It's 60 years since the first snow, heralding the most severe UK winter in living memory, began falling on the North East.
The prolonged, chilly blast which began on Boxing Day, 1962, was the worst on record since 1740. Temperatures plummeted so low even the sea froze over, and the big freeze, caused by cold air from central Russia, lasted until March the following year.
The front page of the Evening Chronicle on December 27 told how snowploughs were out in Northumberland and Durham in an attempt to "beat the big freeze", motorists on Tyneside had snow and ice on the roads to contend with, and hundreds of commuters were delayed by frozen points at Newcastle Central Station. In fact, it was only the beginning.
