The worst of winters

The prominence given to the Letter of the Day (February 22) "Four feet of snow but we just go on with it", warrants a reply based on reported and recorded fact rather than 60-year-old nostalgia.

The headline implied that we are now all whingers incapable of coping with a couple of centimetres of snow (Dudley had 17cms of snow on February 9 this year), compared to Black Country folk in the 1940s. It is certainly true that we were stoics in those days - we had no choice. However, the letter contains at least three assertions which are quite wrong.

Firstly, in 1947 the worst affected parts of lowland Britain were in the Midlands - especially the higher ground of the Black Country - not the south east. Between January 21 and the middle of March more than five feet of snow fell here. The south, including Kent, had several thaws which removed much of the snow, whereas the milder air never reached us allowing the level depth to be two or three feet throughout this awful winter with enormous drifts.

Secondly, it is simply untrue to state that the schools remained open. This is veiled criticism of Dudley's decision to close the schools recently - a decision which was eminently sensible. In 1947 my own primary school was closed for the best part of a month because they did not have the coke to heat the buildings.

Thirdly, the "world got on with business" is quite the reverse of what actually happened. The disruption to industry as a result of the lack of fuel - and that meant coal and coke in those days - because the roads to the collieries were repeatedly blocked by drifting snow in the gale force easterly winds, and by fresh heavy falls, resulted in widespread closures of factories.

As John Mellor was apparently away from the Black Country during this savage 1947 winter, he will probably have little knowledge of the dreadful hardships suffered by ordinary Black Country folk who were still enduring food, clothes and fuel rationing two years after the end of the war.

The winter was so severe that in effect it caused a national crisis.

George Hensman, Parkway Road, Dudley.