The “Big Freeze” of the winter of 1962/63 saw weeks of freezing weather and several feet of snow that just seemed to go on and on.
Things were little better even by the middle of February. The Keighley News wrote on 16th February 1963: “With the weathermen having said on Wednesday night that the big thaw was confidently expected, it was a frustrating day for Keighley people on Thursday when heavy snow fell throughout the day – a similar experience to that of just a week earlier. The snow continued to fall yesterday and corporation workmen, obviously tired and jaded from weeks of snow clearing, were almost back where they started… Thursday’s big snowfall was a real set-back to these men. All week they had been engaged in the out-districts cutting out blocked-up roads… and now the new fall has filled in most of the cuttings.”
These pictures are from slides taken by John Normington around this time, in the area round the tarn and the back roads to Steeton and Glusburn. They were donated to the History Society by John’s daughter, Liz Hornby, in 2021.
