Storm Arwen was bad enough for those of us who had a home to wrap up warm in – but imagine how rough it was out in the open.
A video from a farming couple shows how bad it can get when exposed to the elements, as they ended up having to three of their sheep out of a 10ft snowdrift.
The animals had gone missing during Storm Arwen, with no sign of them in the Peak District where they usually graze.
Kate and Nev Barker were out for hours as it kept snowing, trying to find their flock following the storm at the end of last week.
They eventually found most of the sheep, but some were still missing.
To find them, they ended up having to poke into deep drifts to see if they could find them, eventually tracking down every animal.
The couple run a smallholding and have 50 sheep which are kept for breeding, wool, and some are pets.
Herdwick sheep are known to be hardy, so Nev and Kate were confident they could withstand the cold.
But they obviously didn’t want them trapped in ice and snow.
After walking around their acreage Nev, 48, and Kate, 49, became increasingly worried.
‘The access into our fields was just thick with drifts,’ she said.
‘We were up to our waists, it was that deep we were just sinking. Panic set in.
‘We clambered over to the sheds and found most of them huddled there.
‘We dug the back of the shed out to gain access, so the flock could get some relief from the elements, and some hay and water.’
But some were still missing, so the pair used a crook to poke the larger snow drifts looking for their sheep.
They eventually found three ewes stuck in a drift that was more than 10ft high.
Video footage shows Nev digging out the first ewe with his bare hands, before enticing her out.
It took several minutes before she was brave enough to leave the igloo she had been stuck in.
Two further sheep were huddled behind her and all three were taken to the sheds to recuperate.
Amazingly they were unharmed.
Another group of rams – only visible because of their horns poking out the top of the drifts – also had to be dug from a similar situation in a different field.
Nev is a joiner while Kate was formerly a countryside ranger.
They now own the smallholding near Leek, Staffordshire, on the edge of the Peak District National Park, where temperatures dropped to -4C over the weekend.
Nev said they treat their sheep like members of the family – and couldn’t bear to see them stuck.
He added: ‘It’s literally like you’ve got your pet dog stuck in the snow, and all you want to do is get them out and make sure they’re ok.’
‘The conditions were brutal,’ Kate added.
‘But amazingly they’re OK and now running around the fields like nothing ever happened.’
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