A DRIVER who found himself stranded in Hawkshead after the heavy snow on Saturday wants to thank the community that came to his need through a fundraiser.

35-year-old Ben Ravetta from Barrow was travelling up to the Grizedale Rally but was caught out by the heavy snow when it fell on the morning of December 2 across Cumbria. Although Ben lives locally, the amount of snow meant that he could not move his car out of the valley. 

The Met Office up-rated an existing yellow warning to a more severe amber weather alert for snow in the early afternoon of Saturday. 

He said: "My plan was to drive to Hawkshead and then go up to High Cross via Coniston Hill but once I dropped down into Hawkshead valley the snow was extremely heavy. Once you're in it, it's difficult to get out when it's snow-covered. 

"Everyone was stuck, nobody could get out the hill. I spent four, five hours gridlocked in traffic and so did everybody else until eventually a huge snow flurry came and it was so heavy that I decided to turn off and pull into Hawkshead because we were going nowhere, people were getting stuck on hills and in side roads - it was madness.

"I was really panicking I wasn't planning to go, I had nowhere to stay. The community opened up the primary school, the village hall, the scout hut and a couple of other places. 

READ MORE: Live: Cumbria weather and traffic updates amid snow chaos

"I don't know if they've had some sort of incident like this before but the response was incredible. People were coming out with blankets, food, organising stuff - really good at leading things. There was about 150 people in the school alone with kids, I had a dog with me. People were bringing pet food and pillows, blankets, the local chippy they did a massive feed for all of us. People were bringing bacon sandwiches in bulk, someone did a load of soup. 

"One particular person was there all day and all night into the morning, she hadn't slept or nothing. 

"I wanted to repay the kindness the community paid me because without that it would have been an extreme struggle. They really, really looked after us."

Ben said that at around 4 in the morning, a farmer and a tractor cleared the snow on the road. Once he had dug his car out, Ben was able to head home. 

He set up a GoFundMe and the money will be donated to the school, which will be distributed 'as they see fit.' He contributed £50 to get the fundraiser started.