THE Uk has had its first smattering of snow recently but it's probably fair to say we've had nothing so far this winter like the big freezes many of us remember from our childhoods.

So here are a few snowy photos from years past, all taken from our own archives.

We particularly like the cheery expression on the faces of the workmen clearing snow and slush from Davygate on New Year's day, 1962 - and the way that, during a spell of icy weather in February 1978, the statue in the centre of the Station Rise fountain developed its own veil of ice.

An aerial photograph of a lorry stranded in snow somewhere in the East Riding in December 1968 created some wonderful patterns as low sunlight threw ridges in the snow into relief.

But perhaps the most extraordinary photo of all is the one dating from March 1963 showing pack ice jammed against the arches of Tadcaster Bridge. This was decades before the bridge collapsed during the 2015 floods - but graphically demonstrates the strains it had been enduring for decades.

We've also dug out photographs of power company workers checking for faults on power lines up in the snow-bound Yorkshire Wolds in February 1986; young tobogganists hauling their sledges up Terrington Bank in January 1987; and Bootham schoolboy Guy Mailing using his canoe as an 'ice-breaker' on the River Ouse in December 1973. Oh, and we found a lovely photo of a York sign shrouded in snow from 1973. That's one to cheer the heart, for some reason.

Happy New Year!