Deep snow lies at Magdalen Bridge

At this time of year, we expect to be enjoying plenty of spring sunshine.

But 100 years ago this week, much of Oxfordshire was at a standstill - under between 15 and 18 inches of snow.

The unseasonal downfall on Saturday, April 25, 1908, blocked roads, disrupted transport and left people stranded in their homes.

The snow started in the early hours and continued to fall non-stop for 18 hours.

Our sister paper, The Oxford Times, reported: "By 10 o'clock, the streets and housetops were covered to a depth of about three inches and an hour later, it was found necessary to suspend the train service."

It was due to be a particularly busy day at Oxford railway station, with hundreds of undergraduates arriving for the start of the university's Trinity term, and the Great Western Railway brought in extra staff to clear the snow from points so that services could resume.

The paper continued: "An average depth of eight inches had been reached by two o'clock and 13 inches by five o'clock, and when the fall ceased at about 10 o'clock in the evening, between 15 and 18 inches were recorded in open spaces.

"Most of the trains were two or three hours late on Saturday evening and passengers who went to London to witness the English Cup Final did not reach home until five o'clock on Sunday morning."

St Giles was well covered

The drivers of many horse-drawn vehicles stayed the night at the Anchor Hotel, in New Road.

Surprisingly, the snowstorm did little damage, though a chimney at the Roebuck Vaults, in Market Street, crashed down, two tons of snow fell on customers in an Abingdon hairdressing salon and a magnificent 100-year-old cedar tree at Wadham College collapsed.

Mr HB Wilsdon played the organ at the Sunday morning service at St Giles Church under an umbrella as melting snow came through the roof.

The Oxford Tramways Company brought out its snowplough to clear the tramlines, while 60 men from the city sanitary department cleared channels on roads and pavements.

The thaw began on Monday and by Tuesday evening, it had "sufficiently progressed to render further work unnecessary".

The problems, however, were not yet over. The biggest floods since 1894 were about to begin.

5:27pm Monday 21st April 2008

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