JACK Frost may have brought a bitter start to January, 2002 but his recent week-long visit was extremely brief compared to that during the notorious winter of 1962-63 when, as this picture shows, braziers had to be burned for weeks on end at Blackburn's railway station to prevent the freezing-up of the water tower supplying the old steam trains.

It the coldest winter since 1878-79, during which East Lancashire experienced the highest-ever number of freezing days and nights -- 66 in all from December 22 onwards. The average night temperature for three months was 28F, with the coldest being January 24 when the mercury dropped to a numbing 11.7F, or minus 11C.

But while the big freeze proved a nightmare for the rail workers in charge of Blackburn's station's water tower, it was an even greater one for thousands of households whose pipes were frozen solid for weeks -- and then burst when at last Jack frost loosened his grip in the first week of March, 1963.