It's snowing!

[Chris S]

No new snow, but very cold: -12c on the car thermometer this morning. Niiice....

[Wowbagger]

What little snow we had has melted. It's freezing here, but not in Chris S's league by any means. Minimum -2.5°C, currently -1.8°.

Something tells me that I will be doing essential cycling only today.

[Chris S]

Norfolk seems to have been singled out by this cold snap. There's almost 10" of snow in parts of the county, and after yesterday's dumping the temperature has just been dropping more and more.

Over 200 schools closed this morning. This school-closing thing seems to be a modern phenomenon - we of a certain age can all remember trudging miles and miles in our shorts through deep snow to get to school. Kids/Teachers today... pfft... lightweights 

[MattH]

They are lightweights.
I remember in juniors in the 70s there being no food in the school because the delivery van couldn't get anywhere close. The school was up a narrow country lane that had snow drifts level with the walls of the fields. We went down the hill on sledges, loaded them with food and pulled them back up the hill. The head teacher ended up cooking it as the kitchen staff couldn't get in! (it was only a small school - 120 children - and obviously many of the kids hadn't turned up either).

[marcusjb]

Schools never closed in my youth (80s for secondary school) - however, those of us in the outlying villages could rely on the fact that the bus couldn't get through when it snowed (and it was too far to walk) - so a day of sledging and/or mountain biking in the Peak District would follow!

[mcshroom]

There also wasn't a culture of suing everyone for falling over on ice. A couple years back football matches were being called off because, althought eh pitch was heated and perfectly playable, there was ice on the pavements around the grounds and they were considered unsafe.

[SteveC]

I got sent home from primary school once in the late 60s.
But there was snow coming through the roof in one building and the heating wasn't coping in most of the others.

[Morrisette]

No, they never used to close schools for a bit of cold weather. I recall sitting in class in a hat and coat when the heating packed up, they still didn't send us home. And the excuse they use that 'teachers can't get here' - well, a colleague of Mr M's had to take her kids to court the other winter as the school nursery was shut for this reason (she's a solicitor) and on the way home she popped into Tesco and saw TWO of the nursery's staff in there doing their shopping! It;s only dangerous if you're driving to WORK.

[Butterfly]

Our school (in the 70s) was closed whenever it snowed - I did go to village schools where no-one could get in, but I seem to remember the usual reason was that the heating packed up. One of the schools had a head teacher who felt the cold badly and would proably close the school if it dropped below 20 degrees .

[Mr Larrington]

Mine used to close coz the day bugs mostly relied on the buses for getting to and from skool.  East Yorkshire Motor Services used to run and hide every time a snowflake settled on the ground for more than ten seconds

[Bledlow]

I don't recall my schools (60s-70s) ever closing for snow, though when I was at secondary school we'd sometimes lose pupils from outlying villages until the roads were made passable. At primary school, we'd sometimes be short of teachers when roads outside town were closed by snow, but the schools stayed open.

[clarion]

Our secondary school closed when the boiler room flooded.  And once IIRC for snow (though we prayed fervently for more).  Primary schools never closed - even the one in the Dales.

[jane]

Much less of a health and safety dominated culture back then. I remember the head and the deputy alone teaching all the children who made it in when I was about 5.  (It may have been the 62/3 winter, but I can't be certain). There must have been over a 100 of us.  That would not be allowed now.   Last year, my school did not close at all, but we did operate with about half the staff on a couple of days.  The year before, we closed on two  days, when the roads were not gritted in London (remember that).  Only the head and I made it in- on our bikes. The council (we are a local authority school) told us to close.

[clarion]

I do remember the kids who could get to school being all put into the hall (cold floor, draughts and all ) for teaching by the staff who could get there, though I am sure that there were more than two.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I don't remember primary school closing for snow (70s) - though that might just be me not remembering! - but many times I walked the couple of miles to secondary school to find it closed. I think the problem, as with others, was that most children came in from surrounding villages in steep-sided valleys by bus. You might think that the popularity of the SUV as family car meant this was no longer necessary.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I don't remember primary school closing because of snow. I remember being sent home from secondary school early on maybe two occasions, because there was already a foot of snow and then it started to snow again. Some of the kids from the farms on the moors couldn't get in, but the rest of us were expected to be there, and be on time.

I got embroiled in an argument on my professional body's forum a couple of years ago, when staff were complaining that they'd been docked pay for not going in when it was snowy. They didn't like me pointing out that one of our primary school teachers used to walk in from Mirfied to Lindley in Huddersfield (about eight miles) if the snow was too bad to drive. He generally didn't make it in till 11ish, but he made it (and then my friend Lisa filled his wellies with empty crisp packets from the bins  ). I walked to and from work, about 3 miles each way, in 2010 and 2011 when the snow was bad and the buses were off. Some people expressed surprise, but they did not have Yorkshire childhoods.  I doubt I'd do it now, I'd point out I have an arthritic hip and milk that for all it was worth  , but if my hip was up to it, I'd do it.

[mcshroom]

I don't think my primary shut at all for snow (late 80-early 90s). We shut early a couple times at secondary school (late 90s) as the buses used to turn up (without consulting the school) at the first sign of snowfall due to the steep roads leading away from the school. I think we were shut for one whole day but that may have been boiler related.

[numbnuts]

We were all sent home from primary school in the 50s due to the outside toilets freezing up

[Wowbagger]

I'm certain I never missed a day's school in the 1962-63 winter and I don't remember my primary school ever closing because of the weather.

I missed a few days when I was at secondary school because of snow, but I had a 15 mile bus journey to make and was never that averse to bunking off with a half-decent excuse. There was one occasion, in the late 1960s, when I was waiting for the bus at 8 a.m. as usual, the snow started after I got on the bus and half-an-hour later the bust couldn't get through: almost a foot of snow fell that day. The following day I got on the bus again but then walked 4 miles home because all traffic that had got stuck on the Galleywood Common was still there from the previous day. I remember an ossifer boarding the bus and actually advising us to go home. It was a gorgeous walk: sunny and a very hard frost. That was March, probably 1968 or 1969.

[CrinklyLion]

Mine used to close coz the day bugs mostly relied on the buses for getting to and from skool.  East Yorkshire Motor Services used to run and hide every time a snowflake settled on the ground for more than ten seconds

Ah, but did you ever participate in one of the legendary (possibly literally so - I never found anyone who had, just those who claimed to know someone who...) epic huge snowball battles against the natives down on The Path?  The ones that apparently resulted in massive injury and DETH?

[Basil]

Oh dear.  I do hope that the forecast for Friday is an exaggeration - or a Worst Case Scenario.  I really don't want to be the only one able to turn up to work. 

[Bledlow]

We were all sent home from primary school in the 50s due to the outside toilets freezing up

My first three years education were at a school with outside toilets. That was in the 1960s. I can't remember if we were ever sent home because they froze, but probably. I do remember being unable to walk anywhere because the snow was too deep for my little legs in the winter of 1962/3, & being pulled around sat on a sledge.

Paper bag in't middle o' road. 

[Quint]

I am sure my teachers were ex SAS, the buggers would be there tapping their canes in whatever weather 1950/60's, one was an ex Welsh national rugby player who used to take outdoor PE in any weather, might explain why I had so few days off work in my life (or was it fear the bastard was still about).

[Chris S]

Oh dear.  I do hope that the forecast for Friday is an exaggeration - or a Worst Case Scenario.  I really don't want to be the only one able to turn up to work. 

Looks a mess, doesn't it? This is what kept happening in the winter of '47; incursions from the Atlantic disrupted over the UK, leading to snow but no respite from the cold. I hope it doesn't go on that long though - there was snow lying until mid March then!

[Cudzoziemiec]

We were all sent home from primary school in the 50s due to the outside toilets freezing up

My first three years education were at a school with outside toilets. That was in the 1960s. I can't remember if we were ever sent home because they froze, but probably. I do remember being unable to walk anywhere because the snow was too deep for my little legs in the winter of 1962/3, & being pulled around sat on a sledge.

Paper bag in't middle o' road. 

My first three years of school had indoor toilets, but juniors and secondary school - from the mid '70s on - had outdoor toilets only. I presume all Victorian/Edwardian school buildings did. I know my primary school no longer uses that building but I'd imagine my secondary school still has the same toilets. I don't remember them ever freezing but I do remember they were made by Adam Ant.