Back to the snow. Back in the dim and distant past, about 25 years ago, maybe, farmers in Kent and Gloucestershire (only places I can speak for) used to put up snow fencing in their fields some yards from the road so that drifts would not form in the road itself. Also, Kent county council would retain farmers to go out and plough their local roads, and you could see the snowplough attachment sitting around in the yard waiting for use. We haven't had winters like those for some time, and as the sensible people keep saying - we can't keep heavy plant around for three days every ten years. Canada and Chicago, if they couldn't do it, they should be criticised, but if we did do it, and then ran out of cash for something more frequent, it would be wrong.

Someone round here, I suspect the farmer up the road, did a bit of clearing, and made a heap which made turning into our road a bit tricky, so i shovelled it out of the way - it wasn't a plough, though, more like a small bulldozer, from the blade marks. Perhaps the retainer idea is still in force.

Town roads are another matter - would you want to foot the bill for the damaged cars as the plough scraped them and dumped them on the pavement with the snow?