AS forecasters predict a harsh winter we look back at the times when it REALLY snowed in East Lancs. 

These incredible pictures show some of the coldest winters on record, when villages were cut off for days by huge snowdrifts and temperatures struggled to get above freezing.

Back in 1947 - between January and March - it snowed somewhere in the country every day for 55 days.

But worse was to come 16 years later, with temperatures so cold the sea froze in places - 1963 is recorded as one of the coldest winters on record.

Bringing blizzards, snow drifts, blocks of ice, and temperatures lower than -20°C, it was even colder than the winter of 1947 - and the coldest since 1740.

It began three days before Christmas and, before the year was out, roads and railways were blocked, telephone lines brought down, and some villages were left cut off for several days.

The snow was so deep farmers couldn’t get to their livestock, and many animals starved to death.

Big freeze predicted for winter 2018

Snow 2017 in East Lancashire - your photos 

Take a look at the incredible photographs of winters of yesteryear:

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Heavy snowfall making everyday life difficult at Overtown, Burnley, during the downfall in February 1963

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Bronte country, the Colne to Haworth Road in February 1963

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Deep drifts in Revidge Road, Blackburn, during the heavy snowfall of January 1970

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Snow in Corporation Park, Blackburn, January 1970

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Traffic negotiating St James’s Street, Burnley, February 1979

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A coach is stuck in the snow in Bacup in February 1955

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A gentleman is unamused by the weather stopping play in January 1963

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A man and his dog out for a walk in the snow in Corporation Park, Blackburn in January 1970

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A young girl is dwarfed by a snowman in Helmshore, January 1963

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Bryan Jackson (right) and John Holden take a peep outside the snow house they helped to build in Worston Close, Accrington in February 1963

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Children play in the snow in the winter 1963

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Grane Road in 1963

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Workmen dig out a snow plough stuck in the drifts in the Roman Road, Darwen 1968

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Two young boys play in the snow 1963

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Two men brace a blizzard at Road End, Haslingden 1963

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Tockholes in March 1954

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Pickup Bank in Darwen in March 1955

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John Hanson (right) and Brian Roper outside an igloo they built in Churchfield House, Great Harwood. January 1990

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A woman with her dog in the arctic conditions in Rossendale Road, Burnley, January 1984

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A car overturned in February 1963 is pulled back onto its wheels