The heatwave of 1976

[1961_vintage]

Was that the summer that it didn't rain in Manchester?

 

[kismet]

spot on Blue underpants there was not a cloud from April to September…..

good year to get married…….

 

[Chris in London]

We went out into the hills past Glossop for picnic one day. One of the reservoirs was so low you could see the remains of the village that used to be there before they built the res.

Ladybower I think it was, where the Dambusters did their training.<br /><br />-- Sun Mar 09, 2014 9:38 am --<br /><br />

Was that the summer that it didn't rain in Manchester?

No.

It rained for forty days and forty nights.

Driest summer on record.

 

[Carver]

It was so hot that the stalks of grass dried up, we made loads of grass slides on flaggy fields Heyrod. The place was littered with cardboard boxes that were used as sledges.

The fields between Ridge Hill, Stalybridge and Hazelhurst, Ashton catching fire nearly every day either due to broken glass or kids setting fire to it

Falling into the then disused Huddersfield Narrow canal in Heyrod after the rope swing I was on snapped.

 

[Dirty Harry]

I was 10 at the time, and always remember the tarmac roads melting and us scraping huge chunks of it up and throwing it at each other, it was a right biatch to get out of your hair as well.

 

[morleyswife]

I was born on the 8th of September. Thats the day it pissed it down. Never fu king stopped since.

 

[allan harper]

I guess many of the younger members on here don't remember the summer of 76. We'd beaten Newcastle in the February with goals from Tueart and Barnes plus great performances from Royle, Doyle, Watson etc. From then on the sun just kept on shining and for June and July it was in the 80's for about a month, it was unbelievable.

On the telly we had Reggie Perrin, When the Boat Comes in and Swap shop. At the cinema it was One flew over the cuckoos nest, All the Presidents Men, Taxi Driver and Rocky. House Prices were on average £12k, petrol 76p a gallon, inflation 16% and interest rates 14%. Carter had replaced Gerard Ford as President in the US and Harold WIlson had handed over to Jim Callaghan.

Musically it was Rod Stewart, Elton, Queen, Abba, Bruce, Eagles and Fleetwood Mac in the charts plus ELO. However Punk was arriving in the form of Anarchy in the UK from the Pistols and New Rose from the Damned.

CIty were steadily improving the team and a couple of years later we should have won the league but finished runners up to Liverpool.

However apart from a trophy for City the standout feature of 76 was the incredible weather. Any other blues with memories of that year !!!

I was born sept 76 my mother said I was a right nuisance, carrying me around in that heat, 37 years later I'm still a nuisance.

 

[nelsons willie]

I managed to get work with an agency, aged 17, as a drivers mate for canada dry ordsall lane. free pint in every pub , driver included. first day pissed as a fart. second day pissed as a fart, got wrong bus going home and ended up wandering round salford precinct until some kindly soul put me on a bus to manchester. I then got a job in stalybridge. The factory was next to the river tame? Anyway it dried out and the factory was overun with rats. I hated going in that place first thing in the morning.

 

[nw42]

I was 16 in the February, expelled from school. Set off hitch hiking to Cornwall on the Friday before the cup final, ended up at Wembley watching Southampton beat the rags, then got a lift of some saints fans after the game, it was a mad night in Southampton, the whole town were on the piss, I honed my minesweeping skills that night and slept in the stairwell of a block of flats.

Watched the open top bus parade the next day and then set off for Cornwall, by the Weds I had a job as a hotel porter near Falmouth and stayed the whole long hot summer, £18 a week wages all found, which was plenty when you only had a day and half off work each week in which to spend it. Great memories of the summer of 76.

 

[denislawsbackheel]

Lady bower reservoir got so low you could see the ruins of the flooded village sacrificed in its creation.