It was the coldest winter in a decade-and-a-half.
Petrol stations were closed, goods were not being delivered, rubbish was piling up in the streets and the dead were not being buried.
These powerful pictures remember the Winter of Discontent.
ICYMI: 31 unmissable old pictures of how Blackpool looked in 1988 - people, buildings and everyday life
1. How we coped with strikes and power cuts
Bitter arguments erupted during an informal meeting of local lorry drivers Photo: library
2. How we coped with strikes and power cuts
Power cuts in 1972 were the result of the miners strike. But they didn't stop Blackpool in its tracks. This superb photo shows Les and his Honky Tonks performing at the Royal Oak Hotel, South Shore. The headlights of a Mini belonging to one of the regulars provided emergency lighting during the blackout in the pub Photo: Peter Emmett (staff)
3. How we coped with strikes and power cuts
A brazier helps keep out the cold for pickets at the Rigby Road cleansing department, in Blackpool, 1979 Photo: library
4. How we coped with strikes and power cuts
Deadlines to meet and a paper to get out - nothing stopped these Blackpool Evening Gazette typesetters as they worked on the stone by lamp light during the power cuts in 1972 Photo: staff
5. How we coped with strikes and power cuts
This was 1974. A winter of reckoning beckoned for farmers across the area. John and Patricia Gardner with their daughter Janet among the herd of fresians at their farm in Preesall Photo: National World
6. How we coped with strikes and power cuts
A woman breast feeding her newborn baby by candlelight during a blackout in 1970 Photo: Getty Images