THAT'S PROPER SNOW: Glittering glimpse at some of East Lancashire's whitest winters

Many readers will remember some of the heavy snowfalls of past years which have held East Lancashire in their icy grasp.

Today, we take a look back of some severe winters the area has endured in words and pictures, winters when snow drifts 10 feet deep cut off roads and villages, but didn’t stop the post getting to us...

Winters such as 1960, when a relief party set out from Todmorden Post Office in search for 50-year-old postman Frank Smith went missing in bad snow.

After scouring the hills for most of the afternoon, they found him exhausted in Cross Stone Road, too tired to make the descent back into the valley.

Normally, Mr Smith of Halifax Road, Todmorden, delivered parcels and letters by van to the outlying farms on the hills around the town.

But after having to dig his vehicle out of six foot snow drifts three times that week, Todmorden post master Kenneth Luxton decided to split the round up between three men – and that they should make the deliveries on foot.

Frank’s round was the toughest of the lot and when he had not returned after four hours after setting out, search parties were organised.

After they located him, the postman told how he had encountered drifts six feet deep over Stanstead Moor and by the time he got to his last call, he hadn’t the energy to walk any further.

Said Mr Luxton, when everyone was back in the post office at 6pm: “I am proud of my chaps.

“They have not missed a single delivery, despite the appalling conditions.”

As snow lay deep in East Lancashire that February, two ambulance men and a doctor battled in a blinding blizzard to free an ambulance which was stuck in a drift in Newchurch-in-Pendle while carrying a serious stretcher case to hospital.

Ambulance driver Bob Pollard and his mate Harold Holden worked desperately with shovels while Dr Doran of Reedyford, following in his car, helped with the rescue as the minutes ticked by.

The vehicle eventually came free and Dr Doran said later: “Thanks to their efforts in bitterly cold conditions, we were able to get the patient to hospital without too long a delay, which could have proved serious.”

Workers slithered to work after the worst weekend of the winter and the roads proved too slippery for some on the roads.

For a National Coal Board 10 ton crane, used for building coal bunkers in the Burnley area had to be called in to help lift a double decker bus, which crashed through a wall and fell down an embankment in the snow and ice.

A Burnley, Colne and Nelson Joint Transport Undertaking vehicle crashed in a snow storm on a notorious S bend at Laneshawbridge.

The bus toppled 15 feet before toppling on its side.

Two passengers were unhurt, while the driver and conductor, Sharp Bancroft of Carriers Row and Frank Pickles of Barley Street, Colne, received slight injuries.