Gallery: Incredible archive photos show Shropshire people dealing with cold winters of the past

Think it’s been cold in the last week?

The freezing temperatures we’ve experienced have been something of a shock after a hot summer and mild autumn.

But it is normal to be in the deep freeze and Shropshire and Mid Wales always gets its fair share of snow. Today we take a look back through the Shropshire Star archives to reveal how generations of people in the region have battled through the snow and ice – and often had a a lot of fun along the way.

Of course snow can be a real difficulty when you have somewhere to be, and there have been many examples of main routes – even the M6, M5 and M54 – blocked and motorists stuck for many hours at a time.

But inclement weather also brings the best out of people and, given access to a shovel, there is plenty of willingness to get stuck in to clear the way. After all, life must go on, even if the white stuff has brought a little chaos along the way.

Youngsters at Clee Hill, near Ludlow, January 1978

An ice sculpture in Cluddley, January 22, 1979

Shropshire miners are hopeful as they picketed in falling snow outside Ironbridge Power Station in February, 1972

Monkhopton Primary School pupils in January 1979

Harlescott Village children enjoying time in the snow, circa 1950

More than a week after Arctic conditions set in, some communities in the Oswestry area were still struggling with huge snow drifts, February 1985

Click on the blue arrow for more photos:

The weather meant 'practical mathematics' for these children of Bridgnorth county infants school in January 1979

A Christmas card scene in Llangollen town centre when shoppers had to trudge along snow covered pavements, December 1981

Volunteers with tractors battle to clear Shrewsbury Town's Gay Meadow pitch, January 1979

Snow shovelling at the Quarry, Shrewsbury, February 1966

Liz Goddard on top of the snowman with some of the students of Harper Adams Agricultural College, Edgmond, who built it, January 1979

Graham Dreamer feeding the swans on the Montgomery Canal in February 1985

Forest worker Ray Guthrie built a 16ft 1in snowman in Gilfachwen, Llangynog, trying to beat a Guiness record in January 1979

Postwoman Mrs N Morkis at Coalport, December 1967

Farmer Stuart Sheppard of The Moors Farm, Buttington, near Welshpool, was out on his tricycle feeding his 900 ewes, January 1988

Angelina Shepherd, left, and Beth Pryce pick the right place for a game of snowballs in Snow Hill, St Georges, January 1988

Council workers clearing snow in the Quarry, Shrewsbury, from left; John Lucas, Barrie Wilkinson and Ian Brearley, January 1987

The first snowplough of the year in action at Ketley, January 1981

A short, sharp snow storm soon turned the countryside around Market Drayton into a Christmas card scene, November 1972

Boys slide down the hill on Kingsland Bank, Shrewsbury, on old polythene bags used as makeshift sledge, February 1981

Heather Roberts and Mandy Rutter found themselves enjoying a snow battle in Bayston Hill, January 1987

A Christmas card scene in the Shropshire lanes near Cardington, January 1982

Wrekin Council worker Ted Heston and Ian Powell clear footpaths in Wellington town, January 1987

This resident surveys the incredible icicles outside the window of her Oswestry home in January, 1982

The scene on the Wellington-Dawley road, where a 20- yard drift is thought to have covered several abandoned cars, January 1968

Get out and dig...the scene at the the Rock, Ketley, Mark 1970