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Anniversary of "big freeze"

You might have thought that this past winter has been chilly - with a fair bit of snow - but it hardly compared to the winter people experienced 50 years ago. Read your memories of the big freeze of 1962/1963 here.

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"The storm was relentless. We struggled on regardless"

Alan Bland, from West Woodburn in Northumberland, wrote to us to tell us about life working and living on a farm during the big freeze - and during the thaw that followed.

"During the storm of 1962/63, I was 12-years-old living on a farm in Redesdale.

"I was off school for six weeks as all the roads were blocked.

"The storm was relentless. We struggled on regardless to take fodder to our sheep stranded on the hills.

"It became a common site to see a pack of a dozen or more foxes hunting for food as our farm bordered Redesdale Forest.

"When the thaw came huge chunks of ice littered the fields as the river Rede overflowed - taking the bark off the trees all the way to Redesmouth where it entered the Tyne."

– Alan Bland
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Anniversary of "big freeze"

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