They were doing a roaring trade at Shawbury service station. Hats and gloves, coal, logs and screenwash were flying off the shelves as the temperature plunged in the Shropshire village to -13C, the lowest in the UK this year.
It's officially the coldest night of the year so far with a freezing minus 13 °C at Shawbury in Shropshire #brrrr pic.twitter.com/wMiM1rGv2E
— Met Office (@metoffice) December 12, 2017
“We’re doing pretty well,” said Gwen Brown, who was serving behind a counter. “People have been stocking up on woollies and fuel. It’s also been lovely walking around and looking at the snow in the trees. The stars have been brilliant too. It’s not so good if you have to drive anywhere but it’s been great for the children. They have been loving it.”
Brown had an extra helper in the service station because the village school was closed: five-year-old Eva, who was enjoying her first taste – literally – of snow. “It’s cold and crunchy,” she said. “I ate some – it tasted like ice.”
The village bakery was a cosy place to while away a few minutes. Its owner, Mark Lee, said the locals were comfort-eating pasties, pies and hot vegetable soup. “We also sell a lot more bread. I suppose it’s partly because people can’t get to the supermarket. It’s good for the local shops, at least.”
A few doors up at the Elephant and Castle, the bar has also been heaving over the past few days. “The roads are a nightmare so people are staying off work and enjoying themselves,” said a bar worker, Victoria Keeling.
Sixteen-year-old Ben Houlihan had been roped in to work a shift at the pub as a waiter because his college was shut. Actually, he would have preferred to be in the classroom. “I’d rather not miss a couple of days of education,” he said.
For the older locals of Shawbury (population 2,872), this was a good time to remember harsh winters past.
The cold snap in the winter of 1947 was harsh and long – and clothes and food were still rationed, making it all the more miserable. Villages in Shropshire were cut off for many days and farmers lost stock.
Others shiver at the memory of the winter of 1981-82, when a few miles down the road in Newport, Shropshire, the temperature dropped to -26.1C – the record for England.
To mark this cold snap, the Shropshire Star produced a four-page snow special and carried a black-and-white photograph of local people venturing out on to the frozen mere (lake) at Ellesmere.
Oli Claydon of the Met Office said the “albedo effect” was one of the reasons Shawbury was so chilly – the thick snow bounces the sunlight back into the atmosphere, preventing the temperature from rising at ground level.
The clear skies that have produced sunny days and bright nights mean clouds have not kept any heat in. And because Shawbury is landlocked, the sea does not warm the village up.
Bad news for Joe Grant, 70, who was struggling to stay upright on the icy pavement. “It’s OK for the kids; it’s pretty terrible for us oldies,” he said.
Sandra Morgan was also not amused. Her gas fire had stopped working and her water supply had frozen. “No heat, no water, no fun,” she said. “I can’t wait for it to warm up again.”
