In Rushden and Higham Ferrers on Tuesday morning and throughout the day, snow and ice-covered roads made motoring difficult and lorries and cars were unable to move without the aid of passers-by.

Householders rallied to the rescue of a British Road Services lorry driver, whose heavy vehicle was unable to get a grip on the road to pull out of a cul-de-sac. Eventually, with the aid of mats and ashes, he got away.

Other vehicles were dug out of drifts and motorists using the Rectory Road car park had to dig and push their way out.

Children Help

One motorist – avoiding the car park – left his car in Portland Road – and took three-quarters of an hour to get away, with the help of housewives and schoolchildren.

Outside the town the roads were even worse, and five miles south of Rushden, on the A6 road, it was impassable on the Long Leys hill at Sharnbrook. Traffic had to be diverted through the villages of Souldrop and Sharnbrook.

On Wednesday morning the road was still blocked at the same spot by a stranded lorry. When this was cleared there was still only room for single line traffic.

Even a snowplough clearing the road at Sharnbrook crossroads got stuck and blocked the road for a time on Tuesday afternoon. Clearing the Souldrop road on Wednesday the same plough again had to be dug out of a drift.

Police Busy

Double decker buses were among the vehicles held up when a lorry slithered and stuck across the road at Souldrop Turn, also on Wednesday afternoon. During this period, every available policeman in the Sharnbrook Division was out on the roads, and they received considerable assistance from A.A. patrolmen.

The River Ouse flooded roads at Harrold, Radwell and Felmersham to knee-depth, although the road between Harrold and Rushden was passable. Roadside fields at Milton Ernest and Bletsoe were flooded and – on Wednesday morning – thinly frozen over.

No milk – normally delivered from Rushden – reached Dean on Tuesday or Wednesday and there was no bus service for the village on Wednesday. The mail – from Huntingdon – arrived as usual, however.

Roads between Thurleigh and Melchbourne, Thurleigh and Knotting, Yelden and Newton Bromshold and Yelden and Melchbourne, were blocked. The back road from Higham Ferrers to Chelveston air base was blocked, as was the road from Newton to the base.

Personnel were sent home from the base early on Tuesday, and many of them were unable to get back to duty on Wednesday morning. Personnel on the base were not allowed to leave it, but the flying programme was not affected.

Owing to the state of the road the Yelden and District British Legion meeting, scheduled for Wednesday evening, was cancelled, and the Raunds Conservative dinner on Tuesday postponed.

Between Rushden and Raunds, the road was reduced to single line traffic at Stanwick and the Raunds – Hargrave road was impassable on Wednesday morning.