Let It Snow

I was 11yrs old in 1947 and can remember walking to Sutton Gas works to get coal for the fire.Mum and I took the wheels off our Basinet pram and pushed it down Angel Hill in the snow.It took a couple of hours .Then we queued for another two for the coal then back up again.

I am Keith Harris sister, Marian Hawkins living in Tasmania. I remember the day Keith was born, the snow was so thick , all the kids in Shaftesbury Road had to push Nurse Whips old car out of the Snow drift.

I was 8 years old in 1947 and was sent along with an adult aunt with a pram to bring coke from the coke factory in Sutton. Living on the St Helier estate, we had some distance to go. After queuing for a long time we had our pram loaded up with about four sacks of coke. Pushing this in the snow was hard and when we managed to the top of Angel Hill my aunt fainted! Luckily I managed to wave down one of the few motorists who took my aunt home leaving me to manage the load on the pram. It was hard but I was coping until at the bottom of a long slow hill which I was about to tackle, the wheel came off the pram. Just at that point the same driver/motorist arrived and finally took the coke and myself to my house in Wigmore Road. I can't remember what happened to the pram. Bless him...........I don't remember his name but I've never forgotten his kindness. My grandchildren think i'm making this story up 'cause they can't grasp the idea of a child having to tackle such a task. It was the coldest winter of the century and the coal shortage was due to the war and lack of transport etc.

Nurse Whip must have been very busy that year! My younger brother Chris was born in April 1947. I remember her name (not easy to forget). I have a faint memory of my mum paying 7 shillings to nurse Whip for her services. Luckily for us all, the NHS came into force a year later in 1948.

I was born in February 1947. My mum was booked for a home birth - I arrived in the early hours and neither the midwife nor doctor were present due to heavy snowfall. To further complicate matters, I was a totally unexpected breech presentation but was safely delivered by the next door neighbour.