Bolton man joins forces with others to clear cars stuck in the snow

Alan Webber, aged 72, helped push and clear cars which were stuck around Entwistle Reservoir.

Alan who lives close to the town centre, took up walking more frequently during the Covid-19 pandemic after the gym he used to go to closed during the lockdown.

Having taken early retirement in his 50s, Alan goes out and about across Lancashire daily to explore and walk in nature.

During his walk on Tuesday, with the forecast being for rain only, Alan found himself stuck in a snowstorm with cars, inlcluding his, unable to move near Turton Tower.

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Himself and several others worked for more than an hour to clear the roads and dig cars out of the snow.

Snow fell causing cars to be stuck on the incline (Image: Alan Webber)

Alan said: “I go walking in Lancashire and I have done since lockdown when the gyms closed and one of the walks, I do is Entwistle, so I looked at the forecast yesterday and it said heavy rain after 10am so I thought I’d do a morning walk.

“So I was walking around Entwistle at about 9.45am and noticed one or two flakes of snow and as I am coming out of Entwistle reservoir on Green Arms Road it started snowing really heavy.

“It was like a snowstorm with snow coming down for 15 minutes.

“I’d never seen anything like it, it was hail and snow, it was a complete whiteout.

“It hadn’t stuck on the road by then so I made my way to the end of Green Arms Road and there were about six cars trying to get out, but they couldn’t move,  Blackburn Road coming down from Darwen it was tail to tail.

“And because they were stuck on the incline, they couldn’t get a grip on the road.

“There were two inches of snow on Green Arms Road, when I approached the traffic, I put my brakes on and I skidded.

“When I turned around my tyre tracks looked about four inches deep.

Several people helped drivers push their cars out of the snow (Image: Alan Webber)

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“I turned round but going down past the Turton Tower it was dangerous, big mistake it was gridlocked at Turton Bottoms.

“I got down to Turton Bottoms, parked there and thought right if it doesn’t ease up, I will walk home.

“I spotted some contractors who said they needed to get to their next job, so we all just got out the cars and started to help others.

“We dug around tyres and pushed people out of the snow.

“With several guys after 45 minutes we managed to get a couple of vehicles out, after an hour we managed to scrape away snow, spread grit then push the stricken vehicles.

“We were pushing, shoving and did everything we could to help.

“We all chipped in and got the cars out.

“It was really slippy underfoot at Turton Bottoms, but we all chipped together and helped each other.”

Today the forecast is cold, with any rain and hill snow moving northeastwards.

Tonight any snow will turn into rain overnight. 

If you have a story or something you would like to highlight in the community, please email me at chloe.wilson@newsquest.co.uk or DM me on Twitter @chloewjourno.