Days when there is sufficient snowfall in Ross-on-Wye to build snowmen, or go sledging are few and far between, and so there is always great excitement when heavy snow falls.

The Gazette likes to feature pictures of families enjoying themselves in the snow, as we did in the paper during December.

The last heavy snow was in January 2013, but there were snowy days in February 2009 and February 2007.

Looking back a little further in the archives are pictures from 1996, when pupils at Ashfield Park Primary School built themselves an igloo.

However, one of the worst winters on record was in 1963 when Ross endured a blizzard that left the town frozen for a month, and weather-related headlines dominated the Ross Gazette’s front page during January of that year.School children were given three extra days holiday as Ross Secondary Modern School struggled with frozen pipes. However, the Gazette reported: “Children may be delighted now but they will find three days clipped off their Easter holiday to make up for the schooling they are now missing.”Frozen pipes all across the town were reported when Ross experienced “the worst ground frost ever recorded” which beat the previous records set in 1947 and 1929.The January 17th edition of the Gazette said: “The entire horse shoe bend of the River Wye at Ross was frozen solid and for the first time since 1947 people were walking on the ice from bank to bank.”On January 31st the Gazette reported more snowfall and that the mains water supplies in Ross froze for the first time since 1895, with water having to be brought in by the bucket for elderly residents. Thankfully, although the recent snow and ice caused problems for many, it was not as longlasting, nor has it had such an impact on people’s lives as it did in 1963.