford on 2nd March and took two colour photographs, one of which is reproduced below. He reports that snow drifts remained on the Berkshire Downs, some 5'-6' high, with snow and ice still lying on side roads. Also, the road surface showed signs of damage both by diggers clearing snow, and by frost 'heave'.

The signs were that the coldest winter for perhaps a century was now coming to a close. By 5th March Gordon records that there was 'NO FROST' in the morning and that the last remnants of Boxing Day snow had melted in the garden and that there was 'no ice'. The temperature during the day now reached 52°F (11°C) but the grass was brown from being covered in snow and ice for so long. Signs of Spring were becoming more and more apparent. The crocuses were through, though not yet in bloom and the birds were singing. Around this time, although a precise date cannot be determined, the Thames Conservancy apparently deliberately lowered the height of the river to break up the ice that remained and which was a genuine danger to anyone who ventured onto it, especially children.
  Around Windsor the last of the heaps of snow that had been piled in the gutters were now loaded into lorries and taken away. On 8th March the diary entry records the first rain since before Christmas and that lawns were beginning to green up once more. Eggs however remained at almost double the price of last year, being 4s 9d (23p) rather than 2s 9d (14p) per dozen.
  By 13th March the crocuses were blooming but the daffodils would not be in bloom until 6th April, virtually six weeks late, with apple blossom not appearing until May.
  The summer of 1963 proved to be uneventful and nothing extraordinary - everything it seemed was back to normal!

Postscript: It is now close to fifty years since 'The Big Freeze' and although there has been some snowy, cold winters, in particular 1980-81, none have lasted as long as 1962-63.
I wonder how long we will have to wait for another as bad?? The winter of 2009-2010 started badly with a cold spell that had begun in the week before Christmas but at the time of updating this article, it only lasted until the middle of January. Apparently it was all to do with El Niño, the warm ocean current out in the Pacific which drifted quite a way south and which affects weather patterns worldwide. At the end of January 2010 a snow shower or two have been forecast for the 28th, but they are unlikely to last long.
 Later in 2010, at the end of November and in early December the UK suffered another Big Freeze, although Windsor had only an inch or so of snow on the night of 2nd/3rd December.
 This page will be updated if the winter of 2010/2011 proves bad once more.

We have opened a Discussion Forum for The Great Freeze here

WARNING: During the 'Freeze of 1963' a number of people, especially children, were drowned when they fell through thin ice and were swept beneath thicker ice, through which they could not escape. They soon died in the freezing waters, weighed down by thick winter clothes. Sometimes they were chasing their dogs who had run off.

If you have any photographs of The Great Freeze of 1963 in the Windsor area, or any other years, including this century, we would appreciate an opportunity to include them on The Royal Windsor Website. To contact us, please email Thamesweb.

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