As temperatures once again drop across the country and weather warnings are issued for snow and ice, we take a look back at the winter of 1963 - one of the worst on record....

Sixty years ago this week, newlyweds Terry and Janet Blackmore stepped out of the church after their wedding ceremony and right into a snowstorm.

Pictures from their happy day show their shoulders dusted with snowflakes and their guests - even those inside - wrapped up in coats due to the freezing temperatures.

The couple, then both aged 21, wed on January 19, 1963, at St Mary's Church in Orpington, during one of the UK's worst-ever winters.

It was so cold that people drank spirits at their reception rather than beer to keep warm.

Groom Mr Blackmore even slipped on ice and some of the wedding presents he was carrying tumbled to the frozen ground and broke.

Mr Blackmore said: "The cars couldn't get up the slope to the church because it was too icy so we all had to walk.

"It was freezing and Janet only had her wedding dress as she walked up.

"After the ceremony we came out into a snowstorm. There are photographs of us in thick coats."

The reception was at Market Square in Bromley, four or five miles away from the church, but they could be driven there because the roads were passable.

Mr Blackmore added: "In the reception people kept their coats on because it was so cold and people had hot drinks.

"If they drank they had spirits rather than beer to keep warm.

"When I carried the wedding presents from the car I slipped and some of them smashed."

The couple at the time lived in a flat in Bromley High Street, above a hairdressing salon, which Mrs Blackmore managed, while Mr Blackmore was a greengrocer in the area.

They now live in the village of Stansted, in the Tonbridge and Malling district - and since that winter have been snowed in three times, including for a couple of days last month.

Remembering the bleak weather in December, Mr Blackmore said: "It was too dangerous for most cars to drive.

"Luckily I have a 4x4 car otherwise I don't know what we'd do. But you have to prepare for it."

The snow 60 years ago was from Boxing Day 1962 to March 6, 1963, with 45cm of snow at times and drifts in Kent up to 2.4m.

It was called the Big Freeze and became the coldest winter for 200 years and the third coldest on record - only 1683/84 and 1739/40 were worse.

On the night of Saturday, December 29, in the Ashford area, the snowfall caused drifts of up to 3.7 metres deep, causing chaos for road and rail users during the days that followed.

Our sister paper, the Kentish Express, at the time reported that "every road was kept open".

Despite having only 15 "overworked" staff and four ploughs, council workers kept the town moving.

Everywhere was so bitterly cold with no respite from a howling wind.

There was a shortage of food supplies because roads were blocked with snowdrifts. Fuel also became scarce and the elderly sat huddled indoors, many by empty fireplaces.

By January 1963 it was so cold the sea at Herne Bay had completely frozen a mile out from shore as well as off Sheppey.

The UK temperature that month averaged at -2.1C, making it the coldest January between 1950 and 2020.

In Maidstone, the River Medway froze over for the only time in living memory.

The weather was so severe, coal barges were frozen on the Medway at Rochester.

The river was also affected, with mini icebergs seen floating - while the Royal Navy had to use an icebreaker to keep Chatham Dockyard open.

In Maidstone's Mote Park the lake froze over, providing an ice rink.

Although there were only occasional snowfalls, the cold ensured that the snow continued to lie on the ground for months.

Adults tend to dread the snow and the disruption it causes but children usually love it.

Ashford MP Damian Green turned seven in January 1963 and was then living in Barry, Wales.

He told KentOnline: "I can vaguely remember weeks on end of sledging and snowball fights, which was fun, but being cross because there was no football."

The Kent Messenger took a photograph in 1963 of children building an igloo at Bossingham, in the Canterbury district.

Sport was another part of life disrupted with some FA Cup matches rescheduled 10 or more times.

The Football League season was extended by four weeks from its original finishing date of April 27.

There was no horse racing in England between December 23 and March 7.

On January 25 there was a thaw of just three days - but the snowfall came back with a vengeance in February, coupled with gale force winds.

A 36-hour blizzard caused heavy snowdrifts in most parts of the country, some up to 6.1 metres.

Temperatures did not edge above freezing until March 6 and even then it took several weeks for the snow to vanish entirely.

The temperature from December 1962 to February 1963 had averaged -0.5C.

But a saving grace was that at the end of the ordeal the thaw was gradual so there was no flooding like after a rapid melting of snow in another one of the coldest winter periods - January 1947.

There have been other unusually harsh and snowy winters since, such as in 1978/9 when the country was further paralysed by public service worker strikes. But at least then the temperature averaged out at 1.5C.

Other freezes happened in December 1981 and January 1987, lasting weeks but in the past decade when snow has come it has only been there for a few days.

The average winter temperature in the UK has not been in minus figures since December 2010.

Indeed statistics from the Royal Meteorological Society show the average for winter 2019/20 at 6.3C compared with 5.4C in 1999/20.

Last month's snow was for a few days from December 10 with up to 15cm of the white stuff and temperatures predicted at up to -10C.

Many would say that is a classic symptom of global warming.

But with shorter cold snaps, the increase in communication channels for weather warnings and the ability to adapt such as through working from home, we are far better equipped to cope than in 1963.