SOUTH Cumbria coped with the worst weather seen for decades at the end of January in 1940 but the effects were kept secret to outsiders for several days due to Second World War censorship.

The Barrow News of Saturday February 3 began to tell the story of how Furness, Millom and Lakeland coped in the snow drifts.

It noted: "With trains 'lost' between Whitehaven and Barrow and the railway impassable, Millom has faced isolation and a shortage of fuel and food this week."

It was another week before the paper was officially allowed to tell people what they had seen with their own eyes.

The Saturday, February 11, edition noted that snow had bee followed by a wet and muddy thaw, then "a storm of historic proportions swept the entire country and paralysed traffic".

In Barrow, snow fell to a depth of 15 inches and in places the wind created drifts which were 15ft deep.

It noted: "Pretty well everything was brought to a standstill and most people had to dig themselves out for a start."

Streets and roads were blocked, buses could not run and railway lines were covered in huge snow drifts.

There were no milk deliveries, no post and very little coal or food in the shops.

It noted: "Cars remained in locked garages and soon there was the unaccustomed sight of citizens by the hundred walking to works, shop or office."

It took four days to restore a railway service from Barrow to Ulverston and six days of digging to reach Broughton.

It was five days before the first bus service could e restored between Barrow Town Hall and the White House on Abbey Road - and 10 days before buses to get to Ulverston.

The article noted: "The Askam bus, which had been marooned on Greenscoe Hill for over a week, was brought in under its own power after a tow from another bus."

Some farmers improvised sledges from sheets of corrugated iron and used pairs of horses to haul crates of milk bottles into town.

Donkeys and Shetland ponies were also seen making deliveries. People had to collect their own coal from railway sidings on sledges or in prams.

A police guard was needed to keep order as the crowds grew. Barrow medical officer of health, Dr G. H. Patterson, said the blizzard had been the worst since 1895.