Sunderland's 1941 snowstorm: the blizzard that stopped a city

Imagine what it must have been like 84 years ago when Arctic conditions were accompanied by air raids.

Philip Curtis, of the Sunderland Antiquarian Society, reports.

The winter of 1941 brought additional problems to the town on top of the heaviest snowfalls.

Transport stopped by teatime

The city was hit by German bombs.

The February of that year saw one of the heaviest snowfalls ever to hit Sunderland.

It started on Tuesday, February 18, fell continually for three days and when it eventually stopped it lay two feet deep in the town centre and more than four feet deep in the suburbs.

Rail services were badly affected and buses to outlying districts were only able to get through with great difficulty.

Transport had ground to a halt by tea time and thousands of Wearsiders were forced to walk home from work through

Knee deep snow and a raging blizzard

A train taking hundreds of people from Teesside to Newcastle became stranded at Sunderland and passengers were advised to leave the train.

There was a rush to obtain hotel accommodation which was soon booked to capacity.

However hundreds had no option other than to seek shelter in fire-watchers’ posts situated in the town centre.

Throughout the Wednesday night the snow continued to fall and by Thursday morning trams and buses were at a standstill.

Chimney stacks came down under the weight

The few buses which attempted to leave their depots were very quickly stuck in deep snow.

Shops and offices were understaffed as workers could not travel into the town. The position in schools was pretty much the same and most were forced to close for the next few days.

The sheer volume of snow brought down thousands of spouts and chimney stacks.

The roof of St Nicholas Church collapsed and classrooms at West Southwick School were crushed like a pack of cards.

No beer in parts of Sunderland

Telephone poles and wires were brought down and the army was brought in to repair communications.

Food and fuel became a problem for many Wearsiders and outlying districts including South Hylton were cut off for two days.

Thirteen wagons belonging to Vaux Brewery were stranded in various parts of the town and beer supplies ran short.

Local farmers were left with huge amounts of milk with no way of arranging distribution.

Funerals were delayed by hours

Postal deliveries were impossible but the mail from Herrington was brought down to the town by a farmer’s cart pulled by three horses.

Even funerals were affected. Many were hours late arriving at the churches and some drivers had to stop on their way to cemeteries in order to dig a pathway through.

To help clear the town centre, a snowplough drawn by a six-horse team was used and an appeal also went out for people to clear their own streets to assist ARP vehicles to get through.

Thanks yet again to Philip for a look back at wonderful Wearside memories.

You can find out more about the Antiquarian Society by getting along to its Heritage Centre which is open in Douro Terrace on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9.30am to 12pm.

Find out more

You can also visit the Antiquarian Society’s Facebook page or its website which is at http://www.sunderland-antiquarians.org

And to become a member, email [email protected]

What was the worst winter that you faced?

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