The Big Freeze 1962-63 Season

[Flaming Pie]

I was looking through some of The Liverpool Echo’s Photo Archive and these Winter shots caught my attention . The Liverpool v Arsenal ( or is it Forest?) 1969 ( l can pick out Ian St John and Joe Baker) is a great photo .I put this up for Littlewiggy , who is big Arsenal fan! Hope l haven’t infringed any copyright! Looks like Joe Baker had joined Forest at this stage in his career… The other one is from The Big Freeze 1962-63.l was a kid, but l can remember it well. It started snowing on Boxing Day 62 and that was it until about March 63. Everywhere was frozen..Just wandering if any other Forum members members have memories of just what it was like for them? I know my lot, Everton , won the title from that great Spurs team.

[Thedoog10]

Pie ,do you have a link to the Liverpool Echo Arcive Site please.

[Flaming Pie]

Thedoog, it was a section browsing through last nights paper ‘ Magical photos of Merseyside blanketed in snow through the decades’ . Don’t know what the set up is like now at The Echo, but they used to be very helpful in their photo archive dpt. You could buy prints of old photos off them. I’m sure if you contact them they would tell you how to view their archive, then again, it might have all changed!

[littlewiggy]

Haha. Great pictures.

Hope all is good & well with you, Pie, my old friend?

I wrote a piece about the "Big Freeze" for the Newport County programme many moons ago, I was quite fascinated by the whole thing. The County had played at Darlo three days before Chrimbo '62, then didn't play again for three whole months, as the snow hung around for ever.

I didn't pop out into this world until 1968, so have no first hand memories. Instead I asked my old mam about it as she was 14 at the time. She said she could remember walking up to the British Legion with my granddad and the whole way there were "huge white walls of snow" beside them. Well over 6 feet or more & so high you couldn't see over them. She also remembers people ice skating on the river.

If my recollection is correct, that Big Freeze of '62/63 was the second such occurrence, and the original Big Freeze had happened in '46/47. Although I'm led to believe the 1960s version was even more severe.

Thankfully, I'm far too young & pretty to remember either!


_________________
NEWPORT COUNTY & GENERAL FOOTY BADGES:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/newport-county-badges/albums

[Thedoog10]

[quote="Flaming Pie"]Thedoog, it was a section browsing through last nights paper ‘ Magical photos of Merseyside blanketed in snow through the decades’ . Don’t know what the set up is like now at The Echo, but they used to be very helpful in their photo archive dpt. You could buy prints of old photos off them. I’m sure if you contact them they would tell you how to view their archive, then again, it might have all changed![/quote

Thanks Pie ,I am looking for match reports and photos from home game v Leicester City 66/67.]

[Pete’s Picture Palace]

I turned 7 in the February of the 62/3 Big Freeze and remember it pretty well. My dad made me a little sledge and I used it every day - it snowed on Boxing Day and there was still snow on the ground at Easter. Where I lived (New Addington, a huge council estate on a hill outside Croydon) it was called "Little Siberia" and that was before that winter. We had ice on the inside of our windows in warm weather.

Palace beat Millwall 3-0 on Boxing Day and my family were all there, including my mum who refused to ever go to football again in case it snowed for 3 months. She believed she was a jinx.

After Boxing Day Palace played away to Brighton on 12th Jan, away to Swindon on 2nd Feb, and then started regularly again away to Notts Co on 9th March, their next home game coming a week later on 16th - home v Bournemouth - the first game at Selhurst for 80 days.

Palace had it bad but as Wiggy has reported, not as bad as some. Here are one or two examples of Palace games in the snow, not quite as spectacular as the Liverpool v Forest image shown by Pie above, but worth an airing.

Palace v Millwall, 26.12.62, Ronnie Allen nets a penalty past Reg Davies.



Swindon v Palace, 2.2.63, an ungloved Bill Glazier blocks a gloved Ernie Hunt.



And here's one from the winter of 1946/7, which my dad swore was worse than 62/3 - but looking at the postponements, or lack of them, it really couldn't have been. He was then, however, a milkman, so presume it was pretty chilly pulling a hand-drawn cart at 5 a.m. every day. By winter 62/3 he was working at Croydon B Power Station, where I guess it was a tad warmer!

Palace v Exeter, 22.2.47. What a great image!



I have a feeling this game may not have been played today!

[andy1966]

[quote="Thedoog10"]

Flaming Pie wrote:

Thedoog, it was a section browsing through last nights paper ‘ Magical photos of Merseyside blanketed in snow through the decades’ . Don’t know what the set up is like now at The Echo, but they used to be very helpful in their photo archive dpt. You could buy prints of old photos off them. I’m sure if you contact them they would tell you how to view their archive, then again, it might have all changed![/quote Thanks Pie ,I am looking for match reports and photos from home game v Leicester City 66/67.]

Hi, I have access to the Newspaper Archive site, it covers the Echo, let me know what information you need

[BAZZERFOX42]

Many memories of the freeze from a Spurs point of view.
Standing on very slippery snow covered terraces.
Remember played Blackpool at home in mid Jan and then not another game at Literal White Hart Lane until early March !!
Losing the League title because of abysmal away form (lost 4 of the last 5 and drew the other) also something to do with Dave Mackay being injured !
Remarkable results v Liverpool, losing 5-2 away (that away form) and then 3 days later winning 7-2 at home !!
Man U avoiding relegation by 3 points but still won the Cup.
Spurs becoming the first British club to win a European Trophy by thrashing Atletic Madrid 5-1 in the Cup Winners Cup Final.

[Flaming Pie]

Littlewiggy, as your mum recalls , it must have been absolutely freezing in Wales that Winter. I remember the drifts of snow piled high. I think the River Mersey froze at one point.. We lived on an estate ( not a country estate!) where there was only one narrow road in and out. That was blocked, so the coal man couldn’t get supplies through . We were burning anything to heat up the house. Bits of wood, old shoes etc This is starting to sound like a Monty Python sketch.’ These young ones today don’t know they are born!’ That’s a great 1940s photo Pete. Here’s a photo that l have posted before from my favourite game during that Winter. Tranmere held Chelsea to a 2-2 draw, FA Cup 3rd Round 1963.lt was Match of the Day on TV that evening. Very few games played that day. Here’s a story from that Winter that might be of interest. With little sport taking place, the newspapers were desperate for something to put in their sports pages. One of the papers wanted to publish a story showing Dixie Dean teaching young kids a few skills. I rounded up lads from my school team and set off to meet Dixie near his home in Birkenhead. We arrived and Dixie greeted us and signed autographs for all the kids. We waited and waited, but the photographer and reporter had got lost in the snow. A few weeks later , they published this story( interesting that it is written by the great Billy Liddell) and took this photo of Dixie with his workmates at Littlewoods Pools, Birkenhead. My dad is standing just behind the great man to the right.

[Flaming Pie]

Bazzerfox, l was at the April 63 game when Alex Young rose above the Spurs defence and , more or less, clinched the title for Everton with a great header. . Although it was something of a title decider, it was pay on the gate. I think ,unofficially, there was over 80,000 in Goodson that day. I was sitting on my uncles shoulders and remember being a bit scared the way fans were packed in. Any team would miss Dave Mackay, what a great player.

[martino]

I lived in Plymouth in those days. Whilst the weather was bad all over the country Plymouth managed to play six home games at the end of 62 and into 63.

I have just looked at the records for that time and I see that Newcastle played at Plymouth on 19th January and Middlesbrough played there on 9th February; they must have been a long and difficult trips both ways in those days.

I remember getting excited that Plymouth were near the top of the table but that was only because they had played a lot more matches that any other Club; they ended the season 12th!

[Flaming Pie]

Martino, future Everton hero ,Mike Trebilcock , would have been starting his career at Plymouth that season. I think he only played about a dozen games for The Blues, but his two goals in the 1966 FA Cup Final will live long in the memory. There’s an interview with him on YouTube , seems a lovely bloke.

[BAZZERFOX42]

Flaming Pie, just looking back at the squads of Everton and Spurs in 62-63 and noticed how many Scots!!
Alex Parker, George Thomson, Jimmy Gabriel, Alex Scott (no that one!), Alex Young plus Spurs had Bill Brown, Dave Mackay, and the soon to be sadly missed John White .
Did I forget anybody??

[littlewiggy]

Brian Harris played for the Toffees in that 1966 FAC Final too, Pie, then was unfortunate enough to end up at the County. His brief stint as player-manager wasn't a success, sadly, and he left famously saying that the public of Newport were "only interested in booze & bingo!"

Trouble is, he was largely right, and his comment still gets trotted out today.

Shortly after, perhaps ironically, he took over an alehouse half a mile up the road from my childhood home, and settled in Chepstow for the rest of his natural, God rest his soul.

His FA Cup "winners" medal from '66 was his most treasured possession, and he always wore it on a gold chain around his neck. I'm led to believe he was buried with it too.

His lad was in the year above me in school and used to sit in the old wooden bus shelter at dinner time smoking a pipe, which always made us laugh. The shelter was a magnet for schoolkids & illicit smoking, but not many 14-year-olds would chug away on an old fella's pipe!



Despite his legendary bingo & booze parting shot, the County did give Bri a testimonial match in 1974, as I'm sure you'll know. The game (Newport County v Everton) ended in a 3-3 thriller, but the real highlight was a certain Dixie Dean who attended & kicked the match off in his suit!
_________________
NEWPORT COUNTY & GENERAL FOOTY BADGES:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/newport-county-badges/albums

[Flaming Pie]

Bazzerfox, all of those top teams of the early and late 1960s were littered with top Scottish players. The Everton and Spurs players you have mentioned. Lawrence, Yeats, St John and Stevenson at Liverpool. Law, Herd and Crerand at United. Every club had top Scots. . Dalglish , Souness and Hansen were okay (l suppose ) for The Reds as well! I just wish Everton had got that trio! I don’t know what happened , but the supply of Scots into the English game just seem to fall away. Littlewiggy’s mention of ‘ Ale and Bingo’ is interesting . Didn’t that Noel Gallagher bloke nick that title for an Oasis track? Or is it ‘Cigarettes And Alchohol’ lm thinking of? ‘ Ale and Bingo’ sounds better. Brian Harris was great wasn’t he. Seemed a good bloke to have a pint and a chat about football to. I don’t think Dixie would have made that long treck to Newport , if Brian wasn’t so well thought of .

[Thedoog10]

[quote="Thedoog10"]

Flaming Pie wrote:

Thedoog, it was a section browsing through last nights paper ‘ Magical photos of Merseyside blanketed in snow through the decades’ . Don’t know what the set up is like now at The Echo, but they used to be very helpful in their photo archive dpt. You could buy prints of old photos off them. I’m sure if you contact them they would tell you how to view their archive, then again, it might have all changed![/quote Thanks Pie ,I am looking for match reports and photos from home game v Leicester City 66/67.]

Andy I have sent you a PM.

[martino]

Flaming Pie wrote:

Martino, future Everton hero ,Mike Trebilcock , would have been starting his career at Plymouth that season. I think he only played about a dozen games for The Blues, but his two goals in the 1966 FA Cup Final will live long in the memory. There’s an interview with him on YouTube , seems a lovely bloke.

When watching Mike play for Plymouth and later Pompey I always felt he was under-rated. Popular with the fans he had a lot of skill and he could have achieved a lot more in the game with the right breaks. Strangely, for a player who only made 11 appearances for Everton, his F A Cup achievements that season have earned him half a page write up in the Everton Complete Record!

[Flaming Pie]

Martino, it was those Cup Final goals that made him a life long folk hero at Everton. I think that , in a way, winning the FA Cup was as big a deal as winning the League title during that era. It was probably the same for Liverpool in 1965 when they won it for the first time in their history. I know that when it comes to The FA Cup , it’s all changed now of course. I think the feeling about Mike Trebilcock at the time , when he scored those two FA Cup Final goals, was that Everton might just have another great goal scorer, similar to Jimmy Greaves , on their hands .. Very few people had even heard of him, then ,in front of the watching millions , he goes and scores two great goals in Everton’s victory. His Everton career was only brief, but he’ll always be remembered at Goodison. As you said, you feel he could have achieved much more.