Delivering through the snow –the milkman’s tale

THEsevere winter of 1963 was one of the worst winters on record. The snow started falling on the Saturday about 4.30pm at the end of December ’62 and within a few hours most roads were impassable with the deep snow drifts plus freezing conditions.

I became stranded at the Priory Road Bus Station, Wells when all buses were cancelled at 5pm. I rang Pullins Dairy at Chewton who I worked for and Colin Pullin came down to Wells to fetch me.

We drove up the Bristol Hill from Wells on the wrong side of the road on the pavement. Snow was drifing across the road, about six feet deep at times. We got back to Chewton about 6pm.

A group of local lads from Chewton tried to drive out of Wells on the Bath Road and became stuck in the snow drifts at Haydon. They took refuge at the Slab House Inn and spent the night sleeping on the floor of the pub.

The landlady gave them breakfast and they went back to get their car a few days later.

The next day, Sunday morning, I walked down to Pullins Dairy, the only vehicles moving through Chewton were tractors.

Pullins had a van in Wells at Gunnings Garage for service. John Bartlett at Ford came to the rescue with his tractor and trailer. We loaded the trailer with crates of milk and set out for Wells and got the van from Gunnings to make the deliveries around Wells.

Later in the day myself and Arthur Sheldrake left Chewton with an A40 pickup fitted with snow chains to try to reach Gurney Slade and Oakhill from the Radstock road. Part way across Chewton Plain we hit a snow drift which must have been seven foot deep.

We were in total darkness. It took us over an hour to dig the van out and get back to the dairy. And that was the end of milk deliveries that day!

The snow storm that started at the end of 1962 was still causing problems six weeks later. The strong winds were blowing the deep snow still in the fields on to the roads, causing large drifts to appear every day.

Conditions on the Mendips were so bad three Diamond T trucks with snow ploughs were brought in from an American airbase in Lincolnshire and they were working day and night to keep the main roads open.

They were so large they took up more than half the road and with the front blade of the snow plough standing about eight feet, other vehicles gave them a wide berth.

Another snow clearing machine was shipped over from Canada, it was bright orange, double the size of a JCB and called Madame Butterfly. It had a large telescopic ram that extended out at the front with a large pointed blade, plus at the back two large spikes that dug into the ground.

The first double-decker bus that arrived in Chewton from Bristol reached the village. The driver and conductor took refuge in the Waldegrave Arms. The next bus parked behind the first. Some time later a single-deck bus arrived and they all headed back to Bristol leaving the first two buses in the High Street.

Conditions all over Mendip were really bad, with trains stranded on the S&D line near Masbury and on the Cheddar Valley line at Draycott. The RAF were dropping food into Priddy.

The A37 from Ston Easton south to Shepton Mallet was restricted to essential vehicles only. In places a single lane was cut through the drifts with the wall of snow each side standing over eight feet. There was also a lot of abandoned vehicles left in the drifts.

Delivering milk for Pullin Bros was difficult, it was several days before we reached some customers. When we did, we left three days’ supply – it was frozen solid anyway!

I put milk on the train at Binegar station for the next station at Masbury for customers to collect. I collected the money a week later and we never lost a penny.

We were using Austin A40 pick-up vans which were well built and were ideal for driving in the snow and ice with snow chains and the weight of 45 crates of milk on board. It was a winter I would never forget.

One incident always sticks in my mind. We reached Binegar on the second day of the snow as far as the Horse & Jockey Inn. The road was blocked with snow and we had to leave the van.

We set off for the Dallaston Estate with three crates of milk on a toboggan, the snow was waist deep. We arrived one hour later, knocked on the first door of a Mrs Spratt and were greeted with:

“And where did you get to yesterday?”

Bob Powell Chewton Mendip