Nostalgia with Margaret Watson: Diaries tell story of big freeze of 1947

Margaret Watson writes: For not only had we to endure ferocious snow blizzards and bitter cold, but also a fuel crisis and food shortages, and on top of that we were just recovering from the war, and food was still on ration.

There was no respite from the bitter cold that winter, and people of my age who experienced it, still remember with a shudder the foot long icicles which hung from windows, inside as well as out.

No central heating or double glazing in those days and we didn’t wake up to a house which had been kept warm overnight with radiators on at full blast.

We shivered getting into bed and we shivered getting out and there was no running hot water to get washed in.

But no matter how heavy the snow, most people still managed to walk through snowdrifts to get to work, and those poor souls living in outlying areas like Whitley and Briestfield had to set off at the break of dawn to get there.

When I talk of these days to my grandchildren, they think I’m exaggerating, and it makes me wish I had kept a dairy to prove to them just what it was like.

But I am happy to say that there was one lady in Dewsbury at that time who did keep a diary of what was going on and recording day by day the severity of it all.

She was Ruth Walker, who lived at Oak Cottage in Briestfield, and she described exactly what was happening in the winter of 1947, not only here in Dewsbury, but across the country.

Ruth, who was born in 1883, lived in Oak Cottage all her married life, but her diaries were only discovered by her grandchildren after her death.

They compiled them into a book entitled: “Grandmother’s Diaries”, which was published in Australia where many of Ruth’s family now live.

Unfortunately, it is now out of print, but I was able to get a copy from members of Briestfield History Group, and here are just a few of the extracts of the month of February 1947:

February 1

“February has arrived with all the vigour of real wintry weather, bringing blizzards and snow to all parts of the British Isles. We at Oak Cottage are snow and ice-bound, having to dig through drifts of snow six feet deep.

“All week the BBC has mentioned villages being cut off and main roads blocked, with snow ploughs working through the night.

”On the main road between Sheffield and Manchester about 200 Polish men have been employed to clear the road.

February 2

“Weather conditions today very severe, blowing a blizzard from the East”

February 4

“Awakened this morning to find a mountain of snow. It came halfway up the door. It took a while shovelling through the snow drifts before we could feed the poultry, a blizzard blowing all the while.”

February 5

“All roads blocked. Bakery van unable to get to the stores. Very few people could get to work at all.

Transport at a standstill, making everything chaos.”

February 7

“Too cold to think of going to the evening service at chapel. Heard later that a fairly good number turned up. Felt rather dismayed, wondering if I am getting too soft and careful of myself.”

February 10

“My birthday. No birthday cards or presents. Had no fat and sugar to even make myself a cake. A very uneventful day.”

Ruth, who was married to William Walker, had two daughters, Sophia, who was married to Alec Jury, a local schoolmaster, and Edith, a nurse serving in the Forces.

Ruth refers in the diary to Sophia, who had just had a baby, and how the shortage of coal was affecting the family. She wrote:

February 11

“Cold bitter day. In the evening Alec came with sledge from Lepton to take a bag of coal home, a journey of four miles. Dad remarked Alec would find it very hard work pulling the sledge. Bitterly cold, frost day and night.”

February 22

“Alec came and brought Sophia’s birthday present for me – two Pyrex dishes, one a lovely big dish to make fruit pies when the day comes when we can buy lard by the pound instead of the ounce per person each week as at present.

“The other dish is a small butter dish, just right for the half pound of butter allowed on our two rations weekly.

“Asked Alec whether he found it easy taking down the bag of coal on the sledge. He said never again will he try the same experience. He left Oak Cottage at ten past nine and did not arrive home until midnight, nearly exhausted.

“It is a cold bitter day. Frost day and night. Have heard of villages being snowbound, cut off from the world.

“The BBC this morning commented on how this weather is likely to continue. The Prime Minister will broadcast on the six-o-clock news. Essential firms are to continue but others to close down for a short period, probably causing nearly a million people out of work.

“Domestic cuts mean no electricity between the hours of 9am and 12. Army and Navy will help with transport difficulties.

”All train services must be cut down to a minimum, boys of 18 who are willing to work in the coal mines will not be called up to the Forces for the next five years.

"Coal rations allowed – four bags a month.

“Thousands of people in our English homes are without coal, unable to make fires to keep themselves and family warm and dry through this bitterly cold winter.”

The picture above was taken in the winter of 1940 in Crow Nest Park, the year before I was born, but my older sisters who experienced both, said this one was worse than the winter of 1947 of which I write this week.