THE sudden snowfalls this month prompted descriptions such as 'nightmare' and 'appalling'. But for those whose memory stretches back to the winter of 1978, this year's whiteout was something of a mere irritation in comparison.

These photographs, supplied by Ingrid Westington, show the wall of snow that cut Lydford off from the outside world for a week in February 1978.

Ingrid, whose parents ran the village's Chantry Tearooms and Post Office, remembers it well: 'I was 16 at the time. At one stage the door was blocked by snow — nobody could get in and we couldn't get out. We had to be dug out.

'The village was blocked off for a week — we couldn't reach Okehampton and we couldn't get to Tavistock. We sold out of everything in the shop.'

It was, added, Ingrid, 'horrendous' and these pictures show that word is no exaggeration.