Now that winters are no longer as cold as once they were, when it snows in Taplow now the falls are not as heavy nor as long lasting as previously. These days if we get a fall of snow it will amount only to a covering and be gone within the day.
Time was that a good fall of snow could be expected most winters and when that happened all hardy, fun loving folk would make a beeline for Taplow Hill at Mill Lane to enjoy their own interpretation of winter sports. On a fine weekend the Hill could be as busy as any alpine resort. The only difference being the variety of objects that people would use to slide down to the bottom. Everything from bin bags and tea trays to toboggans and skis could be seen and the range of clothing was as equally varied and improvised. When the temperature was especially cold, so that the snow froze, then you could slide almost as far as the Bath Road. Also the various undulations and dips of the Hill and buried hedgerows provided a ride as exhilarating as going over any mogul in the Alps. In those days people were intent on having fun and did not mind the bumps and sprains or collisions that invariably happened.
The last time that we experienced these conditions that I can recall was in the winter of 1982. I had just bought my first cross country skis and the heavy and lasting snow on Taplow Hill of that winter provided the perfect opportunity for trying them out and practising in advance of a real test in Norway. Being cross country skis then I could go back up the Hill - making up for the only thing that the Hill did not share with its alpine cousins – a drag lift!
Not only has the weather changed but sadly so have peoples’ attitudes. It is unlikely these days that such carefree abandonment would be allowed for fear of the lawsuits that would inevitably follow if anyone got hurt. More drastically with the building of the drainage channel, the whole side of the Hill has been reconfigured so that not only has the area that was previously used for tobogganing and skiing been severely reduced but you would now risk a cold bath if you got too good a slide! Perhaps if we ever get a severe winter again the sluggish waters of the channel will freeze over and there will be skating instead!
On the occasions that I go down the black Furgg / Furi run at Zermatt I often think back to that Hill in Taplow where it all started…
