The blizzard that buried Dorset (From Dorset Echo)

The blizzard that buried Dorset

10:15am Tuesday 10th November 2009 in

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DORSET weatherman Mark Ching will be at Kingston Maurward over the weekend selling copies of his excellent book The Blizzard Of 78 – the Snowstorm that Buried Dorset.

The snowfall that hit Dorset in February 1978 was the worst blizzard of the 20th Century. It buried the county in snowdrifts up to 30ft deep and many towns and villages were cut off for several days.

Even five days after the blizzard many areas were still cut off and, although the snows did not last as long as the legendary winters of 1947 and 1963, as an individual event the blizzard of 1978 was deeper and more intense than the snowstorms of those great winters.

Mark was a youngster living in Worth Matravers with his family when the blizzard struck and he remembers venturing outside with his brother the morning after.

“On the Sunday my brother Ian and I decided we’d try and walk to Kingston, up past the quarries,” Mark said. “The blizzard had blown the snow into amazing drifts and of course, being boys, we wanted to walk along the top of the biggest one we could find.

“My foot caught on something – it was the top of a telegraph pole that was totally buried in snow.

“That’s why the memories of that day have stuck with me for such a long time. It started to melt in the end of course, but there were still roads blocked on the following Wednesday.”

Mark will be selling copies of The Blizzard Of 78 at the annual Kingston Maurward Christmas Fair on Saturday and Sunday, November 14 and 15, between 10am and 5pm.

The book costs £15 but Looking Back readers who mention they heard that Mark would be at the show through the Echo can purchase it for £12.