Winterwatch Special - The Big Freeze of 1963
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 มี.ค. 2017
- A special episode of Winterwatch with Chris Packham from c. 2013, looking at a documentary made fifty years before on the devastating Big Freeze that crippled Britain from Boxing Day 1962 - early March 1963.
I own nothing in this video.
I love hearing news broadcasts delivered in the Queen's English once more. A real treat.
Fantastic. News readers who could actually speak English, now we even have people who say the word "the" when it should be pronounced "thee".
"queen's English " ? 😁 She's totally affected, and nobody speaks like her. Thank goodness.
@@MOGGS1942 The Queen's English. Not "queen''s English".
Her Majesty is not 'affected', but totally genuine and honest. She represents all that is best about England.
We're not all peasants like you.
Great old documentary - brings it all back to those who lived through it!
Note how Cliff Michelmore and fellow presenter gave a commentary without the incessant Karate chopping antics used by today's reporters.
I love this vid. .....Wish we had Snow like that again
Be careful what you wish for
th-cam.com/video/MPQvVBaOx2E/w-d-xo.html
I don’t
@Anj: Trust me, you don't. It was horrendous. People marooned in their homes. No emergency services like ambulances and fire fighters could get through or doctors to the sick. Extreme food shortages. Just be careful what you wish for.
I remember this. I was staying with my grandmother in Broadstairs Kent and the sea was frozen. I recall the huge floating ice.
I was 5 years old, walked to school every day along pavements which were cleared of snow by the people who lived in the houses alongside. Icicles 3feet long, or more, and as thick as a man's wrist hung from rooftops and gutters. Me and my little brother would wake up in the morning and scrape the frost off the inside of our bedroom window, and go "oh no! It's snowing again". At first we loved it but it soon lost its appeal because it was very cold all the time. Houses in Britain just weren't built for prolonged cold weather.
I was 5 years old as well. You had to be there.
I was 9 Rod but yes I remember it well and we coped with it too. 👍🏻
@@gazza2933 A tip if you have to walk along snowy pavements anytime, get some big socks and put them over your shoes, you'll have much better grip. Like a polar bear your feet will have hairy soles !
indeed even us secondary kids got a bit fed up by end of February, and we did live in a very badly hit area Kent and Sussex, being right in the fire of the Russian Easterly. The last huge ice ball we had in our road, was still melting mid April.
I was also 5 years old, but hadn't started school yet, I'm pleased to say!
Excellent documentary. #love watching the old day's.. my mum was as 13 yr old in 1963. 🌍✌️💖🇺🇦
Mike and Bernie were the worst winters ever!
Wow, I would love for this to happen again
Experiencing it isn’t the same as watching it and you may change your mind when you get short of food and other necessary supplies. I had it easier in Manchester but still remember snows in the 50s when we walked or cycled to school. I cycled in 12ins - 30cm of snow to get there.
@@royksk bruh 30cm of snow is nothing special. Average winters are 35cm of snow.
They get problems with a bit of frost or some leaves on the line today
So would I. I'd love to experience it
I was a paper boy in East London and had to climb over the frozen snow piles to cross the road. The papers arrived at the shop every day. My school stayed open every day. My father worked on the buses which also ran every day. Today the threat of a snow flake shuts schools.
That's because we don't slave labour anymore, we're not living in those times where 5 year olds had to go up shitty fucking chimneys you dickhead. You lot think you're tough, trust me.... you're not
That's because everything's run by snowflakes.
I was ten in 1963 and living in the North of England. The schools never closed once.
That's because we're' made of tough stuff. :0)
I,m watching this as a Brit from Eastern Poland...and laughing...they have this here most years....-12C at the moment......not a lot of snow, but people have coped for so long that nothing stops.
my dad remembers this he said it carried on for months
Omg the such proper pronunciation but I did love cliff so thankful we're all so relaxed these day, but listening to the narrative nothing changes mother nature always a challenge x
If
That freeze gave me a distinct hatred to snow and cold, can remember the nights when you had the choice of leaving a window slightly open and shivering all night long or keeping it closed and waking up with condensation running down the walls beneath the
windows. That's partly why I
moved out to the Philippines in 87 just before the hurricane hit funnily enough.
Imagine getting through the pandemic with a winter like this!
How would we cope in the UK today if we had a snowfall like this? Nowadays, a light dusting of snow is enough shut the country down and bring the nation to a standstill !
I was born admist this on the 6th of February, brrrrrrrr😁
I was 7 when this storm hit.....my kids don't believe me when I tell them how deep the snow was. It literally came up just over half way on our front door and our back yard was, for me, waist deep
I was seven years old as well. I have clear memories of struggling to walk to school, huge drifts to the side of the pavements. Snow going into the top of my wellie boots and having to thaw out once there. Oh and yukky frozen bottles of milk 😩
My mum used to talk about this winter, it was dire in Cornwall. Food delivery’s couldn’t restock shops for weeks and weeks, milk could be gotten out of the farms due to Cornwall’s renowned narrow roads being under 8 feet of snow. Entire towns and villages were cut off for weeks.. and Carrick council didn’t stock enough grit (though to be fair we rarely get snow in Cornwall) so even the major roads were un-passable because there was no ploughs and no salt and grit..
Yes exactly I've been searching for footage of Scotland I was 8 years old the snow drifts were up to the house roof it was a bungalow
I lived through it when I was 21 and starting work in a factory, in Warwickshire in Eng;and.
If Christmas finds a bridge, he'll break it. If he finds none, he'll make one (ancient weather lore). How true it was in 1962.
I was watching this vidio over 6 years ago when I lived in Birkenhead..
Top weather vidio.
Video.
Listed in the credits at 49:56 is one Ridley Scott.....and yes, it is that Ridley Scott.
It gives me goosebumps
I was here and they didn't close my school!
Being a bird lover those figures of how many died is upsetting to hear, I love cold & snow but I never want to see a repeat of that winter ever again!
I feed birds all year round & even more so during the winter, I'll be off down to the local pond with food for all the birds there as well if yurt weather is very cold & snowy.
This at the point of the Beeching cuts to railways - the dismantling of a wonderful transport system.
Schools all open teachers lived nearer to them in those day they had no cars in those days I can remember lots of dead birds in our street starved and frozen we were cut off for 3 weeks and the army in the end came and dug us out.
I was eleven in 1963 and in this programme they never once mentioned the North East. The snow was deep but I was still able to go to school. My Father was still able to go to work. We had no burst pipes and we had no electricity or gas cuts. The North East always had snowy winters and was better organised and prepared for the winter.
Is the North York Moors not in the north east then?
He has just mentioned the North again!!!!
@@dianelawson4037 The North Yorkshire Moors does cover the North East, and beyond. It's huge.
@@amethyst9998 Your point being? The OP stated"they never once mentioned the North East" yet they spoke of North York moors hence I asked "Is the North York Moors not in the north east then?" I am fully aware of where it is and how large they are, (Yorkshire is the larges county in the UK) but the OP is clearly not
How Britain has changed!
1963 winter uk what was the big freez ?
3:45 wtf old tv is so horrifying.
Stupid comment. Without that "old tv" you wouldn't have your 60" colour Sky tv with 300 channels to choose from.
The short road footage at 7:20 is from Sweden, when back then they too drove on the left.
The Dutch had their own Big Freeze with almost the same chronology. I was 12 at the time.
Watching this frozen Texas.
3:26 i just got triggered lol
Some are saying in hushed tones, that we could be seeing something similar soon. End of February early March
I was nine at the time down in Hampshire, 2ft of Snow in less than to hrs, Before that it was very wet outside, Down our grants for boxing night & using the outside loo, Went to go home about 11pm & There it was, Short trousers, The next day out with the farmer feeding hay to the cows, As it got worse we were feeding Kale as well, Of Course out playing passed the coalyard & was asked to help break up big chunks of coal, The Coal man asked if I wanted to go for a ride, He drove up to the Cannal, I was banging on there doors, As they had stopped there for Christmas, & were out of coal, He gave them all Free coal to get them through, But We went up there at least once a week, I suppose he saved there lives, We didn't get above Freezing until around the last day of March, Maybe plus 1 degree only, That was Village, ppl Community Spirit. I can only remember it as a Time of Great Pride but He'll it was Cold
I'm not sure if it's this video or another one about the winter of 1962 -63, where a government minister's wife says that the British don't wear enough warm clothes, and models her winter underwear. (Knee length bloomers and a vest with sleeves.) I could not help thinking of the accepted thinking at the time, that shorts were the proper clothing for boys who were of primary school and pre-school age. Most state primary schools did not have a uniform then, but many did not allow boys to wear long trousers. Girls had to wear skirts or dresses, but at least they could wear woollen tights.
ICE AGE.
Come to Canada between january and March|! That nothing new here!
Ah yes, that's true, but Canada is prepared for extreme weather every year. Britain didn't know what the severity of that storm would be and, bear in mind, 60 years ago we didn't have the resources there are now. The worst places hit were the remote villages, open farmland, and people living on the Moors. The towns and cities coped.
The Pools Panels in 1963. Where is the snow today?
I was four but I don't remember this at all.
I was a baby aged 2yrs old at the time. It was cold i can tell you.
Rearly you twat
How do you even know this, you was only 2 years old you weren't even conscious of anything, of being
I was four yet can't remember it. So how can you?
Watching this now on 17 December 2022 when, just a week or so ago, four little boys had been playing on a frozen lake in the West Midlands, and fell through the ice, and drowned. The youngest was just 6 years old, the eldest 11. Devastating for the parents, but who should have been supervising them. Very sad indeed. :( Kids have no sense of danger to such things. :( .
Who was prime minister then?
20:45 Newbury!!! 😀
Imagine the British people say the word Truck(s) like in America but maybe in the future?
It was NOT the worst winter for 200 years. 1947 was much worse.
'62-'63...
14:40 the fat controller....
xD
I stopped watching at "The salt has run out....Some 1100 tons of salt were used in Westminster alone" yes, and it hasn´t changed now, has it.
45.40 Presenter: umm think I got away with that
46.35 Hawaiians: what!?
It was cold sill not seen it again no heating paraffin fires and when we run out of fuel you shivered water pipes froze but it was fun at 13 and fit.
Ruined by having to endure the vile Chris Packham for even a second but many thanks for this otherwise excellent piece!
Chris Packham is a lovely sweet man who was diagnosed with Aspberger's Syndrome (a form of Autism) rendering him socially inadequate and unable to easily interact with others. I've no idea what's vile about it.
@@amethyst9998 Neither have I, because that's not what I mean. Poor guess on your part!
I was 4 - I remember a helicopter dropping hay for the sheep on our farm.
Off- not off of. The of is an American affectation..
8:30
Of course, if this happened now it would all be Boris Johnson’s fault.
Well, of course it would. Who else should we blame? :0)
After WWII, Alcoholism was wrife in the U.K. I can't imagine how many blokes went into violent withdrawals 1-2 weeks into the blizzard Apart from the animals the alcoholics probably suffered the most.
Btw....
Yes, I know Alcoholism has always been a part of life in the UK. But these are veterans of WWI and WWII
Rife.
The cats???? this was the age when 50 year old men ran and presented Top of the Pops. Helen Shapiro??? wholesome???? didn't she run off with her manager when she was 15 or something?? won't get fooled again.????..and again and again....later we have that girls and womens favourite.... the straighter than straight.....(even married) Elton John...all is smoke and mirrors.
Umm.. this guy has a bad speech impediment!
Yeah and he was complaining about bottles/plastics in our oceans and beaches and was then found out to be linked with the companies who make some of the plastics that were sold as Biodegradable which turns out that they are not and ever since it came to light he has been in hiding, lol, I don't know why he has to turn a Weather event in to and animal saga, That year the world over had terrible storms, The man is an Idiot.
He is a TV Naturalist, Tree Hugger, Wildlife promoter, etc etc.
@@user-tv8sm6so9y I agree - I despise Chris Packham.
@@user-tv8sm6so9y Is there something wrong with you? Chris Packham may have a speech impediment, and he also has Autism, but what's that got to do with his love and welfare of animals, not to mention his concern about the planet? Animals are vital to humans, so we should be caring about what happens to them. It wasn't his fault that some plastics were not bio-degradable, but was at least man enough to admit he was wrong - and he hasn't been in hiding.
@@amethyst9998 No there is nothing wrong with me you blind prick, I never mentioned his speach inpediment, It was the lady above, and I don't give a shit whether he has autism or not he is still an asshole for marketing fake Bio products. when they are not planet friendly.
I was born in September 1963 and my father, a farmer, was planting winter wheat in a blizzard in October.
I always wonder what the global warming zealots want. Do they want more winters like 1963?
As a matter of fact, gobal warming could see us with many more winters like this. Trillions of tons of melting ice at the north pole will divert ocean currents that drive the Gulf Stream, which is the only thing that keeps Britain warmer than Canada.
@@cliffhughes6010 That is utter speculative tosh. Nothing more than a wild hypothesis. I know a very senior UK Met Office modeller quite well. He really could not substantiate the theory at all other than - this is what we think might happen.
Its effectively saying the UK will be freezing at the same time as the rest of the world is boiling. The theory was only put forward when they realised the UK public actually quite liked the idea of a warmer UK.
@@brianthesnail3815 "could"
Yeah and back then there was no talk about climate change neither in the summer of 1976. Are we worrying about nothing. I do nt know.
The train crash that was mention was caused by a points
Failures at Crewe
The 4.45pm from Liverpool to
Birmingham was held outside
The driver was told to wait
The train that collided with the
Birmingham train was the 1.30pm Glasgow to London euston(the midday Scott)
The driver tried to contact the
Signalman at coppenhall junction but could not to do because the phone was out of order he told the second man
We will proceed at caution to
The next signal
As the midday Scot approached
The signal where the Birmingham train was standing
The signal change from red to a
Single yellow for the Birmingham train the driver of the midday Scott thought it was
For his train the second man then saw the tail lamp of the
Birmingham train warned the
Driver but it was to late
And eighteen people died
The engine of the midday Scott
Was D326 later 40126
It was the engine that was working the 18.50 Glasgow
To Euston mail train that was
Robbed at sears crossing just
North of cheddington station
While I love this, it would seem that a little bit of film from Sweden has been snuck in, see approx 7.30. These vehicles are not on British roads, they are in Sweden before they changed over to "the other side". The bus is probably a Scania, one car is a Volvo PV and another is a russian Volga.
Scania and Volvo are manufactured in Sweden and seen in thousands on British Roads. Nothing unusual in that.
@@amethyst9998 And the Volga?
THE DREAM ACADEMY LIFE IN NORTH TOWN 63 O WHAT NIGHT !
I love hearing news broadcasts delivered in the Queen's English once more. A real treat.