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The Royal Windsor Forum |
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 thamesweb |
The Great Freeze of '63 and other bad weather years |
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Posts: 4022 (28-Nov-2005 09:37 PM) |
Snow and ice right across The Thames at Windsor in 1963. Our original story has now been extended and extensively illustrated. The Great Freeze - A Windsor History If you have any memories or pictures we would love to hear from you. editor@thamesweb.co.uk
Last Edited By: thamesweb 6-Jun-2009 01:12 PM.
Edited 1 time.
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thamesweb |
Re: The Great Freeze of '63 | ||
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Posts: 4022 ( 2-Jan-2006 04:57 PM) |
Now that the New Year is upon us, I am tempted to post a progress report on the winter so far. OK, strictly speaking we have only had ten days of it, but there is little sign of a long hard winter so far.
That is not to say we haven't had a few cold snaps, just before Christmas and just after, and those lunatics who were driving too fast for the snowy conditions and ended up in the ditch on their roofs deserve all they got! A word to the wise. If it's icy, your wheels will slip and slide given half a chance. But drive real slow and you will get to your destination OK without having to trouble your insurance company, or anyone else's! Imagine you have an egg between your foot and the accelerator and brake pedals and the wheels will do their job... |
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thamesweb |
Re: The Great Non-freeze of 2006! | ||
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Posts: 4022 (16-Jan-2006 11:55 PM) |
That about wraps it up for this winter then!!!
A few more frosty mornings have been noted, especially Thursday 12th which was frosty yet which warmed up almost within minutes around 9.00am. The rise in temperature was remarkable. Had this been 1963 we would have been embarking on the fourth week of freezing temperatures. OK so there is still February and a little bit of January, but my money is on an early spring once more, especially as I have seen a daffodil in bud just up the road. It will be in bloom in a day or so I will take a picture! Perhaps the forecasters meant 2007. |
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Unregistered(d) |
was '63 the coldest year | ||
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Posts: 0 (22-Jan-2006 09:50 PM) |
Was 1963 the coldest year of 20th centuary?or was it so in'47
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thamesweb |
Re: was '63 the coldest year | ||
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Posts: 4022 (26-Jan-2006 07:11 PM) |
Coldest as in coldest temperature? Or coldest as in longest period of cold? I think there were other similar years - I will try and check - but 1963 wins for the length of time the cold weather lasted, I suspect...
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thamesweb |
Re: was '63 the coldest year | ||
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Posts: 4022 (30-Jan-2006 08:12 PM) |
1947 was the snowiest since 1814.
1963 was the coldest since 1740 in terms of its duration and average temperatures, but these were only on or around zero during the day for most of January and February so it was the duration that broke the records. Other years set other records such as coldest recorded temps, etc. Source Met Office. |
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thamesweb |
I owe the weather an apology! | ||
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Posts: 4022 ( 2-Mar-2006 11:48 PM) |
I was premature in suggesting that the threatened cold winter forecast around November-time last year had not materialised by the end of January. But it was late!
Come February, there really had not been any particularly cold weather to write home about, but this last month, and as I write in early March, it has been seasonbly cold and frosty for most of the last five weeks. Sorry weather, you were right and I was wrong. Would you mind making it a wet spring, just to keep the Water Board happy around here!!!??? |
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thamesweb |
Re: I owe the weather an apology! | ||
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Posts: 4022 ( 5-Mar-2006 05:37 PM) |
Slightly warmer but wetter weather is forecast for this week, aound the 7th March. Perhaps it really is over now!
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thamesweb |
Re: I owe the weather an apology! | ||
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Posts: 4022 (23-Mar-2006 11:57 PM) |
The truth is that the cold weather had not cleared away by 22nd March although now, 23rd, the forecasters are saying rain and warmer temperatures are moving in from the west.
So... The prophecy back around November time that the winter would be harsh, while late in fulfilling itself, did come true, especially up north where snow has been commonplace and, nationwide, temperatures around freezing, often with a chill easterly wind. With March almost over, so perhaps is the cold. We will see. But the winter did not pan out as it did in 1963. Windsor still has not had a decent snowfall for some 25 years now. And guess what! Hose pipe bans from early April!!! Never known the like in this area! From mid-summer maybe, in the bad/good old days... but now it is early April. How many more houses did they want to build in the south-east? Four million, was it? Just don't ask for a drink of water! |
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thamesweb |
Re: I owe the weather an apology! | ||
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Posts: 4022 (18-Apr-2006 03:09 PM) |
For the record, the common Magnolia Soulangeana trees were in bloom around 13th April this year. Pretty much average, I would say, so looks like we are back to normal!
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thamesweb |
Re: I owe the weather an apology! | ||
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Posts: 4022 (13-Aug-2006 07:41 PM) |
The spring of 2006 it is generally agreed was long and cold. Certainly a number of nesting birds lost their chicks to the cold weather but it was not particularly wet.
Come May everything seemed to perk up, and June and July enjoyed some very fine weather indeed, July breaking records dating back to 1911. The first week of August was also warm in this area but from the 11th the temperatures slipped back with showers and thunder today, 13th August. This for the record only! |
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thamesweb |
Snow in Winter 1979 - 1980 | ||
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Posts: 1797 ( 6-Jun-2009 01:22 PM) |
We have been sent this excellent photograph by Jonathan Elliman who lived in Trinity Place at the time. Apparently he is just off to school in Hatch Lane when snapped by his mother. It was taken in the winter of 1979-1980 as the photo is printed is marked on the back 'Kodak July 80.'
Last Edited By: thamesweb
7-Jun-2009 04:47 PM.
Edited 1 times.
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Hazel Austin |
Skating in '63 | ||
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Posts: 249 ( 8-Jun-2009 09:51 AM) |
Anyone else go skating on Virginia Water in '63? Well, sliding actually although there were real skaters there as well ... right in the middle, too. For
some reason - I think because it was faster flowing than the Water, so we thought the ice wouldn't be thick enough - we didn't risk the Thames.
I'd seen a near-drowning on the river as a child and wasn't about to push my luck - but I remember there were people on it - albeit closer to the bank.
One of those things you remember all your life, like the generation before always spoke of '47...
Edit: Why don't I look properly? 
Last Edited By: Hazel Austin
8-Jun-2009 08:13 PM.
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BobB |
Near Drownings 63. | ||
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Posts: 173 ( 9-Jun-2009 10:31 PM) |
Hi Hazel.
First of all,Thanks for your welcome back. In 1963,I went down to the river with my Brother.I saw all those people out there on the ice and decided that I would join them.We went further down river,near the weir.Sensible 14 months younger Brother said "NO" but Daft BobB went for it.Underneath the ice I was at the mercy of the river.Luckily my Brother grabbed a bush and bent it down in to the hole in the ice.I could not see a thing.but felt the bush and was saved.There were a number of people around and I wonder if this is what you witnessed.As you will remember, the temperature was below freezing and as I came out of the river,my clothes froze on me.Again sensible Brother came to the rescue."Come on jump on your bike,we'll go and see Mr Stokes" Mr Stokes was the person we spoke about before,lived at 2 Foster Avenue.He used to look after the baths at the River Street toilets.He Wrapped me in warm towels until I reached a reasonable temperature. Having carried out life saving on the river in later years.My advice can only be"Respect the river, it can be very dangerous". Regards BobB |
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thamesweb |
Walking on the Water... | ||
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Posts: 1858 (18-Jun-2009 04:47 PM) |
 We are grateful to the Mayor of Bexley, Phil, for sending us this picture of his wife and daughter, Molly and Carol, standing on the ice in the middle of the river at Windsor in 1963. The view is upstream with the promenade on the left and Jacob's Island, middle left. The bank of The Brocas is just visible on the right of the picture. The date I believe to be towards the end of January, 1963. The river remained frozen until mid-March when the water level was deliberately lowered to break up the ice as the danger of falling through it became very real. Phil recalls: 'I said Come on you're in the middle, come over to the Brocas. However my wife declined but my daughter and I walked from Windsor to Eton on the water.' The Freeze of '63 |
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Pat Larkin |
Frozen Thames and handbags! | ||
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Posts: 663 (18-Jun-2009 09:04 PM) |
Great picture of Mrs. and Miss. Wells on the frozen Thames, thanks Mayor of Bexley, and taking another look at the ladies in the other picture on Hazel's
posting, it occurred to me that women take their handbags everywhere, even when 'walking on water'.....we were in Windsor at this time, visiting Albert
Street, but hadn't known about the River Thames freezing over until we had returned to East Sussex and our parents told us. This is the time our hired
Mini's engine froze and we put a Paraffin heater under the bonnet, using a sack to retain the heat....(previously posted 'somewhere' on the forum).
It takes an amount of courage to walk on frozen water, especially the River Thames, and I can understand how The Mayor would have tried to hurry his family to
the other side.....how long was the river frozen, thamesweb and did the Windsor Paper cover the event? What are the predictions for another great freeze?
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thamesweb |
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Posts: 1859 (18-Jun-2009 09:32 PM) |
I refer you to the article on the RWWS linked above which is very detailed noting when 'ice floes' started to be seen, with (hardy) rowers bumping in
to them, through to the point at which the thaw really started having an effect in mid-March.
Not easy to put a time scale on the river freezing, depends on the extent and thickness of the ice, but in one state or other it would be over two months, from mid-January to mid-March. And yes, the Windsor Express reported weekly on the many injuries caused by falls on icy pavements. I must pass on the prediction of another such event!
Last Edited By: thamesweb
18-Jun-2009 09:37 PM.
Edited 1 times.
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Pat Larkin |
River Thames | ||
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Posts: 676 (22-Jun-2009 03:52 PM) |
Thamesweb, do you know how deep the river is at Windsor, at it's deepest point, that is?
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thamesweb |
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Posts: 1869 (22-Jun-2009 05:01 PM) |
My guess would be about 6' on average, but there is a big hole down stream of Windsor Bridge which could be around 15'.
 I think the ferryman in this view has a quant pole so can't be much deeper. |
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Hazel Austin |
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Posts: 296 (22-Jun-2009 08:48 PM) |
"...when the water level was deliberately lowered.."
(i) One of my uncles told me as a child that there was a plug in the river to let the water out. I'm still wondering. :-) Seriously - how? (ii) I have reread the thread to make sure I haven't missed it, what sort of thickness was the ice when the water went down? (iii) Apparently one of the boundary marks when Windsor was called Oundoure (?) was the Abbot's Pile, which must have been some remnant of a timber structure in the water on the Eton side downstream now long, long gorne. It was only visible when the water was low apparently. Just one of these little things we true Windsorians know (or have read in the Annals of Windsor!) Another river fact I recall reading was that the river bottom around the bridge somewhere was like quicksand. Edit: Aha! I was called away half way through this post and when I finished/posted it tw had slipped in a reply which coincidentally mentioned a hole by the bridge. Is this the "quicksand" I read about?
Last Edited By: Hazel Austin
22-Jun-2009 08:50 PM.
Edited 1 times.
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thamesweb |
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Posts: 1870 (22-Jun-2009 11:06 PM) |
The water level in the river is determined by the weirs. In times of flood the gates are progressively lifted to allow excess flood water to flow downstream.
BUT it is not that easy. The lock-keepers used to let only as much water go as the downstream reaches could handle. They would liaise with their colleagues and
decide which reaches could be safely allowed to 'store' flood water by letting the levels rise and which reaches needed to get rid of extra water to
prevent properties being flooded. When there was just too much water coming downstream, then it was just let go, and fingers were kept crossed. These days I
understand that these controls are initiated centrally from the control centre at Caversham/Reading area according to information and data gathered along the
length of the river. Bringing the Flood Relief Channel, The Jubilee River, into use is determined at the same time.
In times of drought, and to retain a navigable depth of water in each reach, the weirs can be completely closed and flow virtually stopped. This is rare, but would have happened in the really dry summer of 1976 for example. I have heard of other occasions when the water level at Windsor was allowed to fall too much such that the pleasure launches touched the bottom on occasion, though I suspect this was only by the promenade arrivals and departure points. Before 1790s, when the locks and weirs were first built along the river, there was far less control of the river flow. In the summer months, or even during a dry winter, navigation would have been far more tricky as levels and flows varied. In times of drought therefore low levels would have been much more common and the 'Abbot's Pile' could have been visible, though I myself haven't heard or read anything about this particular structure. Freeze of 63 The thickness of ice varied all over the river. Opposite the Brocas, by the promenade, there was very thick ice, perhaps 6" or more, and this is where a large number of Windsorians crossed from one bank to another. Yet not too far away one of the pictures shows ducks and swans still swimming in open water where no ice had formed. Higher up the river, near the point at which the Relief Road crosses the Thames now, the ice was much thinner, perhaps only 2" or so, but equally variable. In the backwater by the boathouse, the ice was really thick, 6"-9". Can't help re 'quicksand' - not heard that one! Chalk is very close by. |
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