MALVERN was gripped by wintry weather 50 years ago, as the above picture from front page of the Gazette shows.

Conditions must have been cold indeed for Swan Pool, in Priory Park, to freeze thickly enough to support the weight of skaters.

But it was not all fun and games. The Gazette also reported three cases of fires started after plumbers attempted to thaw out frozen pipes.

The first was at Sunny Lodge, a 17th Century house on Worcester Road, Malvern Link. The owners were out and the fire was spotted by a local councillor, A L Surtees, who called out the fire brigade.

The house was saved, but an 18ft hole was left in the roof and two bedrooms, the landing and staircase were damaged.

A similar incident took place at a house on Church Street, where roof timbers and the ceiling were damaged after a blowtorch was used for defrosting.

At Powick mental hospital, a worker using a blowtorch accidentally ignited some lagging, and burned his hands and arms putting out the blaze.

A woman on Lambourne Avenue, whose curtains had frozen, accidentally set them on fire while drying them. The flames caused a water pipe in the ceiling to burst. Firemen found a kitchen on fire at one end and water pouring through the ceiling at the other.

The bad weather caused the cancellation of football fixtures that week, with Malvern Town matches on the Friday and Saturday being axed.

n When was the last time that the Swan Pool froze over? I remember the lake at Earnslaw Quarry freezing over thickly enough to walk on, and that must have been in the late 70s.