Growing up in Sunderland: The coldest winters you remember from Wearside life

2026 began with snow, ice and freezing temperatures, prompting the thousands of readers on our Facebook community get talking about the coldest winters they remember.

Do you recall the snow being high enough that it covered your wellies? And mornings where the conditions were so freezing that boots and mittens did nothing to help?

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While we wish away the weeks and months until we see the first signs of spring, it’s time to wrap up for a selection of memories which evoke minus temperatures.

Here are some of the coldest winters you remember from growing up in Sunderland, as shared on the Wearside Echoes Facebook page:

Tinlizzy Pot: “1963-1964 was great for us kids we built snowmen, igloos, made slides on the road that lasted for weeks, but also remember the frostbite and chilblains on your hands and feet, then standing in front of the coal fire trying to warm up!”

John Warburton: “1963 I was a daft teenager and got the bus to Durham to go ice skating. I was born in ‘47 and my mum told that that year was worse.”

Helen Ruff: “70s. Trudging to school in snow/slush with freezing feet. Hate the white stuff now.”

Helen Louise: “1975. I walked to town with friends it was snowing and my mascara and eyeliner ran down my face (think Alice Cooper) did my friends tell me? No. My friend's mum who worked on a make up counter in Binns told me and cleaned it all off. And to make it worse my favourite boy was there. Most traumatic snow ever!”

Jackie Martin: “1981 for sure, school was closed (Diamond Hall) but we were still made to walk to school in the thick snow to collect homework.”

Michele Arkley: “I remember in the late ‘50s looking at icicles about a foot long, fern ice patterns from top to bottom of the bedroom windows and going to Hendon Valley Road Junior School in eight inches of snow!

"On the March 1, 1963 we moved from Noble Street to a brand-new house at East Herrington it was a bitterly cold dry day, house only had one coal fire! Got up next morning and there was 12 inches of snow and it snowed until April!”

David Finnon: “I am the Southern sheep of my family and we used to drive from Oxfordshire each Christmas to see the family in Seaton village as a wee bairn and we wore clothes in bed. Absolutely frozen every year. I live in Madrid now and if it makes you feel better it's gunna be -5C tonight.”

Victoria Wood: “1947. I remember being sat on my dad’s shoulders whilst he walked me up Front St to East Boldon Junior School. The snow was shoulder height, if I walked behind him along the dug-out tracks.

Tom Hiles: “It could have been in the late ‘48-49s l sheltered in a shop door way on my way to Thomas Street School until a man passed, then sheltered behind him until l got close to school.”

Janice Henderson: “63-64, I was five. The pain from the cold in my fingers and toes, even with boots and mittens on.”