As we shiver through January I was reminded that it’s also the 50th anniversary of the coldest month ever recorded in the UK. That was the winter of 1962/3. Whilst there was no white Christmas, the country was blanketed in snow on Boxing Day where it lay that year on frozen ground until Easter. The higher reaches of the Thames were frozen over for weeks and ice flows were a hazard to shipping in the Channel. Blizzards and snow drifts caused severe disruption to the movement of goods and travel.