DEDICATED ROAD crews worked round the clock to keep Saddleworth’s roads open after biting gales dumped tonnes of snow – cutting off villages, closing roads and causing massive chaos and disruption.
Howling sub-zero winds, gusting up to more than 50mph, scythed across the communities with widespread drifting leaving roads and lanes littered with abandoned vehicles. 
And Oldham’s highways department built a man-made 12-foor high snow wall across the A635 Greenfield-Holmfirth road to prevent madcap drivers causing more mayhem by getting stranded in the arctic conditions.
In some cases, locals could only gain access to villages by walking along the tops to drystone walls and locals said the weather was the worse seen in 30 years
Gritting crews kept the A62 Oldham-Huddersfield road open with the snows forcing the closure of all other trans-pennine routes for more than 36 hours.
But after Trojan efforts, backed by snow blowers and diggers, teams through mountain-sized drifts on the A672 Denshaw road, opening a link to the M62 at junction 22.
But 4×4 drivers were condemned by villagers who said some ignored the weather and tried to beat huge snow drifts, only to have their vehicles pulled clear after being stuck.
Pubs and restaurants took a pounding with some completely cut off by the weather and Denshaw church services were cancelled.
Oldham Mountain Rescue Team, working alongside ambulance and other services, answered nine call outs.
They battled through snows to collect a woman mourner who was taken ill while attending a funeral at the Church Inn, Uppermill.
Pub staff, locals and other mourners along with police and a gritting crew could only make it to the top of Church Lane where mountain rescue crew managed to collect the sick woman in their four-wheel drive ambulance.
Said publican Julian Taylor: “It’s good people can still stick together and get the job done as a team in times of need and in severe blizzards and sub-zero temperatures.”
Oldham’s head of highways Craig Dale said: “The winds were unrelenting. The snows themselves were severe but driven by the howling winds the situation quickly became treacherous.
“My teams worked like Trojans in two 16-hour shifts – they were brilliant.”
Claire Crowther, whose family farm a giant spread on the A635 Greenfield- Holmfirth Road, said: “It took my brother Chris three hours to dig Ward Lane, Diggle, to get to feed the sheep. The snow was shocking.”
Businessman Dave Orrit said drifts ran the full length of Waterworks Road and worsened approaching Castleshaw. “Only a snow blower could get through as drifts varied between four and eight foot deep,” he said.
Michael Fancy, who runs the Royal Oak at Heights above Delph, said they had brought sheep in from the worse of the storms.
“The snows were really deep, whipped up by severe winds,” he added. “We gained access to Delph by walking along the tops of drystone walls.”
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