Growing up in Sunderland: Frozen milk, great sledging and ice on the River Wear - Sunderland's coldest winters, remembered

Do you have fond memories of great sledging in the ‘60s or more disappointing ones of the milk bottles being frozen on your doorstep? Or how about opening the door to find a pile of snow so tall you couldn’t leave the house?

As Sunderland, the wider North East and other parts of the UK feel the freeze, we have taken a trip back in time to some bitterly cold winters of Wearside’s past – like this one, from 1979, where the region was sealed off by blizzards.

Many Sunderland folk on our retro Facebook community harked back to that baltic winter of 1963, when vehicles struggled on our roads and one reader remembered spotting platelets of ice on the Wear! So grab a hot cup of tea and tuck in to these memories. Just reading them will make you feel cold!

The sharp and snowy sixties

Margaret Amer: “Every winter in the ‘60s as a child. We still played out down by the river every day, the deeper the snow the better. Always full of keens and chilblains, we were tough.”

Margy Bland: “1963. Snow coming in our wellies, milk frozen on the step, great times. Yes I'm a winter person, just don't like driving in it.”

Brian Richardson: “1963 and watching all the lorries from Thorns factory at Pallion trying to get up the bank at Holborn Road from the bottom at The Round Robin pub.”

George Bage: “1963 I remember being [taken] down to the old north pier to have a look at the ice platelets that were forming on the river. Never seen or heard of it happening since.”

Brian Richardson: “1963 and watching all the lorries from Thorns factory at Pallion trying to get up the bank at Holborn Road from the bottom at The Round Robin pub.”

Marilyn Goldberg: “1963. Shivering at the No. 3 bus stop at the bottom of Beresford Park and wondering what would happen if I licked the metal pole (thank goodness all I did was wonder).

"Battling my way up Bede bank on my way to school, all the while breathing in great gasps of snowflakes blown into my mouth by the blizzard. There were other very cold winters when the snow seemed to go on for weeks without end.”

Clearing a path

Alan Dixon: “Most winters back in [the] ‘50s when I was infant school age, the men in the colliery rows dug tracks along pavement and every ten houses they dug across [the] road to [the] opposite row. Impossible vehicle access, as snow was piled at least 6ft.”

Judith Porter: “Most winters were really cold when I was young, late ‘40s and ‘50s and no central heating in those days.”

Rosalind Goldman-Barres: “You’ve said it all but in my case it was Mount Road to fight my way up. I loved those snowy winters, I’m definitely a cold weather person.”

Alison Foster: “Building igloos in my nana’s backyard – mid ‘80s.”

Ploughing through in ‘47

Marlene Gunn: “1947 had to dig our way out as [the] snow topped our back door. Ploughed our way to school teachers all present.”

George Liddle: “1947, only a little lad. Hendon Road was about 3ft deep.”

Alan Dunkeld: “1947 had the most snow but ‘63 was the coldest.”

Charlie Booth: “1947, me dad digging his way through a 4ft drift out the front door.”