Letter: If you think latest weather was bad, you've seen nothing yet

Our classes were held in the afternoons and Saturday mornings.

Heavy snow fell in January. Barges on the canal between Warwick and Birmingham were trapped in thick ice for weeks on end.

In 1941/42, we were evacuated again, this time to Lichfield. There was heavy snowfall, with severe frosts forming thick ice on the now redundant canal.

We smashed the ice into rafts which we paddled into the relatively unfrozen water. I fell in, but was fortunately rescued by two girls from our gang.

Tobogganing was great fun on the steep slopes of Burycop Hill behind the grammar school. School classes were again afternoons and Saturday mornings.

Many of us earned National Savings Stamps by helping the local council shovel ice and snow off the streets into lorries. In 1946/47, I worked as a tractor driver in Loppington. Snowy conditions lasted from January 21 until nearly Easter. Most road vehicles were fitted with snow chains, although on one occasion I did to the grocer's van halfway back to Wem from Bentley Farm with the Fordson Major.

I used to cycle over icy roads to Burlton on a Saturday to catch the Midland Red bus into Shrewsbury. The snow was piled as high as the bus itself.

In those days snow clearance was done manually by shovelling, gritting was unknown. Subsequent floods almost submerged the cattle pens in Smithfield Road.

Just as the floods subsided, my love life flourished when I met a beautiful 15-year-old girl – we've now been married 62 years.

In 1950/51, when we were married on December 16, 1950, there was nine inches snow on the ground. The previous night my Triumph 350 motorcycle skidded on the ice in front of a van, fortunately we both stopped just in time. The next day with great skill, Harry Price, taxi driver for Grocott's, Wem, was able to transport us safely to and from Whitchurch Registry Office.

In 1962/63, our son Colin started school after Christmas. He went from Soulton by bus among the snow and ice. It was so cold that the diesel froze in the tractor fuel system.

Every morning I would go to feed our outlying young dairy cattle and break four-inch ice which had formed overnight on the Soulton Brook.

The winter was very cold on December 13, 1981, the temperature dropped to -25C on our thermometer in Soulton Road, Wem. Many wild birds died in our garden despite the fact that we were providing food and water.

You've seen nothing yet!

Keith Iddles

Wem