Blasts from the Past: Snow

Over the last week or so, whenever I have grumbled about the cold weather, I have reminded myself about the winter of 1962-63, about which many former pupils have spoken to me. Dubbed the Big Freeze, heavy snow fell towards the end of December 1962 and bitterly cold, icy and snowy conditions persisted until March 1963. Rivers froze, sports fixtures were cancelled and Big Ben was 10 minutes late chiming in the New Year due to amount of snow on the clock hands. Curious to know more, I found a short clip in the BBC Archive which vividly brought to life the reality of ‘by far the worst winter in living memory.’ (Click here to watch the film on the BBC website.) Before this, the winter of 1947 had also been bad: difficulties moving coal led to planned power outages, radio broadcasts and newspapers were both scaled back, and there were fears of food shortages.

What was the impact of these ongoing, horrendous-sounding conditions at King’s? As ever, I looked to the school magazines for answers. Perhaps not surprisingly, the only complaints were about the disruption to sport.

‘This term will be remembered for its cold weather, if for nothing else. But since these memories will be common to the rest of the population of this country, it is unnecessary to dwell at length upon the physical discom­forts suffered by all members of the School. Nevertheless, the cold spell disturbed the routine of School life in a way different from which it disturbed most people’s lives, and therefore a word might be said on this aspect of the matter. Only on the first Wednesday of the term was it possible to play rugger, and the extraordinary situation has arisen where, far from playing the first round of Senior House Rugger, there is still the final of Junior House leftover from last term’s cold spell. The Boat Club did a little rowing during the first week of term, but since then has been scared off the river by persistent reports that ice floes are heading downstream from Windsor. There has been no shooting, and only members of the Squash Club have been able to exercise themselves regularly on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons.’ (Editorial, School magazine, Spring 1947)

The situation sounds very similar in 1963: ‘It must be here recorded, for future eyes to read, that this Spring Term has been unique. Unbroken snow for the first seven or eight weeks completely disrupted all plans for the playing of games, and even House matches had to be cancelled.’  (Junior Notes, School magazine, Spring 1963). In the Senior School, CCF Field Day plans were disrupted, athletics finals were postponed, cross-country races were cancelled and the hockey season was ‘reduced to a mere last-minute scramble.’

King’s pupils seem to have been quite a resilient bunch, however. One former pupil to whom I spoke about the harsh conditions of 1963 could not recall ever feeling cold (although he presumed that two pairs of socks must have been called for). He told me about being stranded in a blizzard whilst taking part in a CCF training camp on Salisbury plain with Jack Hedditch; when the army sent a fleet of heavy lorries to evacuate the group from King’s (along with all the other schools involved) this response was deemed unnecessary – they had, after all, plenty of food! Chemistry teacher Bryan Stokes, meanwhile, used the bad weather to explain the phenomenon of sublimation. In 1947, pupils also conjured something positive out of the situation, devising a host of new sports: ‘perhaps the most common among these is large-scale snowballing, but far more skill is displayed in a sort of skating soccer on the Minimus pitch, hockey of a kind on the tar­mac, and real ice-hockey with walking sticks and draughtsmen on Queensmere. It is rumoured that these sports have been spon­sored by the Prefects’ Cricket Society, who no doubt wanted to make the best of the weather, but no member of that noble and gallant band will commit himself on being questioned.’ It seems likely that similar winter sports were improvised in 1963.

By the middle of March 1963, temperatures had risen but the weather was still far from great. It was the first year that King’s pupils had taken part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, and their hike was to take place on 18th March: ‘The weather, true to form, was poor', noted an article in the school magazine. 'Nevertheless, this was not enough to deter five members of the section who, instead of hiking the planned sixteen miles, starting at West Humble Station and calling at check points at Box Hill, Leith Hill and Woolpit School, did the return journey as well. As a result they had to walk for the last hour in total darkness.’ Those taking part in the practice expedition seem to have been cannier: ‘Unimpressed by the weather, they retreated to a barn, kindly provided by a local resident, to pitch their tent for the night.’

There are no photographs in the school archive of either the 1947 or 1962-63 wintery conditions. I share instead some pictures of King’s in less extreme snowy conditions. As ever, please do get in touch if you have stories to share: I can be contacted via email at archive@kcs.org.uk.  

Dr Lucy Inglis | School Archivist