CHILDREN from all over East Lancs donned their winter woolies and jumped on the newest craze sweeping the nation back in January 1980.

As snow struck the county, from wintery Wiswell to white-out Wilpshire, youngsters ditched their traditional toboggans in favour of something called ‘poly-bagging’ - a wacky new take on how to sledge down a hill.

Poly-bagging, despite sounding complicated, was actually quite simple, and provided hours of fun for children who wanted to get out and about in the snow without the added effort of lugging a sledge around with them.

The rules of the sport were as follows - find a slope, climb into a polythene bag (or black bin liner), and slide.

Eleven-year-old Phillip Middleton, pictured, who lived in Knowsley Road, Wilpshire, was captured getting into the swing of things, having a jolly good slide in the New Year snow.

Poly-bagging was popular with kids all over the North West, especially those from families who couldn’t necessarily afford to buy a toboggan, and was a far cry from the tablets and games consoles of today.

Interestingly, it had one major advantage - when poly-baggers got to the bottom of the hill, they could just put their makeshift sledge into their pocket and run back up for another go.