EACH year, as February nears its end, people hope that the winter may pass by without the threat of heavy snow and freezing temperatures.

That was the feeling among local folk in Basingstoke 64 years ago, in 1958, after a fairly mild winter.

With only a month until spring, the town had seen only a few flakes of snow on January 21, and the first weeks of February showed no sign of cold weather arriving to chill those who had to work outdoors.

When people awoke on February 24, heavy rain started their week off and umbrellas were essential for most of the day.

READ MORE: The scorching summers of old Basingstoke

Tuesday, February 25, found them looking out of the windows at more rain and the prospect of getting wet once again. But as they prepared their breakfasts, they felt somewhat cold as they stepped outside to get their milk in, and the rain seemed to be turning to sleet.

Between 6am and 7am, a very cold wind blew across the town and, within the hour, heavy snow began to fall.

Wives told their husbands to wrap up warm before seeing them off to work, and children became excited at the thought of making snowmen after school.

However, by the time they were about to head off for their lessons, a raging blizzard hit the county and Basingstoke was among the towns that suffered from drifts which quickly formed up to four or five feet deep by the end of the day.

Many children did not get any further than the end of their streets before turning back for home with the plea “I don’t like it, I want to stay at home!” as they shivered from the extreme cold.

Meanwhile, the town’s postmen had already left their sorting office in New Street to deliver their mail, and had found the freezing wind and heavy snow difficult to walk into. Cycling was almost impossible for those heading for the outer part of the town. As for the vans taking mail out to the villages, they became stuck in the areas where snow was blowing off the fields and into the country lanes, such as in Hannington.

By noon, there had been no let-up in the continual blizzard and the shops began to feel the pinch of having had so few customers. But as some of their staff could not get to work, this was probably a good thing.

The situation on the housing estates in the town, with snow clogging the roads, meant that many of those with cars were not able to get them out of the garage, let alone down the road.

The local council was able to clear many of the roads, but as more snow fell, the streets became more like ice-rinks, with the few vehicles about sliding into the kerbs and sometimes hitting objects such as lamp-posts and garden walls.

By the evening, Basingstoke’s traffic had come to a halt. One doubledecker was marooned in Queen Mary Avenue in several feet of snow, while the wind blew falling snow into the door to cover the seats, turning it into a ghostly image in the lamplight.

A motorist intent on going to his usual public house for a drink found his car sliding down Chapel Street and heading for the side of the railway bridge, where it crashed into the wall nearby. The driver staggered out and continued on foot down towards Church Street, telling a passer-by “I’m going to get my drink, whatever happens!”.

The following morning, Wednesday, February 26, found the situation just the same, and the drifts on the country roads saw little traffic moving, while the icy roads in town meant little chance of buses and other vehicles getting far. Even the main roads to Reading, Winchester and Newbury were affected.

A team of postmen set out to free the van that had become stuck in the snow in the lane in Hannington, and their effort was successful.

Another blizzard blew up some weeks later, on March 12, but this time it did not last as long and milder temperatures soon brought the snow to an end.

Although this was indeed a cold and snowy time, it did not compare with the three-month freeze-up in 1947, or the two months of cold weather in 1962-63.

But it was the 1958 blizzard that went down in the record books for its severity.

The raging wind surprised most people as the snow blew in almost horizontally, causing them to stop in their tracks as the icy conditions almost took their breath away.

English winters do not come like that nowadays, but Mother Nature does sometimes come up with a few tricks at times – and this year’s winter isn’t over yet.

This column has been updated and was originally published in The Gazette in February 2008. It was written by the late Robert Brown, a former photographer, columnist and historian at The Gazette. He wrote eight books on the town’s history and sadly passed away on March 25, 2019.

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