FOLLOWING our snow chaos story of last week, it was a pleasure to hear from Looking Back reader Alan Membury, who certainly experienced some misfortune in the appalling weather conditions of February 1978.

Alan's car - a Triumph Herald - was crushed by a snow plough after it broke down and he was forced to abandon it in blizzard-like conditions on the road between Dorchester and Broadmayne.

Alan, of Dorchester, picks up the story: "I was heading out to Broadmayne from Dorchester early on in the evening on a Saturday night.

"When I went out there was very little snow - just a dusting on the road.

"Approximately 1.5 miles from Broadmayne my car broke down and would not restart.

"I got out of the car in conditions that had quickly turned blizzard like.

"A butchers' van came from the Broadmayne direction - I waved it down and asked for a lift back to Dorchester - he turned me down stating he was not insured for passengers and just left me there! "Later a taxi also came from the Broadmayne direction and I waved it down. Again I asked for a lift back into town, thankfully the driver agreed and took me back into town and did not charge me.

"I immediately went to the police station and reported where I had had to leave my car.

"I went home to my parents in Blagdon Road where together we watched the snow getting deeper and deeper throughout the late evening; not believing how deep it was - the worst we had seen since 1963 when I was seven.

"The following day the old main road between Dorchester and Bridport must have been 12" deep in snow in Bridport Road by the hospital.

"The following morning I took a phone call giving me the bad news that my car had been run over by an army snow plough and was now in the pub car park in Broadmayne.

"My cousin and I walked through the fields mainly to get out to it - you could see the snow had just levelled between the hedgerows on the road where my car had been - with no exaggeration probably 6-8 feet deep.

"We made it out there to find my car, a lovely old Triumph Herald (10 years old only done 20K) crushed down to less than half its original height.

"My electrical tester was still in the boot and working."

Alan took the council to the small claims court as they had employed the army.

He said: "I did this on the grounds I had reported it to the police that it was there and they should have checked the road as people could have been inside.

"They settled out of court the day before it went to the magistrates court. Some lads from Bridport bought the car (basically a write-off) off me as all they wanted was the chassis."

Dorset Echo website online commenter 'olivercrom' remembers a rather hairy bus journey home from Weymouth during that winter.

"I was living in Winterborne Whitechurch at the time and teaching at Weymouth College the evening the snow started.

"My car was in for repairs so I had to rely on the Weymouth to Salisbury bus to get to and from work. Coming home that evening it was very tricky going around the hairpin at Ridgeway.

"We managed in the end to get to Winterborne Whitechurch but the bus could not go any further. The next day I remember walking along the Milton Abbas road from Whitechurch level with the hedge tops where several cars were buried in the snow. Later, winds sculpted the most amazing snow drifts all along the roads in and out of Whitechurch."

Thanks to you both for sharing these memory - it sounds like a winter to remember!