HEAVY snow falls across south Wiltshire last Thursday evening spelled long delays for workers trying to get home and brought chaos to Friday morning commuters.

Police had to deal with several accidents and abandoned vehicles and, as the snow turned to ice on Friday morning, many schools across the area were closed.

Between 3pm and midnight on Thursday, 102 incidents were reported to police in south Wiltshire and many officers stayed on duty hours after their shifts ended to help colleagues.

At 1.30am on Friday, the temperature in the area had fallen to -8.5C.

The worst affected road was the A30. Vehicles were abandoned in Fovant, Ansty Hollow, Ludwell and Tisbury.

A woman and her eight-month-old baby were marooned in their car at Donhead St Andrew before their car could be towed up the hill.

The road was impassable east of Swallowcliffe for some time and bus passengers on Wilts & Dorset's 5.45pm service to Shaftesbury reported reaching the Donheads at 10pm.

A group of schoolchildren and a coachload of elderly hospital patients, whose journeys along the A30 east of Salisbury were severely delayed by an accident, were taken to the Red Lion Hotel in Salisbury and the Hilltop Grill at Firsdown, for hot refreshments.

South Wiltshire's busiest road, the A303, was the scene of a three-vehicle accident at Countess Road roundabout, resulting in a driver being taken to hospital.

There was a single-vehicle accident at Yarnbury Hill, west of Winterbourne Stoke, when a car heading west spun and hit a road sign, the driver escaping with minor injuries.

And a lorry got stuck west of Wylye, causing the eastbound carriageway to be at a standstill.

Motorists using the A345 towards Amesbury were delayed for an hour-and-a-half, after a lorry jack-knifed and blocked one of the carriageways at High Post.

On the A338, a car went off the road at Broken Cross and ended up in a ditch, the driver escaping with minor injuries, a lorry was reported on its side on the A350 at East Knoyle, and another one was blocking a lane of the A36 at Stapleford.

PC Richard Salter, of Alderbury Police, described the conditions on Thursday night as diabolical.

There were accidents at Pitton and Whiteparish, and a major problem was abandoned vehicles.

"We had a car abandoned on the top of Pepperbox Hill on the A36, in the middle of the road and covered in snow," he said. "We had to have it recovered."

He added that it was taking motorists an hour or more to travel a couple of miles on the A30 east of Salisbury.

Part of the A360 at Shrewton was blocked after a car left the road and hit a tree, and on Friday morning, on the A30, a coach travelling towards Andover got stuck at Firsdown, causing lengthy delays.

Due to the heavy snowfalls and freezing temperatures, some motorists decided not to venture home and hotels in Salisbury and the surrounding area were said to be at full stretch.