Cardall’s Corner - January 2011- "Snow Business"

“Snow Business” by Robert Cardall
My father, the late Jack Cardall, recalled a blizzard followed by severe frost in early 1916 when frozen snow on telephone wires brought down many telegraph poles at Ufton. Accompanied by my grandfather, he collected the poles with, I believe, a horse-drawn trailor and they were used to form supports for the Blue Ping Garage, (now the site of Budgens Supermarket). Heavy snowfalls occurred in subsequent years, and in 1947 Southam people reportedly walked over the tops of hedgerows to reach nearby villages.

A very heavy snowfall occurred one February early in the 1960s, and Ratley on the Edgehill Ridge was cut off by massive snowdrifts. I was working for my father’s hire company delivering school dinners at that time, and my father, who enjoyed a challenge, accompanied me in an attempt to reach Ratley. We proceeded up Sunrise Hill towards the Castle Inn, Edge Hill. The snowdrifts were as high as the van. We turned right into Ratley village but stopped by the bus shelter - if we had continued downhill to the school, we would never have got out again. As if on cue, a party of excited school-children pulling a sledge, rounded the bend, collected the meals and took them down to school! The Cardall Collection contains many photographs depicting the history of Southam and surrounding villages.

Contact: The Friends of the Cardall Collection, The Old Labour Exchange, 2/4 Warwick Road, Southam, CV47 0HN, (email: cardallcollection@hotmail.co.uk)


This article has been kindly written by Robert Cardell

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