AS the first batch of cold weather hits the UK in 2019, we take a look back at when Queen's Park lake in Blackburn froze over.

This fantastic picture was taken in January 1946.

With weather plummeting down to -10 degrees Celsius, or 14 degrees Fahrenheit, the top two-and-a-half inches of the lake froze.

This gave people the chance to ice skate and play around in the middle of the lake.

Known for one of the hardest winters in living memory, the bad weather had already started to batter the UK with temperatures dropping to -14 degrees Celsius in December 1945.

This was the first winter after the Second World War and it was so cold vegetables were frozen into the ground. There was a ration on meat and gas supplies were reduced.

Coal supplies were run down and factories closed.