Held tight in winter's grip or sent sliding in the snow

You know the weather is bad when a snow shovel succumbs to the slippery conditions and ends up in a ditch.

By The Newsroom

Published 11th Jan 2018, 09:27 BST

Updated 11th Jan 2018, 09:30 BST

A man with a shovel tries to get this Mini moving in February 1979..

Or when a motorist must rely on brute force to dig a snow-stuck car free from the clutches of the white stuff.

Both these incidents were captured by the Gazette’s photographer in February and March, 1979.

A blizzard descends on King Street, South Shields, in 1950.

The council vehicle came to grief on Follingsby Lane, near West Boldon, and had to be helped by a nearby quarry vehicle, while the Mini ground to a halt on Bents Park Road.

Elsewhere pedestrians can be seen out and about in the cold and snow in Bents Park, in 1994, and in King Street, in December 1950.

King Street