Snow place like Old Windsor: National Lottery transforms village into winter wonderland

Snow was falling while Old Windsor residents slept last night and this morning the village was covered in a sprinkling of the white stuff.

The unusual phenomenon was not an early Christmas miracle though.

As one of the least snowy locations in the country, the village was chosen by The National Lottery to promote its Mega Prize Friday prize draw package, which includes ‘an official white Christmas’.

The snow scene covered the village green and The Fox and Castle pub.

As well as three tonnes of real snow, realistic drifts of film-set snow were also used.

“It’s amazing, it really looks like it came straight off the front of a Christmas card,” said pub landlord James Saunders.

Weatherman John Kettley was on hand to explain why Old Windsor is one of Britain’s least snowy locations.

He said: “There are a number of reasons Old Windsor rates poorly when it comes to snow.

“Old Windsor lies in a 'snow shadow’ caused by the close proximity of the Chiltern Hills to the north-west, Salisbury Plain out west and other smaller local hills surrounding. These tend to hog the snow.

 “It is also impacted by its proximity to London and even snow that falls locally, more often than not, fails to last for very long. 

“Finally, it’s far enough away from the relative warmth and high humidity area of the North Sea, which can lead to the formation of snow showers.”

 The snow will be there for the rest of today (Wednesday) before magically disappearing tomorrow.