Written by: Chris Primrose
The Winter of 1962/63.
As a young policeman with almost two years street experience, I recall that the Christmas period of that year was quite memorable! Late shift (2pm-10pm) at Broadbury Road Police Station was usually busy on any Bank Holiday and this one was no exception. It was a very cold and wet day and most people were staying at home with their families which meant that the most common call for the uniform branch was a “domestic”! Some form of dispute between family members! Whilst making my way on foot to the fourth or fifth dispute of my shift I was day- dreaming of getting home to the warmth and calm of my own home. I dealt with the dispute and was making my way back to the station when I noticed that the rain was turning to snow! That was the start of the worst and most prolonged period of snow and freezing conditions I can ever remember. During the next few months, and in no particular order I remember… 1.As we had no personal radios at that time and many people had no phones, the Police had to deliver urgent or distressing messages to individuals or families. In early ’63 I was tasked with delivering a message of a family death to a house on a slight slope. The snow and ice were so bad that it took me and a colleague more than an hour to traverse the ice to get to the house at the top of the slope. We were sweating and in fits of laughter which had to be controlled to deliver the message with straight faces and a serious demeanour.
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Meeting my Sergeant at the top of Redcliffe Hill to attend a call to a group of disorderly youths outside a block of flats. As we approached the group in a serious manner conveying the pomp and circumstance of Her Majesty’s Constabulary I slipped on the ice, fell flat on my back and at the same time taking the Sergeant’s feet from under him. Helmets and torches flew in all directions and the boys were in stitches at our plight. They did however come to our assistance and soon left the area chuckling.
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A colleague and I were at the Bush in Totterdown when the pillar (an old fashioned means of communication) started to flash. We picked our way carefully through the snowdrifts and icy pavements to answer the call. It was two in the morning and an ambulance was attending a call to an elderly gentleman residing at Park Street, Totterdown. This was one of many very steep streets in the area and due to the conditions the ambulance crew were unable to reach the house concerned to remove the patient to hospital. They had parked at the bottom, climbed to the mid-point, found the house and the patient but were physically unable to remove him. The four of us, one at each corner of a stretcher, then manhandled the poor fellow over garden walls to the bottom because the pavement was impassable.
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I rode my bicycle to work every day through these freezing weather conditions and believe it or not I managed to fall off my trusty steed on many occasions in my efforts to arrive on time at my designated station, most of which have now been closed e.g. East Street, Knowle, and St Annes.
People reacted differently to my predicament, mostly it was with amusement, sometimes derision but occasionally with empathy and sympathy. Usually that kindness was shown when I was en-route to Broadbury Road in the heart of Knowle West an area renowned for trouble-makers but not widely known for the kind and caring inhabitants who also live there. Bad weather brings out the worst, but, more often than not, the best in people!