It may have looked like a Winter Wonderland when these photographs were taken in early 1947, but that winter was one of the most cruel on record. It was in the second week of January that Norfolk experienced its first considerable fall of snow, then followed further heavy snowfalls with blizzards and sub-zero temperatures exacerbating the situation.

On 1 February the weekly Mercury described the “Arctic conditions”. There were problems with frozen water pipes, many households still using outside toilets, while extensive power cuts left people in the dark. At a time when many folk still relied on coal fires for heating, shortages of coal did not help and, of course, great snow drifts made it difficult to get around. The then Wymondham Urban District Council praised its workmen for their enormous efforts in clearing “mountains of snow” from the town’s streets, but it was not until well into March that the thaw arrived.