The recent snowfalls fell short of the past (From Keighley News)

The recent snowfalls fell short of the past

7:25am Thursday 28th January 2010

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Our recent snow, disrupting though it was, fell far short of many past winters, as shown in these scenes photographed in February of notorious 1947 and supplied by Mr Robin Longbottom, of Providence Lane, Oakworth.

The man is standing in Street Lane, between East and West Morton, and the car is feeling its way along Slippery Ford Lane.

I still have a junior school composition I wrote at the time, describing a quixotic attempt by my father and me to get on to Ilkley Moor — we walked out of Riddlesden on wall-tops until we came to a place where the snow was so deep that we had to go back the way we had come.

Keighley Town Council minutes graphically record how local authorities of 1947 struggled to keep things moving: “On February 3, 1,357 man-hours were worked by 144 men. Eight motor lorries were ploughing for 88 hours and there were 61 hours in gritting and snow removal by four motor lorries. Ploughing started at 3am and two ploughs continued all night. Two lorries pushing ploughs broke down under the strain …”

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