Leonard to the family:

Dear Alec June Susan and Carol

Once again many thanks for all your letters received first post this morning but we are very sorry to hear of your troubles with frozen pipes etc. Until you can remedy matters it will be difficult to keep the house sufficiently warm to prevent recurrence but heating throughout is the answer to the problem – or so we find it. It is going to cost us a lot of fuel and lighting this quarter but in the end it will be cheaper than plumbers bills. You are certainly having a rough time and unfortunately your plumbing arrangements are mostly on the east side of the house catching the worst of the weather. Hope you will soon be able to put things right.

So far we have had no further difficulty and as you know our plumbing is on the southwest side of house and escapes the keen easterly winds. We keep fire in all night still and put a sixty watt lamp under sink in kitchen. Naturally we do not venture further than is necessary by day but a visit to Elfords must be made occasionally otherwise no food. I went down to Roy Hewitt’s house yesterday morning as it is impossible for him to get about just to see how they were getting on.

Glad to hear the move from 155 to 17 was successfully made last Wednesday but you did not say how Mr and Mrs Baker liked the decorations etc. Perhaps it was a bit early for them to comment. Sorry Peter overdid things but expect he worked like a navvy when on the job and ran himself down. Noted he is alright again now. You have all been busy at number 17 and every little helps nowadays. How about the plumbing there?

If you can eventually get the fibreglass into position under your roof it is bound to make a difference in the long run but you still have to sort out your tank and pipes to start with and until there’s a break in the weather I’m afraid you have a job on. It is good to hear you are keeping very well – the colds will start with the thaw. (Jobs Comforter did you say?) Actually mum and I are warmer in bed than sitting in front of fire but it is a job to break away from fire at bedtime.

Our neighbour Bushell is now push cycling to Portishead to arrive there at 6 a.m. this week facing due east and on a very bad road. Reminds me of the winter of 1915 when I cycled 5½ miles each way daily between Long Sutton and Martock station arriving 6:30 a.m. one week and leaving there 10 p.m. the other in all winds and weathers including snow. Could not do it today.

Last Saturday Bushel and I went down to sawmills in car and picked up two bags each of firewood logs (at 2/6d per bag) [roughly £2.85 in 2023 money]. These were very useful for making up fire in evening. Last Friday morning the coal man arrived with ten hundred weight of coal – really good stuff – that so we are right for the rest of the winter. Plenty of power cuts here and in some parts of Clevedon they have actual blackouts – the top part of town have had several. Our T.V. picture has been almost nil at times but that is the worst we have suffered. Gas has come into its own once again and you are fortunate to have your gas fire and cooker. We have not had to go without a cooked meal or the power down in cooker around dinner times.

Heard that Mrs Bush (number 11 in the Avenue) was frozen up last Saturday but put stopper in wash basin upstairs and turned tap on then went to Bristol at 11 a.m. and return very late at night only to find water cascading down the stairs and upstairs flooded out. The pipes had thawed out in her absence with disastrous result. Had to call out next door neighbour (already gone to bed) for help. What a life. Late last week with car stabled outside back door I could not start her up again one morning and had to call Bushell who soon found that when I put battery back in I had not tightly screwed on the connection. This in spite of the fact I had on two or three previous occasions started car up since I restored battery. One lives and learns. They (Bushells) have been frozen up once or twice but managed to get things going during the day.

Very serious troubles have occurred at various places in Clevedon and plumbers are worked putting things right. We had another fall of snow last Saturday night – the same as you but it did not last long. Just enough to be a further nuisance but on Sunday it was most treacherous for getting about – soft snow on top of frozen ice and previous snow. I nearly slipped up myself coming home from church in the morning on the slope just outside the Lych Gate*. Managed to recover in time and the next trip saw me wearing Wellingtons. All cars have to get up to the church by the direct route near the Church Cottage – it is impossible to go via the road near the cemetery.

The wood pigeons are now a menace, they descend on the gardens in batches and pick off all the green stuff they can see. Yesterday morning a flight of about forty wild geese went over inland from the sea. It is possible they come from Peter Scott’s place at Slimbridge which is situated between Avonmouth and Gloucester. Have never seen so many geese on the wing before.

Yes we thought you would be interested in the picture of Holly Lane in the Mercury – just shows the depth of the snow.

Noted Susan has had another visit to Mount Vernon. Does she use her glasses regularly now? Funny remark that she should be able to see better than she does. Wonder what is behind this. The next visit will be about Easter then.

Sorry to hear Mr Gray has broken a bone in his wrist that it is so easily done. Hope you have felt nothing more of your fall a week or two ago.

Yes it was sad news of Gaitskell – only 56. According to some papers this week he was suffering from some disease that would have killed him in two or three years’ time but the virus infection accelerated death. There will be a bit of squabbling in the party now before things settle down again.

I have just heard that the bungalow at the far end of St Andrews Drive on the right hand side has been re-rated from £35 to £90 per annum. This is the place a man named Pope lives in – just retired from accountancy section at Temple Meads. Noted primulas still alright hours are too but the Christmas cactus are now dying off. They have been a very nice sight.

Gave engine of car a run in garage this morning – no difficulty. I’m glad I had antifreeze put in last month. Should have been in a mess now without it.

How does Christopher like school? Noted you saw them at Eccleston road last Saturday. If I remember rightly Roy and family live not so very far from there. In spite of the cold you are experiencing we had to laugh about putting the butter, milk etc. on dining room table and then running for it. Obviously you are living in front room as we are living in our dining room – these being the warmer places in each house.

The horse still with us. Plenty of hay for him now and he seems to be in very good condition. Norman said if he rolls in the snow there is not much the matter with him and he certainly does this at times. Flattens it out into ice. No more snow has been moved from the roads here and the position in Tennyson Avenue is as mentioned last week. At last grit has been put down Old Church Road from the corner by Wilcocks Garage. Formerly this section had been left out. Generally speaking the main roads in Clevedon are now in good order but the exception is over that part referred to above.

We have forgotten the incident about the front garden in 1926 or thereabouts – you must remind us please.

Have now read Mag and passed it onto Roy Hewitt for perusal. The articles on the various stretches of line I find very interesting and of course it is all fresh reading. The Parkeston Quay Harwich and cross Channel service boats to the continent must be a big job. Query more so than the Channel Islands services from Southampton and Weymouth. 

*Not surprising as there are slopes at each entrance to the churchyard and IIRC nothing much to hold onto.

[continues on Wednesday 23rd January, 1963]