Cold Winters

The winter of 1946/47 was a very severe one and saw the worst floods in September 1946 that I remember. Pictured on the right is a repeat performance in November 2000.

The beginning of 1947 saw very heavy snowfalls that seemed to stay on the ground forever. I was only six then but I remember the path that my father had cleared from the back door. The snow on either side was up to my shoulders. We built snowmen that lasted and lasted and sledged down Pinfold Lane for weeks. In the 'Mirfield Guide 98' there is a photograph of boys sledging down Pinfold in 1955 and if it had been taken 8 years earlier it could just have been us. The photo on the left is of a couple of my friends, David and Stuart Walker, outside their house in Lee Green during that winter.

March 1963: I was living at Dewsbury Moor then and this was our first winter as home owners. The house was a one up and one down with an outside toilet and had cost us £300.00 to buy. The temperature dropped below zero one night and stayed there for about six weeks without break. Needless to say the toilet froze solid but fortunately my in-laws lived only five minutes away so they were to be our salvation.

This house served us until 1965 when we moved back to Mirfield following the birth of my eldest son, Robert. We bought a new house in Mirfield at Towngate. It was a three bedroom end house in a block of four and cost £1875.00. It sounds good but my wage at that time was less than £15.00 per week.

1976 was another cold winter. I worked at Central Garage then and I remember that we were fighting a losing battle trying to keep the car wash operational. The photographs show the brushes frozen solid and puffed out with ice and also the icicles hanging down below the plastic screen. The photo on the right is a view of the carwash taken from inside clearly showing the swollen brushes. The frozen workers were Neil Sherwood and Colin Beatie.

This view is taken from Hagg Wood, Lower Hopton looking toward the Parish church. The landscape and foliage is covered by a thick ground frost and a thin mist covers the whole scene.

Emley Moor Mast Collapses

Emley Moor is a vital site for television transmission due to its elevated position and the TV Mast is visible from most parts of Mirfield. The first mast went into service on 3rd November 1956 and brought television transmissions to the Yorkshire area which was a difficult area to cover due to the steep Pennine hills and the long distance to the low-lying areas of the East Riding. It was a steel structure 445 feet high similar to a very large electricity pylon. It was to serve for less than 10 years before the requirement for colour and high quality sound transmission necessitated a new mast being built in 1964. When I returned to Mirfield in 1965 this was the mast that supplied our TV pictures and the signal strength was so great that we had to have an attenuator fitted on the aerial socket because the TV was being overloaded causing ghosting of one channel behind the picture of another.

This mast, pictured on the right, was constructed of tubular steel and rose to a height of 1,265 feet supported by steel cable guys. This design however was fraught with problems and was to instil fear in the local residents. During the cold winter weather in this exposed area, ice built up on the steel sides of the mast. When it later began to thaw large chunks of ice fell off the mast and its guys causing a hazard to life and limb for the local people and damage to buildings. The nearby Emley Methodist Church had several holes punched through its roof.

A scheme to rehouse those living closest to the mast was being discussed in 1969 and also a canopy to protect the Methodist Church. However, before any of this could be implemented a dramatic and potentially disastrous twist of fate took a hand. Just before two minutes past five on the evening of 19th March 1969 the build up of ice on the mast increased its weight to such an extent that coupled with ice on the cable guys and high winds sweeping the exposed site, the mast buckled and collapsed destroying the building at the foot of the mast and damaging the Methodist Church so severely that it had later to be demolished. Fortunately no one was killed in the accident. The picture on the left was taken 2 weeks after the collapse and shows the crumpled wreckage lying on the ground.

Not surprisingly, the local people had no wish for another mast to be erected on Emley Moor. However, this was a prime site for a television transmitter so engineers took on board the lessons learned and worked hard on a new design for the replacement. The outcome of all this deliberation was the current mast which is formed from a stronger curved tower of concrete which is now a familiar landmark in the area and has withstood the test of time.

It has a weight of 11,000 tons and is 80 feet in diameter at its base tapering to 21 feet and 3 inches at a height of 900 feet. At this level there is an observation room which is reached by a lift housed in the hollow centre of the tower. A 180 feet steel lattice mast is set on top of the tower and transmits signals to an area populated by over four million people. The total height of the mast is 1,083 feet making it the tallest self supporting television mast in the country but still 182 feet shorter than its ill fated predecessor.