SO, you think this week's weather has been bad . . . the reality is that we simply do not have winters like we used to.

A quick glance through the Bolton Evening News' Looking Back picture archives reveals that winters of yesteryear were much worse than the 2004 cold snap.

Ask any senior citizen which years they remember for the Big Chill, and it is likely to be in the 1930s and '40s (1940 and 1947 were especially bad), while 1953 and 1963 particularly stay in the memory.

Then, roads were swiftly blocked, reservoirs became iced over hard enough for local skaters to use, and remote farms were cut off.

They must have been a far hardier lot in those days.

So, turn up the central heating, plug in the kettle for a hot drink -- and just sit back and look at the pictures here, of when Mother Nature really did do her winter worst.