10 years ago | Chamberlains Farm, Shevington Moor, UK | 26th January 2013

When we first moved to Chamberlains Farm, in 1981, the best part of living here was the space.  Five acres of fields and driveway offered ample opportunity for a wide variety of games and, yes, mischief.

That first winter was one of the harshest for a generation, with drifting snow and consistently below-average temperatures.  I’m not sure if that was the year we ‘invented’ car sledging but I think it might have been.

It’s as simple as it sounds: tie a sledge to the back of a car with a length of rope and drive around with someone on the sledge.  With two fields to go at, and a driveway of about a sixth of a mile, a decent snow covering can provide hours of fun.

And it did.  I remember coming in after what felt like the whole evening (it was probably only an hour or so), with numb fingers and toes, on an adrenaline high.  The only problem with it was – even forty years ago – the very few times it was snowy enough.  Perhaps that scarcity value is what makes it, even now, feel like a special treat.  I could probably count on two chilblain-afflicted hands the number of times we went car sledging in the whole decade.

Over the years, I grew up, moved away and moved back again and it wasn’t until Christmas 2009 – now with a whole new generation in the family – that we resurrected the concept.  That winter and the following winter were both snowy enough for good car sledging and by then, we also had something we didn’t have in the 80s: four wheel drive.  The only bit of a downside was that, at 6, 2 and 1, the kids weren’t really old enough to be excited by it.

So when we woke up that Saturday morning in January 2013 to a fresh layer of snow, we knew we had to make the best of the weekend ahead of us.

It was just as much fun as I remember it, with the kids all in the perfect age zone to enjoy it fully and friends and family coming over to take part, just like the old days.  It was a brilliant day and I have loads of stills to prove it.

We’ve had snow since then, but sadly, not enough for us to tie the sledge onto the car.  Who knows how many m ore years it will be until it happens again?  I couldn’t believe it’s been ten years since our last day’s car sledging and I’m now very aware that with each year, there’s less of a guarantee that our fast-growing-up kids will feel like taking part.

It was always a rare event but you just wonder if it’s now more accurately described as ‘a thing of the past’.  Hopefully, now I’ve suggested that, we’ll have two feet of snow overnight before this winter is out…