LETTER: You don't know what cold weather is

Imagine waking up to find a thick oval patch of ice on the inside bedroom wall where you had lain on the bed facing the outer wall and your breath had frozen on the wall during the night. I did.

The place was Southampton.

With the troops and PoWs now home and extra mouths to feed, food was more difficult to get than during the war.

Little coal was left for heat to ward off the continuing winter’s chill with the nights of January 28 and 29 1947 in Southern England falling to below minus 20C.

The tram lines in the high street were all frozen and no trams ran. Still no petrol for cars, and petrol rationing didn’t end for another six years.

Hard times, as Dickens would say!

DOUGLAS MILLS
Fraser Road
Poole