When Glasgow's football pitches froze...winter memories from 1947 and 1963

Take 1947, for example, when the city was in the grip of one of the most severe cold snaps ever to hit Britain.

A succession of snowstorms between January and March caused chaos for many, with the army called in to clear roads and railways of drifts of up to seven metres high. Football matches were postponed and a nationwide fuel shortage just made things worse.

READ MORE: Joy and drama in snowy scenes across Glasgow

Schoolchildren had lots of fun, of course – here, a bunch of kids have great fun sledging at Ringwood in Dumbreck, while the Prentice brothers, Alex and David, make their way home from school in Lanarkshire via a four-foot-high snow channel.

The Prentice brothers make their way home through a snow channel in Lanarkshire. Pic: Herald & Times

Fifteen years later, and Glasgow was shivering again as the winter of 1962 and 1963 was declared the coldest in Scotland for more than 200 years. It was so cold, in fact, that the sea froze in places.

The Evening Times covered it on January 12, with a splash headline summing up the situation.

Kids sledging in the snow in Dumbreck, 1947. Below, staff thaw pitches at Firhill, 1963 and inset, the Prentice brothers make their way home from school, 1947. Pics: Herald & Times

“That was the coldest night yet!” it gasped. It was so cold that diesel fuel froze and a convoy of 14 heavy lorries was held up in Lanarkshire, as drivers ‘numbed with cold’ used blow lamps and oily rags to thaw out their vehicles in what would now be considered a health and safety nightmare waiting to happen.

At Firhill Stadium, acetylene burners thawed out Partick Thistle’s pitch, followed by club employees using brushes and buckets to remove the surface water.

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