Just How Bad Was The Winter of 47?
In which a simple phrase leads to some chilling research, and a new project is announced.
Working on the first draft of the ‘Bristol Brabazon: The Lost Ocean Liner of the Skies,' book I’m currently focused on writing up the story of the design and construction of the iconic Brabazon Hanger. Every account I had come across in my research talked about how construction was delayed by ‘severe weather’ over the winter of 1946-1947, but none of them went into detail of what the weather was actually like. So this week I dug a little deeper to try and find out.
And oh boy. It was not just ‘severe weather,’ it was literally a storm for the ages that crippled the whole country for just over two months. The official British weather service, the Met Office, even classified it as a Great Weather Event and has a web page devoted to it1.
Starting on 23 January 1947, the UK experienced a historically significant period of bad weather. Several cold spells, with temperatures falling as low as -21 C (- 6 F) and continuous snowfall with snow falling somewhere in the country everyday up until the 17th March, resulted in large drifts of snow, some as deep as 23 feet. It was the second heaviest recorded snowfall in British history2. The snow blocked roads and railways, which caused problems transporting coal to the electric power stations. Many had to shut down, forcing severe restrictions to cut power consumption, including restricting domestic electricity to nineteen hours per day and cutting some industrial supplies completely. In addition, radio broadcasts were limited, television services were suspended, some magazines were ordered to stop publishing, and newspapers were reduced in size. Towards the end of February, there were also fears of a food shortage as supplies were cut off and vegetables were frozen into the ground.
Mid-March brought warmer air to the country which thawed the snow lying on the ground, but this snowmelt rapidly ran off the frozen ground into rivers and caused widespread flooding. It is estimated that the severe winter resulted in the loss of around ten percent of the country’s industrial production for the year.
I don’t think “delayed by severe weather" really sells what the country, which was also in the early stages of literally rebuilding itself less than two years after a devastating war, went through.
Other Stuff
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Word Slinging
As this fun project has now been officially announced, I’m honored to be part of the line-up for this collection of early Trek memories put together by pop-culture editor extraordinaire, Jim Beard.
The cover below is an early mock-up. Finalized version and publication date still to be determined.
Pages and Screens
Book Read in 2023 - “Gloriana ” by Michael Moorcock.
A lush, dense, raunchy tale of gothic romance, and court intrigue set in an alternate universe Elizabethan age in which the monarch is far from being a “virgin queen” and rules over most of her known world. All woven through with Moorcock’s trademark combination of intricate wordsmithing and fascinating ideas.
But it is also sometimes a bit of a slog to get through with an overabundance of characters thrown at you, and some of the sexual themes are uncomfortable at best.
Movies watched in 2023 - Unknown Soldier
This Finnish film follows an infantry machine-gun squad during the so-called Continuation War when in 1941 Finnish troops crossed into Russia in order to regain territory lost in the Winter War two years previously.
This is an incredibly well made movie full of detail and excellent evocative cinematography. The acting is strong and the story line a mix of touching and tragic.
But being cut down from an original 5 hour TV show to movie length it feels disjointed with some sudden narrative jumps. I’m not sure that the subtitles caught the nuances of some of the exchanges either.
Overall a fascinating look at an often overlooked WW2 conflict.
Podcast Procrastinations
The Before They Were Beatles podcast - A quick reminder that Episode 25 of The Before They Were Beatles podcast is now live and available on your podcast platform of choice.
Entitled “Beginnings and Endings” it covers the events of September through to December 1962 as we complete our journey as The Beatles return to the recording studio, make their TV debut, and say goodbye to Hamburg.
And talking of Before They Were Beatles, just a reminder that if you’d like to keep up with the progress of the work on the 20th Anniversary edition of the Before They Were Beatles book you can sign up for a subscription to the dedicated Substack monthly newsletter HERE. -
The July issue was recently published and introduced us to the young John Lennon - If you want to find out more, now is a great time to subscribe.
Weekly Web Round-Up
This week over at our FOREST COMICS & BOOKS store on eBay we added dozen more Doctor Who paperbacks, and some have already started to attract interest, and a stack of Funko Pops featuring an assortment of kick-ass women characters such as the iconic version of Catwoman from Batman Returns
Batman On The Cover - The journey through Batman’s comics publishing history continues this week with comics published by DC Comics cover dated May, 1968 that included new issues of Detective Comics, Batman, World’s Finest, and the Justice League of America
Although this month’s World’s Finest sported another fine Neal Adams cover, my pick from that batch is Irv Novick’s clock-face, Batmobile montage from Detective Comics. This is one of those images that just stuck with me over the years. I’ve also often wondered about the fact that the Batmobile here has a steering wheel on either side so Robin can drive while Batman waves to the crowds. It seems like such an obvious device to have, so either of them can take control at any point, yet it’s rarely revisited.
Where on the Web is Alan?
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See you next time
Alan J. Porter
Met Office: Great Weather Events http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/anniversary/winter1946-47.html
The winter of 1894-1895 holds the record.