[Closed] The winterwatch special on the winter of '63

Estimated that 50% of the UK bird population died. Blimey.

Would we be able to cope with that sort of event if it happened now? I doubt it.

Why Oh Why did we have the pathetic snow program last night? When they should have been showing this to put it all into a bit of perspective.

I remember walking to school in the snow that winter, I was just 4 and hadn't started yet but mam used to to have to take me and my younger brother [in a pram] with her to get my older brother to school.
The teachers used to turn up those days too 🙂

i can remember my mum telling me about that winter.
there was so much snow she couldnt get to school in the car, so my grandad took her and brother and sister on the back of the tractor.
there was no thought about not going.
makes me laugh hearing all the carry on over what i would call a light dusting.

I remember walking to our local village school every day during that. We weren't even allowed to wear long trousers (not sure I even had any actually!!). The milkman had to leave the milk for the entire street at the end of the cul de sac and most of it froze immediately and had candles coming out the top. Don't really fremember any real issues, but I suppose, as kids, it was all a bit of fun, and to think we didn't even have central heating back then either!!

I suspect the big difference was that people lived near their place of work in those days. These days, commuting 60 miles each way isn't uncommon, which is much more weather affected.

I know my school was only about half a mile from where we lived, so it was easy to walk, and most of the kids who also went there lived locally. No kids being dropped off in 4x4s back then!!

My dad had to commute to London for work but I can't remember how he coped with that; I don't remember him being at home, so he must have got into work somehow.

Would we be able to cope with that sort of event if it happened now? I doubt it.

i reckon manage just fine, my mother remembers food parcels being dropped off in bad winters and having to walk a few miles to get to them. I can't see why we couldn't cope now.

I have very clear memories of that winter. Brilliant watching that film, by Ridley Scott, too!
I was the first at my junior school to wear long trousers, and, as jota180 says, teachers used to turn up in those days, you have to remember that most towns were much smaller, villages had their own schools, the town schools had very much smaller catchment areas, and the teachers lived locally, because few people had cars. Chippenham, which has a current population of around 50,000, was only 19,000 back then. You could buy a little book in WHSmith which had all the streets in town listed, with the name of everyone in each street!
I used to wake up each morning, with frost patterns on my bedroom windows, and my bedroom walls sparkling with frost!
Now, if someone hasn't got a room temperature of 75 degrees, they're hard done-by!

Our food distribution network might struggle a bit, being heavily centralised. Again, back in the 60s everything was much more locally sourced.