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

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

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

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.