THIS week in 1982, Glaswegians were astonished to see the River Clyde frozen over – but it wasn’t the first time.
Jack House, in his Evening Times column that week, said: “The Clyde has frozen over several times in my lifetime but the oldest occasion I can trace was in 1606/7 when the river was frozen over for 15 weeks.
“There was only one bridge over the river, running from the foot of Stockwell Street to the Gorbals. In May 1907, the man who had rented Glasgow Bridge Tollhouse fo £17 10 shillings, complained that he had lost a lot of toll money because pedestrians and horse-and-carts could avoid paying tolls by crossing the ice instead of the bridge.
“He received a rent reduction of £3 6s 8d.”
Our dramatic archive picture shows a sailing ship on the Clyde stuck in ice in the 1890s.
When, in January 2010, the severe winter and plummeting temperatures once again saw parts of the River Clyde freeze over, it was the first time it had happened in 15 years.
Sheets of ice formed on the surface of the river close to the Squinty Bridge.
The River Clyde froze in 1962, and again in December 1995 when Glasgow hit an all-time low temperature of -19C - colder, even, said our newspaper, than Moscow.
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