THE winter of 1963 was one of the coldest on record in Oxfordshire.
The Great Freeze started just after Christmas 1962 and lasted until early March, with record low temperatures at night, regular snowfalls and thick ice from bank to bank across many parts of the Thames.
No-one was quite as brave as those in 1895 when the Thames froze below Folly Bridge and horse-drawn coaches and dozens of people ventured on the ice.
But on January 22, 1963, with temperatures as low as –16C, the ice was thick enough for a car to be driven across the frozen river in Oxford.
In Abingdon the same year, a cyclist was photographed happily pedalling away on the river.
Another cyclist who remembers riding on the Thames ice is David Martin, of Egerton Road, Oxford.
He writes: “The winter of 1962-3 included long periods below freezing with a lot of snow, some of which lasted nearly into spring.
“The river through Oxford was completely frozen. I cycled on the ice from Iffley Lock towards Donnington Bridge, taking one picture from the middle of the river.
“The other was taken from Iffley Lock looking towards Abingdon, with ice as far as could be seen.
“Fifty years ago! It doesn’t feel that long!”
Godington Hall, a large country mansion near Stratton Audley, was wrecked by fire on January 3 while firemen were stuck in 7ft snowdrifts a mile away.
Mr and Mrs Anthony Meyrick and their three children managed to escape, but their pet dog Sue was burned to death and all their possessions were lost.
Many roads were blocked by snowdrifts, villages were cut off, rail and bus services were cancelled or delayed, power supplies were lost, telephones put out of action, and newspaper, milk and coal deliveries disrupted.
Farmers used their tractors as snowploughs to help council workers clear roads.
The head of Burford School urged his pupils to turn out with spades and shovels to clear snow and help get the school open.
One expectant mother at Epwell, near Banbury, finally arrived at the Horton Hospital after an ambulance had battled through 8ft drifts for eight hours to reach her – a journey of just six miles.
Two other expectant mothers reached hospital partly by rail – two trains were stopped near Didcot to transport them to Wantage Hospital and to the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford.
It was, however, a great time for skating enthusiasts, who turned out in huge numbers at Blenheim Park, Port Meadow and on the Oxford Canal, where the ice in many places was eight inches thick.
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