Frozen Britain from above

[Taffycat]

HERE is an excellent shot of the frozen UK, taken by NASA's Terra Satellite

 

[Ian]

That is a fantastic image TC

Really puts things in to perspective! I'm surprised that there doesn't seem to be a single area without snow.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Blimey

SE England and extreme tip of West Wales seem to be bearing the brunt of it.

 

[Abarbarian]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8446942.stm

Frozen Britain this is nowt but a cold snap. now 1963 that was a winter.

"That winter, the snow started on Boxing Day 1962 and the big freeze lasted until March 1963.

Blizzards caused snowdrifts up to six metres deep, telephone lines were brought down and temperatures fell so low the sea froze over.

But with thousands of schools remaining shut, travel problems continuing and power cuts affecting thousands of homes, how different is it in 2010?


On Wednesday about 9,000 schools were shut across England, with 950 in Wales, and at least 250 in Scotland and 16 in Northern Ireland.

While some schools were forced to close in 1963, Peter Hennessy, professor of contemporary British history at Queen Mary University of London, said the large number of closures this week indicated the UK had become a "health and safety nation".





Translation : " health and safety nation" = wussies




"But Prof Cook said it was a very different picture in 1963. Gas and electricity was restricted, most people had no central heating and some people had to resort to collecting coal from frozen depots.

"A few had Agas or fuel burners but most people relied on gas fires in one room or had no fires at all.

"Maybe they had a water bottle to warm the bed," he said."

"It was an unbelievable winter - I used to go out on the beat and on snow patrol in the Cotswolds, sometimes in a Land Rover recovery vehicle, and find people stuck in snowdrifts.

"Most of the country roads were impassable - the wind was horrendous. A snow plough would go down a road, but the wind kept blowing snow back on to the road and it would refill within hours - this went on week after week," he said.

"It was bitterly cold - I used to wear my pyjamas under my police uniform," he said."




Aye them were days, when men were men. Brings a tear to me old eyes.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Health & Safety nation indeed.

Whilst apreciating the need for greater safety in industries such as mining and shipbuilding we have indeed become a load of wussies.

I remember the winter of 63 and can also remember attending school for the whole 3 month period. I have a photo of me from then somewhere.

I can also remember around 1980 with similar weather conditions to the present cold snap, driving my Transit from Sidcup to Hammersmith and back in heavy snow to fulfil a disco booking. Friday night upstairs at The Clarendon Hotel if you're interested.

And while I'm reminiscing, when the hurricane of '87 struck I was working at a school that was possibly the furthest away from my home than any location I worked at, near the Robin Hood roundabout near Wandsworth and I lived in Forest Hill.

It took me five hours to get home, normally would have taken about 30 to 40 minutes, Clapham Common was completely blocked from fallen trees, but I did get home.

 

[historian]

The only really bad weather that I recall was the winter of,I think,1946/7. We were returning to London from Leicester after the war,mum,dad,my late twin brother and me. We were in the removal van all together in front,with the driver, to keep warm. As I remember it the roads were kept open my army tanks to crush the ice. The drifts were massive.Took over 8 hours to get to London.We were frozen cold. Don`t think the van had a heater.
I do damire people who can remember weather of the past.The bad weather of 62/63 I do not recall at all,or the one in the 80s. Sad really.
historian

 

[captain zed]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8446942.stm

Aye them were days, when men were men. Brings a tear to me old eyes.

Real men don't wear pj's

 

[Urmas]

Although the Thames had frozen over several times in the 16th century, the first recorded frost fair was in 1608. King Henry VIII traveled from central London to Greenwich by sleigh along the river during the winter of 1536. Queen Elizabeth I took to the ice frequently during the winter of 1564, to "shoot at marks", and small boys played football on the ice.[7].

A celebrated frost fair occurred in the winter of 1683–84 and was thus described by John Evelyn:

Coaches plied from Westminster to the Temple, and from several other stairs too and fro, as in the streets; sleds, sliding with skeetes, a bull-baiting, horse and coach races, puppet plays and interludes, cooks, tipling and other lewd places, so that it seemed to be a bacchanalian triumph, or carnival on the water.[8] For sixpence, the printer Croom sold souvenir cards written with the customer's name, the date, and the fact that the card was printed on the Thames, and was making five pounds a day (ten times a labourer's weekly wage). King Charles II bought one.

River Thames frost fairs

 

[floppybootstomp]

That frost fair article says there's a foot tunnel running under the Thames under Southwark Bridge.

I don't know of this tunnel and next time I'm that way I shall go and have a search.

Lived here all my life mostly and there's something I don't know about?

Shocking

I had to miss my hospital appointment at London Bridge on Friday (a checkup) cos the train service was affected badly cos of snow and the next one wasn't due for 90 minutes when I arrived at Greenwich Station.

New appointment scheduled for Feb 19th, I shall take a stroll to Southwark Bridge then

 

[historian]

We`ll not see the likes of the frost fairs again on the river.It`s because of the embankment of the Thames,it runs to fast now.Also the old London bridge help because it slowed the river down with it`s piers.

historian.

 

[BigJay]

That is a fantastic image TC

Really puts things in to perspective! I'm surprised that there doesn't seem to be a single area without snow.

I'm snow free!

We had a small amount on Tuesday and it was all gone by Wednesday morning.

I reckon you are all making this snow thing up!

 

[floppybootstomp]

That frost fair article says there's a foot tunnel running under the Thames under Southwark Bridge.

I don't know of this tunnel and next time I'm that way I shall go and have a search.

Lived here all my life mostly and there's something I don't know about?

Shocking

I had to miss my hospital appointment at London Bridge on Friday (a checkup) cos the train service was affected badly cos of snow and the next one wasn't due for 90 minutes when I arrived at Greenwich Station.

New appointment scheduled for Feb 19th, I shall take a stroll to Southwark Bridge then

In post # 8 Urmas linked to an article on Thames River Ice fairs and I posted the above quote in response to it.

This morning I was at the dentists at Guys Hospital, London Bridge, and I had intended to go look for this tunnel.

But it was too damn cold so I came home and done an online search for this elusive tunnel.

Well, I was right, sortta, whilst there is a tunnel - closer to Tower Bridge than Southwark Bridge now - it was closed to foot traffic in 1898.Here's a link

And here's a link to all the Thames River Tunnels.

It's my guess that the article Urmas linked was either written before Tower Bridge was built or the author quoted from writings made before Tower Bridge was built and that's why it was stated that the tunnel was close to Southwark Bridge rather than Tower Bridge.

Just thought I'd clear that one up as I thought I knew London and that foot tunnel was a new one to me