THE BIG FREEZE.
1963 was a very big and traumatic year for both myself and
the British canal network, especially the BCN. The effects on both were due to
the same reason. It started back in December
1962 when cold weather hit the UK. On the 12th & 13th
December snow fell, then on the 26th December we had heavy snow and
on the 29th & 30th Dec we had a blizzard which left
snow drifts 20 foot thick in places.
January 1963 saw an average temperature of -21°C with lows of -19°C in
fact the sea froze in parts around the coast and up to 1 mile out. In February 1963 more snow fell, the most
being 5’-0” (1.5m) in one night in Monmouthshire. This all lasted up until 6th March
1963 when The Thaw began. In other words
a freeze that lasted 12 weeks. I
remember it biting hard into the movement of coal around my BCN area. Prior to this bad weather I would still see
at least two or three coal boats a day come past the end of our street, then
suddenly for three months nothing moved.
The canal never really recovered for even after the thaw, the boat
movements never got back to what they were.
Whether this was due to a change in the need for coal due to the clean
air act and restriction on burning household coal, whether the introduction of
more advanced technology (gas/oil fire boilers or whether customers had had to
find alternatives through this period is arguable but what I do know is what I
was seeing – the disappearing boats.
During this time we had spent quite a bit of time playing on
the canal, taking the tyres off and riding our bikes on the ice, playing
football, trying to cut/drill/break a hole in the ice, all to no avail and so
we came up with an idea. “Lets see how
far we can walk on the cut without getting off as even under the bridge oles
the ice was at least 9” thick, and so we set about our adventure. A group of
us, about 5 including my then best mate, William Millward, climbed/jumped/ran
and slid onto the ice and we then headed off towards Factory locks. As with most groups of young lads out on an
adventure we giggled and cajoled each other along telling tales of woe where
people had gone through the ice under this or that bridge never to be seen
again. Eventually we got to Tipton Green
Junction where the Toll End Communication canal (or as we called them the Toll
End locks and the Tipton Green cut)crossed the New Main Line and after a short
respite in the expanse of the large junction for a game of ‘ice football’ with
a chunk of ice used as a ball, we decided we would head off down to the right
along the Toll End Locks. Here came our
first obstacle as we had said the adventure was to get as far as we could
without getting off the canal. Solution,
climb over the top gate and down into the chamber down the frozen gate and cill
onto the iced water in the bottom of the chamber then if the bottom gate was
open straight out if not then it would have been a case of climbing up the gate
lock wall and down the other side. At
this time the lock flight was still fully functional although the top gates had
been ‘nailed shut with timber sprags and the top paddles had had their racks removed
however these measures would not deter those canal enthusiasts of the sixties
using cabin shafts to pull paddles up and removing the timber sprags to enable
the 1962 failed action cruise that was held.
Fortunately for us , at this time most of the pounds were quite empty
and , as we found all of the bottom gates were open so our progress was quite
unhindered, that is until we got half way down the flight where the notorious
unfriendly lockie still lived in the lock house next to the pound at the back
of The Little Burton where the canal took a sharp 90° turn. As we approached we
held back while we decided what to do as this guy was known to catch little
boys who strayed on his towpath and lock them up ‘never to be seen again’ (we
had a lot of that when we was kids’.We had decided to make a run for it so with
the word go, we started running. No
doubt alerted by the noise we were making, the lockie was out at his front door
and as we approached he came out onto the towpath shouting at us about
trespassing and to ‘clear off’ or he would ‘give us a good hiding’. That was enough we all turned tail and jumped
off the canal onto the towpath and ran for our lives without even turning to
see if he was in pursuit. And so ended
out great adventure. We retraced our
steps but this time on the towpath and this was never to become an opportunity
again as the canals never froze again like they did in that year.
I started by stating that both the canal and I had a
traumatic experience and the experience that I encountered, came towards the
end of the big freeze when finally temperatures began to rise and the Ice began
to gradually thaw. I went out into the street and was greeted by an excited
friend, William Milward who greeted me with “thice breakers bin through n bost ed up orl
thice” we both ran up the bank onto the towpath and sure enough the ice, which
was still about 5’6 inches thick, had been broken into a variety of sized
slabs. Some only a foot or so square but
with others being huge slabs several feet wide/deep. Now what you have to remember is that at this
time something like this would keep a couple of 10 year olds amused for hours
so having armed ourselves with sticks, we spent the next hour amusing ourselves
by pushing, steering the slabs around
the cut until William, who had discovered a particularly large slab of
ice, decided he was going to see if he
could use it as a raft and propel himself around. He gingerly sat in the snow on the edge of
the towpath and placed both feet on the slab then gently added his weight. Immediately the slab started to tip and
sink. After several trial attempts of
changing his position and the way he distributed his weight he had failed
miserable and so gave up that means of
attack. Instead he stood on the edge of
the towpath and announced he was going to jump from the bank to the centre of
the slab as that would work. Despite
warnings from myself that I did not think it would support his weight, quick as
a flash he had hurled himself out onto the middle of the ice slab and to both
our surprise, it held his weight, if only a little unstable if his weight moved,
and he proudly called out “See ar towd ya it ud werk” He spent the next 30 minutes gingerly pushing
himself and his newfound craft around the canal steering and moving the
surrounding ice flow with his stick. As
with most young boys, he soon got bored and needed a change.. Now here was the dilemma. How to get off the slab of ice as every time
he even moved towards the edge to climb off, the slab would start to tip and
sink. After several failed attempts he
decided to just go for it and made a put for the side. I watched on in horror as the slabed tipped
up at an angle of 45° and William slipped off it’s slippy surface into the
freezing water only for the slab to come crashing down over the top of
him. Panic as there was no sign of him
and the ice slabs were all closed in. I
lay down onto the frozen surface of the towpath and plunged my arms into the
freezing needle like cold of the water and waved them around hoping he would
see them and come towards them. After
what seemed an age, i felt the warm grip of one of his hands and just pulled
with all of my might to get him to the side, once there coughing and spluttering
I just had not got the strength to pull him out of the water.. If anyone knows this stretch of canal, they
will be familiar with the fact the canal here runs right next to Dudley Port
station where several people were stood awaiting their trains. Still in panic mode, I screamed across to
then to help me get me mate out the cut.
Minutes later a British Rail employee, I believe the station master,
came round and helped me pull him out.
The second he was out of the water he was off like a greyhound and ran
home without so much as a thank you. I
don’t think he ever told his parents as it was never mentioned by them to me,
not even a thank you for saving his life.
During these months the canal froze with ice over two foot
thick, In fact, as the following picture shows, Ice breaking on the Cannock
extension canal at Pelsall, the ice was so thick that it would not break
and the ice breaker, along with its
crew, was pulled up onto the ice!
(just canals.com)
Finally at the beginning of March 1963 the thaw had
started. Gradually the snow, which by
now was mainly ice on footpaths/towpaths/roads etc. had started to
retreat. Within a week the snow/ice had
all gone but what it left behind would be with us forever. Never again did I see anywhere near the amount
of traffic I had seen prior to the big freeze.
I think that many had found other arrangements when the canals let them
down for 12 weeks and never returned after the thaw. The freeze alone cannot be singularly blamed
for the demise but it was a contributory factor. The clean air act of 1956 had a dramatic
effect on the coal trade as from 1956 through to 1968 saw Pits closing all over
the Black Country, 1956 West Cannock No 2, 1957 East Cannock, 1958 West Cannock No 1, 1959 Cannock Chase No
3, 1960 Hawkins, Brerton, 1962 Cannock Chase No 8, 1963 Wyrley No3, 1964
Coppice, 1967 Mid Cannock, 1969 Hilton Main. although if you speak to the old
colliers they say there’s still plenty down there. These collieries served the
canal either through ‘Edgefud (Hednesford) Basin known to boaters as ‘the
bump’, Holly bank basin and Anglesey basin and on the BCN Sandwell Colliery
chutes at Smethwick. As well as the
domestic supply they also supplied the power generation industries at Birchills
(Walsall) power station, W’TON, .Ocker Hill Which all received their coal by
canal at this time, this transferred to road and rail transport in the mid
1960’s
During the same
period factories were going over to gas fired boilers, we were changing from
town gas to natural gas, the M6 motorway was being built and all this together
had a disastrous knock on effect on the canal trade, especially the BCN. If we are not making town gas then we are
not cooking coal, if we are not cooking coal we are not making creosote (
creosolic acid), coal tar, gas water and as the M6 was going straight through
Thomas Claytons Oldbury site, This
company’s tar boats finally went off the
cut in 1966. Coal traffic to W’TON power station went off the canal in 1959,
Birchills in 1965, Ocker Hill in 1966. 1963 saw Hednesford basin close, 1965
saw Hollybank basin go and 1967 saw Anglesey basin close.
And so we can say that after nearly 200 years (1768 – 1968)
we finally saw the end of majority of the bulk trade on the BCN.
So that's it, and till next time,
Don't bang 'em about
Blossom
So that's it, and till next time,
Don't bang 'em about
Blossom
