Citylife in Lichfield January 2022

The Great Snow
of 1947
By Jono Oates
............................
The winter of 1947 was one of the worst recorded in British history
although 1963 was also a very severe winter. From late January until
mid-March 1947, easterly winds drove a succession of wintry
snowstorms across the UK, resulting in what was believed to have been
the snowiest winter since the mid-nineteenth century. Six weeks of snow,
which began on January 23rd, led to hundreds of small villages being
completely cut off by snowdrifts. As the UK was recovering from the
effects of the Second World War, armed forces were called upon to clear
roads and railways of snowdrifts.
Some of the heaviest and most severe snow fell on 4th and 5th March, when
snowstorms and gale-force winds reduced the whole of the country to snowfilled
chaos. Lichfield was one of many towns and cities that were badly affected
and the Lichfield Mercury reported the frozen lockdown of the city in their 7th
March 1947 edition.
In the early hours of the evening of January 5th, it was reported that the only
accessible road was the one out to Walsall, with all other routes blocked by
snowdrifts and icy roads. The Mercury recorded that: “Phenomenal scenes were
witnessed in all the streets of the city throughout the night, as nearly three
hundred lorries had been brought to a standstill, and after every parking place
had been jammed full the remaining vehicles were lined up along the Friary
Road, St. John Street, and every convenient by-street.”
The old Drill Hall on Frog Lane accommodated a large number of the lorry
drivers for the night, and when all the hotels and boarding-houses had been
filled to capacity several of the drivers were given beds for the night at the
police station on Wade Street – and a few lucky stranded car drivers were even
given the opportunity to sleep at the home of the Lichfield Superintendent of
Police!
The City Surveyor’s Department used snowploughs on all of the main roads
throughout the night and the traffic, including the stranded lorries, was able to
move more freely by the morning of January 6th. Numerous roads were
impassable and the snowdrifts varied from eight to ten feet deep in places.
On 6th January 1947 two Lichfield men, who had been delivering food parcels
across Lichfield District, decided that they wanted a stiff drink after all of their
labours over the frozen and snowy roads. They stopped at the Constitution
Inn* on the Stafford Road but when they arrived they discovered that the front
door was completely submerged by a snowdrift! Undaunted, and clearly
desperate for a thirst-quenching pint, they grabbed a couple of shovels and dug
their way into to the door, where the landlord opened up and allowed them to
have their well-earned pints!
A further result of the dreadful weather conditions was the cancellation of
various functions and meetings arranged in the district. These included the
meeting arranged by the local branch of the British Housewives’ League in the
Magistrates’ Room (on Wade Street, now apartments opposite the Garrick) on
January 6th when the principal speaker cancelled as she was snowed in at home.
In the days before the Internet and mobile phones, news of the snowstorm’s
progress failed to reach homes in Lichfield as no London or Birmingham daily
newspapers reached Lichfield due to the snow-blocked roads and delays on the
train lines.
The dreadful winter of 1947 continued right the way through to late March
and the Lichfield and District Allotments Society said on 7th March 1947 that
they were embarrassed to talk about their upcoming shows in August of that
year as all of the allotments were currently still frozen and snow-bound!
Five Gables, Bore Street
Army lorries at The Friary
Market Street, Samuel Johnson Museum on left
Everyone loves snow at this time of the year but let’s
hope that we get to enjoy if for a few days and not, as in
1947, for three months!
*The Constitution Inn was featured in our November
2021 as one of Lichfield’s Lost Pubs. The inn was close to the
junction of the Stafford Road, the Rugeley A51 Road and the
Kings Bromley Road, by the roundabout that is there now, it
was demolished in 1956 to allow for the ‘new’ A51 by-pass
road.
**Vintage photographs courtesy of the St Mary’s
Photographic Collection
Sources: The British Newspaper Archive
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