The Big Chill
We look back at some of the worst winters in 20th century waterways history
Mild winters have become something of the norm in the UK over recent years, but you don’t have to go back too far in our history to find a time when the season was a good deal colder. In the years of canal carrying, frozen waters, snow drifts and the daily challenge of staying warm were a routine part of life afloat.
-ice-©ColinSuch.jpg)
Above: Ice-breaking on the Oxford Canal near Rugby. Attached by six lines, at least 15 horses have been employed to pull the ice-boat, which has the same number of men onboard to rock back and forth to create a navigable channel through the frozen canal. This picture looks to be taken in the early years of the 20th century.
1905
In the winter of 1905, locals took full advantage of the frozen Pontymoile Basin on the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal. With none of today’s concerns about health and safety, both schoolchildren and adults made the most of the icy playground, sliding across the solid canal and clambering onto the trapped boat.
1908
Thought to have been taken as late as 27th April 1908, this picture shows Widcombe Locks on the Kennet & Avon Canal under a thick covering of snow. The freak weather saw four days of heavy snowfall and sub-zero temperatures across southern England. The lack of footprints on the towpath and the snow still piled neatly on the lock beams suggest traffic on this route, which was already in decline, had ground to a halt.
1917
Locals stand on the bridge to watch the military operation required to clear the mass of snow and slush on the Wyrley & Essington at Wednesfield Junction.
January and February 1917 were the coldest months since 1895, with many rivers and canals freezing. As conscription during World War I saw large numbers of canal staff and boatmen entering the forces, the Canal Control Committee made use of Transport Workers Battalions to keep the inland waterways navigable. An additional force was held in readiness for ice-breaking. In these two pictures, military personnel are at work on the Wyrley & Essington Canal, where the ice was said to have been over 12in thick.
Soldiers join four civilians to man an ice-breaker on the Wyrley & Essington at New Cross.
The freeze of early 1917 was so severe on the Birmingham Canal Navigations that even using 18 ice-boats with 148 horses and 400 men, plus 315 soldiers (obtained via the War Office to help keep locks open), certain routes had to be abandoned. This caused a great strain for both the canals and railways as the demand for coal was such that companies had little or no reserves to fall back on to keep up production, thus impeding the war effort.
1947
The winter of 1946-47 was the UK’s coldest in three centuries and its effects, coming at a time when the country was still recovering from the economic hardships of fighting World War II, were devastating. Many businesses were forced to close, animal herds froze or starved to death, and there were food shortages in parts of the country.
Snow drifts blocked roads and railways, and it became increasingly difficult to bring coal to electric power stations. This picture shows a convoy of boats, loaded with coal, following behind an ice-breaking boat on the frozen Coventry Canal between Nuneaton and Bedworth. The number of craft in the train highlights the urgent need to transport coal, and they were travelling together to ensure they reached their destination in case the canal froze up again that night.
1958
Another cold winter in which the 1934-built tug Bittell, newly acquired by British Waterways, is pulling at least four joeys loaded with coal through shards of ice near Gosty Hill Tunnel on the Dudley No 2 Canal.
Bittell was acquired by Dudley Canal & Tunnel Trust in 1990 and repainted in its original Stewarts & Lloyds livery in 2005. In this picture its crew are using a traditional rocking technique to break the ice on the BCN Main Line at Factory Locks, Tipton.
1962/63
The winter of 1962-3 was one of the coldest on record in the United Kingdom, with temperatures so low that even the sea froze in places. Although traffic was in serious decline at this point, as in other years ice-breakers were employed to free trains of cargo-boats like these.
Thanks to their iron plating, ice-breakers could easily sail through thin ice, but in places where it was exceptionally thick the boats were pulled out of the water and on the top of the ice, as pictured here on the Wyrley & Essington Canal near Pelsall in February 1963. Nevertheless, it’s smiles all round from the crew, in spite of their predicament and the chilly weather.
1965
At Foxton Locks in February 1965, butty Bideford (pictured) and motor-boat Greenock are continuing to be worked in the winter snowfall by their hardy crew of Sam and Annie Beechey. Bideford is now owned by Julia and Richard Cook and, along with motor Towcester, is still used to deliver fuel on the Grand Union in a year-round service.
Acknowledgement: Thank you to Christopher M. Jones for his help in compiling this piece.
