THE snowy weather we have battled against in recent days provides a good excuse to look back at some of the bad winters in living memory.

Things really were tough during the big freezes of the 40s and 50s – especially for the isolated communities where people were left for days without water, electricity or bread.

Click below for our big freeze gallery.

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There were few gritters, and certainly no fleets of specialised lorries to keep the main roads open.

A horse-drawn sledge provided the transport in this snowbound winter of 1947 for this Emley family.

Mrs Appleyard, wife of farmer George Appleyard, of Houses Hill, required the sledge for a trip to the shops. She is pictured about to leave with a friend, Miss D. Wiper, of Flockton.

Mr Appleyard and his three sons, Ernest, George and Derek, used the sledge for delivering milk in the Houses Hill area, which had been practically isolated for two weeks since the blizzard in February 1947 began.

They also took the sledge over the fields to Cawthorpe Green, where they picked up the local shopkeeper, Mr James Hinchcliffe on his return with the village meat rations.

See how folk coped in the major big freezes of 1947, 1949, 1950, 1952 and 1963.