Memorable Snowy Winters in Leeds

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Sat 02 May, 2009 8:00 pm

blackprince wrote: BLAKEY wrote: blackprince wrote: While searching on Leodis for another thread I came across this Feb 1947 photo of a snow covered Kirkstall Hill. http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... Y=FULLWhen there was snow and ice on the road coming down Kirkstall Hill on a bus was a nerve wracking experience, especially from the front seats on the top deck, wondering whther the bus would manage to pull up at the bottom of the hill or not. "Front seats on the top deck" ?? - I can promise you it was a lot MORE nerve wracking from the front seat on the bottom deck - i.e. in the driver's cab !! I have another great picture taken in about the same spot if our good friend Brandy will put it on for us.The bus is one of the ten Headingley Daimlers which were sold early, in faultless condition, to Samuel Ledgard - a sale which caused an understandable riot in the Council Chamber. In the picture though it is still with LCT and is on the 50 route, with St. Anne's Lane branching to the right near the distant bus. Hats off to you Blakey driving a bus in conditions like this. How did you keep it from going sideways with only rear wheel drive, and presumably on ordinary tyres? Did you train on a skid pan? The date is cut off on your photo - what year was it taken?Another hill which looked horrendous in the snow, and caught car drivers out, was Hilltop at Whingate. This was on my school run but I never remember having to walk because the bus service was cancelled due to bad weather - even in the long snowy winter of 1963. Well in short, we didn't stop them sliding - but by keeping in low gears and only breathing on the brakes when necessary we hoped to "aim" the bus towards a safe gap. I think that skid pans were a London Transport speciality wlesser mortals were left to "play it by ear" or whatever.The picture was taken on December 20th 1955.Cockshott Lane was another brute, and in extremely bad times was abandoned in favour of the easier Armley Ridge Road - that's why you still see a group of disgruntled folks at the top of Cockshott Lane waiting for the bus Many thanks again to Brandy for processing the picture.

blackprince · Post by **blackprince** » Fri 22 May, 2009 12:25 pm

If you are interested in Leeds weather records see this:http://www58.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=leeds+weatherThe weather station is at Leeds Bradford airportThe coldest recorded temperature in the last 20 years was -8degC (18 deg F) on Feb 1 1991.Also while the rest of the world is enjoying/suffering global warming ( so we are told) Leeds is actually cooling by 1deg C every 39 years !

Briggy · Post by **Briggy** » Fri 22 May, 2009 2:47 pm

Don't remember exactly which year it was, maybe '62 or '63, but it was a cracking winter and I went sledging with my dad on Sugarwell Hillhttp://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?resourceIde ... SPLAY=FULL(In't Leodis FAB!!)The sledge was decidedly dodgy and we were going faster and faster with precious little control, so in order to avoid killing any other fellow sledgers my dad just managed to steer the sledge down a farmyard and we were finally brought to an abrupt halt by shooting up the side of a great muckheap. My mum was none too pleased because apart from us both being soaking wet we stunk disgusting, Oh happy days!

foxy67 · Post by **foxy67** » Fri 22 May, 2009 5:42 pm

Chrism wrote: Trojan wrote: I remember 1963. It froze from Christmas until March. 1979 was a pretty bad and long winter. Frequent heavy snow, which would disipate only to return a week or so later. I remember it snowing the first week of May. I'd taken the week off to paint my house and it soddin' well snowed I also remember the traffic chaos that night in 1995 when the weather men got the timing of the snow wrong by 12 hours and Leeds was gridlocked. Took me 90 minutes to get from Wigan to Gildersome via M62 and a further three hours to get to Morley! I remember that too, I had to get to Harehills from Burley. I got the bus at the bottom of Cardigan Road, 2 hours later I got off at the Town Hall and walked the rest of the way. 3+ hours to get from Park Lane College to Kirkstall, thanks to my lovely wife.

blackprince · Post by **blackprince** » Sat 08 Aug, 2009 7:52 pm

Some nice pictures of the snowy winters at Roundhay Park in 1952, 56 & 58 have turned up in a slideshow on another thread about Roundhay. These are all the winters I enjoyed as a kid + 1963 of course.Seehttp://www.roundhaytoday.co.uk/news/Slideshow- ... 5435196.jp

stutterdog · Post by **stutterdog** » Sun 09 Aug, 2009 11:39 am

I remember some time in the late 70's ,I was driving a bus to Bradford on the 72 route and it started snowing around 1pm .It took 4 hours to get there. I was then instructed by an inspector to go round to Hall Ings to do an 88 to Leeds When I got round there the queue was enormous.I crammed as many people on as possible and set off with people standing front to back! By the time I had driven halfway up Leeds Rd most of the passengers had got off because the traffic was hardly moving.I dropped my last passenger off at Ringways and headed for Bramley Garage.I got into the depot at 11.30pm.I should have got there at 5.30pm! I was frozen and very hungry. I should have started work the next day at 0430 but I had not had enough time off so the inspector told me to come in for 9am which I did.I did the last part of my early turn. Colton -off 2hrs. and went home at 1230pm!

sundowner · Post by **sundowner** » Sun 09 Aug, 2009 12:54 pm

I remember sometime in the mid ninetys iwas a sales rep at the time.I had to drive from Boston in Lincs got as far has the Showcase roundabout could go no further snow about a foot deep i had to leave the car and walk to Pudsey.I had no top coat just a two piece suit and foot wear to match what a state i was in when i got home.If i remember to snow storm caught everyone out it came in the evening rush hour and every thing ground to a halt.

blackprince · Post by **blackprince** » Mon 10 Aug, 2009 9:15 pm

sundowner wrote: I remember sometime in the mid ninetys iwas a sales rep at the time.I had to drive from Boston in Lincs got as far has the Showcase roundabout could go no further snow about a foot deep i had to leave the car and walk to Pudsey.I had no top coat just a two piece suit and foot wear to match what a state i was in when i got home.If i remember to snow storm caught everyone out it came in the evening rush hour and every thing ground to a halt. You should have wrapped up warm for winter as discussed in another thread. I used to drive up to West Cumbria a lot all year round . In winter I used to carry my arctic survival kit , shovel, sand wellies, outdoor clothing etc. Although I drove through some horrendous snowstorms , fortunately I never got stuck. Plenty of others did!

Trojan · Post by **Trojan** » Mon 10 Aug, 2009 9:32 pm

sundowner wrote: I remember sometime in the mid ninetys iwas a sales rep at the time.I had to drive from Boston in Lincs got as far has the Showcase roundabout could go no further snow about a foot deep i had to leave the car and walk to Pudsey.I had no top coat just a two piece suit and foot wear to match what a state i was in when i got home.If i remember to snow storm caught everyone out it came in the evening rush hour and every thing ground to a halt. That would be the night Cantona drop kicked the crowd. I drove from Wigan to Jct 27 M62, and couldn't exit the motorway so made the mistake of driving down the M621 to the ring road, three hours later I abandoned my car in Sulzer's car park and walked home to Morley.

raveydavey · Post by **raveydavey** » Mon 10 Aug, 2009 9:48 pm

BLAKEY wrote: blackprince wrote: BLAKEY wrote: blackprince wrote: While searching on Leodis for another thread I came across this Feb 1947 photo of a snow covered Kirkstall Hill. http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... Y=FULLWhen there was snow and ice on the road coming down Kirkstall Hill on a bus was a nerve wracking experience, especially from the front seats on the top deck, wondering whther the bus would manage to pull up at the bottom of the hill or not. "Front seats on the top deck" ?? - I can promise you it was a lot MORE nerve wracking from the front seat on the bottom deck - i.e. in the driver's cab !! I have another great picture taken in about the same spot if our good friend Brandy will put it on for us.The bus is one of the ten Headingley Daimlers which were sold early, in faultless condition, to Samuel Ledgard - a sale which caused an understandable riot in the Council Chamber. In the picture though it is still with LCT and is on the 50 route, with St. Anne's Lane branching to the right near the distant bus. Hats off to you Blakey driving a bus in conditions like this. How did you keep it from going sideways with only rear wheel drive, and presumably on ordinary tyres? Did you train on a skid pan? The date is cut off on your photo - what year was it taken?Another hill which looked horrendous in the snow, and caught car drivers out, was Hilltop at Whingate. This was on my school run but I never remember having to walk because the bus service was cancelled due to bad weather - even in the long snowy winter of 1963. Well in short, we didn't stop them sliding - but by keeping in low gears and only breathing on the brakes when necessary we hoped to "aim" the bus towards a safe gap. I think that skid pans were a London Transport speciality wlesser mortals were left to "play it by ear" or whatever.The picture was taken on December 20th 1955.Cockshott Lane was another brute, and in extremely bad times was abandoned in favour of the easier Armley Ridge Road - that's why you still see a group of disgruntled folks at the top of Cockshott Lane waiting for the bus Many thanks again to Brandy for processing the picture. I can remember that buses on the 52(?) route from Meanwood out to Moor Allerton via Tongue Lane, used to struggle to get up the hill from Meanwood and it wasn't an uncommon sight to find one bus pushing another up the hill according to my Grandparents who lived at the top of this hill. I can't see the current Worst stock standing up to that sort of treatment! Trojan wrote: sundowner wrote: I remember sometime in the mid ninetys iwas a sales rep at the time.I had to drive from Boston in Lincs got as far has the Showcase roundabout could go no further snow about a foot deep i had to leave the car and walk to Pudsey.I had no top coat just a two piece suit and foot wear to match what a state i was in when i got home.If i remember to snow storm caught everyone out it came in the evening rush hour and every thing ground to a halt. That would be the night Cantona drop kicked the crowd. I drove from Wigan to Jct 27 M62, and couldn't exit the motorway so made the mistake of driving down the M602 to the ring road, three hours later I abandoned my car in Sulzer's car park and walked home to Morley. The Cantona drop kick on the radio was the highlight of an otherwise very frustrating drive home. I finished work on Gelderd Road at 5.30pm and arrived home in Seacroft just before 9, using every back road and shortcut I knew once I'd finally managed to get off the jammed Inner Ring Road. The snow wasn't that bad, but with it arriving as everyone was finishing work plus a combination of the incompetent, the unfortunate and the unprepared caused gridlock across the city.