Days of winter past with south Fylde under a blanket of snow

Temperatures may have plummeted over the weekend, but they still couldn't quite match some of those in winters Fylde experienced in the last century.

By The Newsroom

Published 18th Dec 2017, 10:58 BST

Updated 18th Dec 2017, 11:05 BST

St Annes Square covered in snow, in the 1960s

There just doesn’t seem to be as much snow falling now as in days gone by – but we can look back on these pictures to remind ourselves what the area looks like when it is covered by a pretty thick blanket of snow.

Our archive photograph shows snow in St Annes’ Ashton Gardens in 1946. The winter of 1946 into early 1947 saw the Fylde coast and the rest of the country plunged into the Ice Age. It lasted three long months.

Even the sea froze and blizzards, swept by 40mph winds, brought the Fylde to a standstill with 6ft snow drifts. Early February brought the shutdown of industry, decreed by the Labour Government.

It wasn’t the only big freeze to hit the Fylde coast. An earlier severe winter, in 1940, caused similar misery. And the white stuff can be seen blanketing St Annes Square in our 1960s photo.

Fylde Labour