Being based in West Cumbria once again I look in envy at forecasts of heavy snow in the East, especially as I remember epic winters from my childhood in Gateshead. However many in West Cumbria will remember exactly 25 years ago on 5th/6th February 1996, for what has become known locally as The Big Snow, when about 20 hours of constant heavy fall resulted in over a foot of laying snow (even down to the edge of the lapping waves on Seascale beach) and drifts of 3 and 4 feet burying hundreds of abandoned cars across the space of a few miles. The photo shows a spot in Whitehaven where Morrisons now stands.