The owner of a hotel in the Lake District pulled a 24-hour shift to help stranded commuters over the weekend.

Sarah Bird, owner of the Sun Inn in Windermere, opened up the doors of her business to people caught in the severe snow storm.

With her partner stuck in Hawkshead, Sarah was left on her own to look after the numerous people seeking shelter.

She said: "We opened at 2:00pm to let people who were stuck on the main road from Ambleside to Windermere come in and get warm.

"I made sure that there was plenty of tea and coffee available for free to help heat people up."

Many of those trapped understandably were in need of rooms for the night, though Sarah was not able to accommodate all requests.

"I was taking names and the number of children they had with them, so that I could allocate those with children and medical needs first.

"Those who were older came next, then those who were left would probably end up sleeping in the bar area."

Despite being cut off from her family, Sarah received much needed support from the local community.

"One of my guests who had been booked to stop on Saturday night had worked in pubs before so she helped, and a local family helped in the pub with food and serving.

"Also, another local, Jenny, helped with directing people in their cars up or down to the pub."

The nearby petrol station remained open and helped direct people to the hotel for shelter.

"With out all these people, I simply would not have been able to get them fed, made sure they all had warm free drinks or been able to allocate people into rooms."

All 13 bedrooms, including spare staff accommodation, were used by roughly 44 people, with a couple sleeping on a sofa and another 14 people resting in the bar.

"Everyone who sheltered with us the night previous had left by 10am on Sunday thanks to a local family digging out cars stuck in the snow."

"At that stage, I was falling asleep!"