SCHOOLS closed, roads were blocked and events were called off last week as sub-zero temperatures plunged Britain into Arctic-like conditions.The nation is renowned for its love of discussing the weather and there were barely any other subjects of conversation on the cards as the impact of snow and ice dominated the news.

SCHOOLS closed, roads were blocked and events were called off last week as sub-zero temperatures plunged Britain into Arctic-like conditions.

The nation is renowned for its love of discussing the weather and there were barely any other subjects of conversation on the cards as the impact of snow and ice dominated the news.

Many schools in Waveney were closed as treacherous conditions and strained boilers proved an unsafe combination for teachers and pupils alike.

However, 23 years ago the story was very different when a similar amount of snow fell in Suffolk.

Jane Cole, of Laxfield, but originally of Somerleyton, alerted us to the Lowestoft Journal front page from Friday, January 14, 1977, which shows life continuing seemingly as normal.

The issue, which is 23 years ago to the edition, includes a picture of Somerleyton children walking back to school following the end of their Christmas holiday.

Alongside it is a short story explaining that Lowestoft had seen four inches of snow that week as temperatures plummeted to -7.6 degrees centigrade.

The article read: 'One inch of snow fell on Tuesday, followed by three inches on Wednesday. The lowest temperature on Wednesday was -7.6 degrees centigrade, rising to 0.7 centigrade and a high of 1 degree centigrade on Wednesday evening.

'To deal with all this snow there were four gritting lorries out in Lowestoft streets all day yesterday, starting at 6am and 230 tons of salt were spread on the roads.

'There were also two snow-ploughs and two mechanical shovels used to clear the roads.'

Other stories in that week's paper included plans to restrict the opening hours of Lowestoft Hospital's accident and emergency department and an extension of free swimming for pensioners. The headline piece of the day was a story explaining that a lack of available Waveney council houses was leading to a shake up of the allocation system.