THE big freeze of 2010 is sure to live long in the memory, but many are asking: “when has it been as bad as this?”.

How did the county cope when heavy snow fell during previous winter storms?

In December 1981, the Oxford Mail photographed St Peter’s College student Steve Palmquist with an igloo he and wife Dorothy built at the North Oxford Overseas Centre, in Banbury Road.

Mr Palmquist had no trouble building the igloo – and then revealed he was born in Alaska.

One of the coldest winters in living memory in Oxfordshire was the great freeze of 1962-63, when the winter was so cold the sea froze along the South Coast.

On January 22, 1963, a car was driven across the frozen River Thames in Oxford. Temperatures in some parts of the country fell as low as -16C.

The winter of 1947 was one of the coldest on record, and the worst affected area in Oxfordshire was Chipping Norton.

On Tuesday, January 28, 1947, the start of the Big Freeze, temperatures in Oxfordshire fell to -18.3C, the coldest night since 1917.

Oxfordshire suffered a three-month spell of bad weather that year, with snow, ice, floods and gales.

Many schools closed, roads became impassable and there were widespread power cuts.

Thirty children returning home from a pantomime spent the night stranded in a coach after it became stuck in deep snow between Witney and Burford.

When the thaw finally began in mid-March, it brought serious flooding.

Oxford pensioners’ spokesman Bill Jupp, 79, of Arlington Drive, Marston, said he recalled a snowfall of 3ft in 1947, when he was 16.

He added: “I can also remember the big freeze in 1963, when sheet ice stayed on the ground for a terrific length of time. I hope it won’t stick around as long this time.

“I also remember an old-fashioned Morris going across the ice on the Thames, near Donnington Bridge.

“These icy conditions can be very treacherous for pensioners and my wife Barbara, who is 73, fell on our drive before Christmas and broke her elbow and cracked two ribs.

“Compared to the Russians, we’re not well equipped to deal with extreme weather. It’s good advice to stay indoors.”