PEOPLE living in a hamlet in west Oxfordshire were last night celebrating after snow was cleared from roads around their homes.

Residents of Asthall Leigh, near Minster Lovell, said they had been trapped since Wednesday, January 7, after 9in of snow made driving and walking along hilly roads dangerous.

One pensioner fractured her wrist after she fell, and a neighbour who took her to hospital ended up spinning his 4x4 vehicle 180 degrees on black ice.

However, on Thursday, iced-up access roads to the hamlet were treated.

Sandra Bowen, 59, who has lived in Asthall Leigh for 23 years, has been without central heating for more than three weeks as a plumber has been unable to reach her to fit a new boiler.

She said: “We have quite a few elderly people in the village and we’ve all been sitting tight since January 7, hoping that the roads will be eventually gritted.

“At least the roads are gritted now.”

There are no shops, doctors’ surgeries or pubs in the hamlet, which has a population of about 40.

Martin Hawkins, 51, used his 4x4 to take the elderly lady to Witney Community Hospital after she fractured her wrist.

He said: “She had been sitting at home nursing her wrist and it was black and blue. She had been at home for four days.”

County Hall spokesman Owen Morton said the council worked with the National Farmers’ Union to help to treat the hamlet on Thursday.