WHEN it comes to cold winters it is a bit like the memories we have of our summers as children — they were always much colder than they are today weren't they?

But is there any fact in this and did we enjoy much warmer summers in the past and was the contrast between summer and winter as dramatic as we seem to remember it to be?

Reader Pat Allen recalls being told of a particularly harsh winter — it was the winter her mother married and she talked about it long after the event.

There is little wonder Pat's mother would recount this particular story about this particular winter as it really was one to remember as her story shows.

Pat's mother Elizabeth Openshaw married Harold Halliwell on December 30, 1939.

It would be a poignant affair as Britain was now at war with Germany — but not even Adolf Hitler could prevent folk, particularly stoic northern Boltonians — from going about their business as usual and that included getting married.

But it was not so much the war that caused problems for the newly weds on this particular occasion but the bad weather.

This lovely tale was written by Elizabeth, who died in 2012 at the grand old age of 97, and 73-year-old Pat, who lives in Markland Hill, wanted other Looking Back readers to enjoy it.

She talks of the winter of January 1940 and, in particular, what she called "the camaraderie of Lancastrians" as, of course, Bolton was at that point still in Lancashire (and remains so in the heart and minds of many of our readers no doubt).

Here is was Elizabeth had to say about a trip to Blackpool and a return journey that would last rather longer than first envisaged.

"It is a lovely story and one that shows everyone working together to help each other," says Pat.

This is the story in Elizabeth's words. She lived with Harold in the Great Lever area and was one of eight children.

"I was married on December 30, 1939.

"The Saturday after the wedding my husband Harold and I decided to accept an invitation from friends who lived in Blackpool to go and visit them.

"During the early evening it started to snow so we were invited to stay the night and go home the day after on the afternoon train, but it didn't work out that way as we decided to catch a Manchester train calling at Bolton.

"It all started quite well until we approached Adlington when the train got stuck in the heavy snow. Passengers were told that help was on the way in the form of another train which would push our train free.

"But this didn't happen as the second train got stuck and both trains had become stranded.

"In our compartment there were 12 people.

"There was one lady who had a small loaf, another had a half pound of butter and another had a tin of corned beef.

"A gentleman gave me his attaché case on which to make sandwiches, 13 in all.

"We were on the train overnight and when daylight came my husband made his way through the snow to the nearest LMS cabin and informed them what had happened to the trains and the passengers.

"Eventually the passengers were escorted to a school or club, when members of the Army arrived.

"The officer in charge gave me a flask of brandy and a block of chocolate to share out and the local bakery opened despite it being Sunday just to make bread for us.

"We all slept on stretchers and generally looked after each other during the day and we were stranded until Wednesday when it was possible for us to make our way to the local station.

"So ended our day out on the old LMS which took three and a half days to get from Blackpool North to Bolton Trinity Street."

The blizzards experienced in 1927 and 1928 and then 1933 were recorded as being extremely hazardous, wreaking havoc across Britain.

In January 1940 England was plunged into cold and it was the coldest month experienced since 1895.

It was also remarkable for its high snow figures throughout many parts of the country with heavy snow paralysing Britain as a whole just as it did in the Bolton area. The River Thames froze over for the first time since 1814.

The Met Office also reveals that 1947 would see the next serious snowfall with thousands of people cut off for days by snowdrifts and snow falling every day somewhere in the country (between January and March) for 55 days straight. What followed this horrendously cold winter was dreadful flooding, causing misery to thousands of people. The problems were compounded by the lack of fuel following World War Two.

In 1952 and 1953 it was the worst winter in terms of loss of life as 12,000 lives were lost in The Great London Smog of December 1952.

Then in 1963 we were to experience the coldest winter for more than 200 years with temperatures so low the sea froze in places.

There were blizzards, snow drifts, blocks of ice and temperatures lower than an incredible -20 deg c recorded. It was colder than the winter of 1947 and the coldest since 1740.

It began rather abruptly just before Christmas in 1962. The weeks prior to this had been changeable and stormy but then, on December 22, a high pressure system moved to the north east of Britain dragging bitterly cold winds across the country.

These conditions were to last through much of the winter and bring despair to many who struggled to keep warm during this period.

Many animals starved to death as farmers could not get to their livestock through the deep snow and much of England remained covered in a blanket of white every day until early March 1963.

With the thaw, in March, came floods but nothing like the scale of the 1947 floods.

Then the winter of 1978 and 1979 would again bring icy conditions to Britain. It was described as the winter of discontent, politically, but was also the coldest since the big freeze of 1962 and 1963.

Clearly the years that have passed since .....were stranded at Adlington Station have brought with them many changes that would ensure something like this would not happen today.

But fierce winter weather can leave people in remote corners of the land stranded — albeit not the little village of Adlington — and there are still, today, problems for farmers who have cattle and sheep out in the fields during the snow.

Do you have your own memories of bitterly cold winters or what about stories of hot summers to warm us all up? Do let us know what you remember of the winters and summers of your childhood.

Ring Gayle McBain on 01204 537269 or email gayle.mcbain@nqnw.co.uk