At new year 1979, Litherland was in the grip of a big freeze. It was so cold for so long it froze over the canal at the back of us in 53 Brunel Drive.
Nowadays I don’t know how we coped when I think of the simple two-bar elecy fires we had to heat the whole house. As I recall survival was about multiple layers of togs and living in one room (where the telly was) before braving it to go to bed!
This selection of pics brings it all back – the canal was like a rock, but the late afternoon sunlight had a warm golden glow. More detail is in the caption for each pic.
January 5th 1979 - in the grip of the coldest UK winter since the famous one in 1963. The average temp was between minus 4 and minus 5C for well over a month. The snow had come and gone leaving a very hard ground. It was getting late in the day, so took a few pics of the scene. The first was from my open bedroom window of 53 Brunel Drive of the icy conditions.
Panning around from my bedroom window at the front of the house comes a view of Bridgewater Close and a speeding Mini going out of shot. The redness of the pictures were due to it being so late in the day with the sun low down in a red sky (see later).
Walking out of my bedroom and looking through a hall window at the top of the stairs I had to do a double-take - looking over Mrs Carte's (our neighbours) all the kids were walking on the canal. Potentially very dangerous of course, but it looked like the ice had no thin spots at all. It looked like they were playing with a sink top lodged in the ice. Notice also the current thicket of trees along the bank were just saplings then. Finally you can see the Rediffusion (early cable TV) wire between the houses and the boat club Portakabin that was burned down the following year.
Panning around a bit further across the way you could see the path across to near Endbutt Lane and the pylon that’s still there. The current picnic spot across the canal is just a piece of barren land here. In the dark days of YTS job creation schemes you would see gangs of lads out cutting this area, only for it to grow back more aggressively.
Moving to the back bedroom window, had a thought to take the dog out for a walk over the bridge (see pic) and get some closer shots while there was still some light.
From the bridge there was an amazing golden light looking back towards our house (last in the group on the left foreground) and Waterloo in the distance. In the centre is the boat club and the then undeveloped and unoccupied canal bank.
Shifting position a few feet, the curve of the canal and the snowy bank can be seen.
Still on the bridge but turning the camera the other way looks towards Ford – and a striking shot of kids walking in the middle of the ice.
Skippy, my dog always loved rolling in the snow as here.
On the way back home, Skippy encountered Saxon, Mrs. Joyce Jones’ dog from across the road. Meanwhile a chap in the background clears off his windscreen for what would have been a freezing cold start…
Took this one final atmospheric shot of Brunel Drive with the sun low in the sky. Was so desperate by now to get in front of that elecy fire and watch the news!
