Monday 5th March
Course Closed
Guess who was in charge of clearing the Chard area road
network?
Arrived 31st December 1962 1830 hrs Chard Junction not Chard
Central as expected. Found snow 12 to 18 inches deep throughout which with two
items of luggage proved difficult plus I was dressed for the Train not the Arctic. Proceeded to trudge through snow until a farmer in a Land Rover rescued
me at Tatworth Tree and dropped me at the Copper Kettle B&B where the ice
never left the inside of the windows for the next 3 months.
The direct labour force in the Chard division were magnificent and
under the direction of the Divisional Surveyor Leonard Denman and myself used
what few facilities we had to maintain a flow of traffic on roads and footways.
The County were ill prepared for the amount of snow and cold so we had to
commission any help we could get from farmers and contractors who were unable
to work as normal and were pleased help.
The A30 was closed to traffic on a number of occasions due to
drifting snow and when it was opened the snow became sheet ice due to traffic.
We had 70 tons of salt in the depot which went nowhere and was used as much on footways in Town as it was on the Roads.
Quite an inauguration for a young engineer but I
got to meet a lot of people very quickly.
Malcolm Roy
Dave King - Head Greenkeeper
Hi all,
Just
a quick update on the status of the course. Following the recent deep frosts
and the heavy snowfall, the course will take some time to be playable again.
Currently we still have some significant accumulations of snow on the course
and the ground is still frozen, meaning that where the snow has melted, the
water cannot drain through the frozen ground. The temperatures are set to rise
over the next few days but there is also quite a lot of rain forecast but we
will open the course as soon as it is playable, the status will be reviewed
daily and posted through the usual channels
