Did You Know… Life in 1960s/70s Britain: The Winter of 1963 Was Known as The Big Freeze - One of the Coldest in Britain Ever?

 

The Big Freeze that was the biggest freeze, bringing the country to a standstill.

 

The winter of 1962–63 is remembered simply as the Big Freeze. It remains one of the harshest and longest cold spells ever experienced in Britain. It was the coldest winter on record since 1740.

And I lived through it.

Now, I have to confess that despite being there, I have no memory whatsoever of that big freeze. I have an excuse, though; I was only three years old at the time. I can only imagine how cold it must have been, and life was very different back then when winter hit.

It began around Christmas time, 1962, and carried on into early 1963. It wasn’t just a few bad weeks of snow. The cold weather never seemed to end. It froze the sea and rivers; it halted transport and working life. It was a period when temperatures fell to minus twenty degrees. For a few months it reshaped everyday life, freezing homes, workplaces, schools, routines, and memories.

When the Cold Took Hold

It began just after Christmas Day, with snow falling across much of the country by Boxing Day. Falling temperatures followed and stayed that way for weeks. As we entered the new year, much of Britain was locked under deep snow and ice, with temperatures regularly below zero.

At the time, Britain was far less prepared for extreme weather than it is today. We complain a lot about the weather in Britain; it’s always a topic of conversation. British weather can change in an instant — at least it seems that way, catching us off guard. And while today, we are better prepared, it is often not enough to stop the weather at its most extreme.

But in 1963, no one was ready for what was about to happen.

Home life

Central heating was rare, and many homes relied on coal fires to keep them warm. Keeping them going was a daily struggle and, for many, costly. Like today, inflation and the cost of living were issues. Inside many homes, families often gathered around one heated room. That was usually the living room.

Other rooms might have an electric or oil heater, or none at all. To help keep the cold out in winter, extra layers of clothing were often worn to provide some heat. There was often no heating upstairs. A hot water bottle, and many blankets, would have been your warmth against the cold winter.

It was not uncommon for ice to form on the inside of windows.

And that was my home. My parents rented a small terraced house that relied on that one room with a coal fire and, occasionally, electric heaters.

I must have been wrapped up well.

It was a time when pipes froze and water supplies failed. The milk froze in bottles on doorsteps. Our milkman must have been frozen when he delivered them. I remember that many of the old milk floats did not give much protection against the cold weather. Even in the 1960s, some were still horse-drawn. This was also the case with coal deliveries.

The Twelve Posts of Christmas 2025 - Day Seven: When Snow Was Proper Snow

 

Will we have a White Christmas? Where I live, it looks like rain. 

There was a time when I remembered snow at Christmas.

There’s a saying you hear from a certain age group — “We had proper winters back then.” 

It’s usually said after a light dusting of snow causes the entire country to come to a standstill, or the occasional road hasn’t been gritted by the council de-icing trucks. And the telly weather forecaster on 24-hour news gets overexcited about “the possibility of flurries on higher ground”.

Whatever Happened To Snow?

But if you grew up in the 1960s or 70s, you’ll remember that we didn’t need to be warned about flurries. Snow arrived with confidence, and it a white Christmas was expected, long before Bing Crosby had told us so. 

Christmas snow was a given. It didn’t tiptoe in overnight like it does now. It marched in, dumped itself in great heaps across every road, garden and playground, and hung around for weeks. It was nice until after a few days it turned to ice, and you spent a week or two looking like a candidate for Britain’s ice skating Winter Olympics team.

Of course, back then, we didn’t have the 24-hour weather news or apps sending red alerts to our phones on the hour. We had the local milkman. I think his name was Stan, whose arrival at the doorstep was the first sign of how serious things were. 

“Cold today, I’ve had to put my gloves on. You won’t need to put these in the fridge.” He said, as the snow fell, covering the top of his hat.

Which was good, because I can’t remember whether we had a fridge back in the 1960s. Many of those mod cons didn’t arrive for us until the 1970s onwards.

Proper Snow

For us, when it snowed, it changed the whole rhythm of life, especially if you were a kid. We wanted snow, as it meant building snowmen and snowball fighting. It was the usual romantic thinking: waking up to a world made soft and silent, other than the crunch of boots on fresh white powder and the breath clouds forming in front of your face.