The heaviest snowfall to be seen in these parts for well over a decade resulted in every school in Haverhill – and almost all in the surrounding communities served by the Echo – remaining shut on Monday as many pupils and staff found it impossible to get into school.

Clare Middle School headteacher, Nigel Evans, summed up the difficulties faced by many rural schools, saying on Monday: “The problem we have is that the buses are not running, so pupils cannot get picked up from the villages.”

Come Tuesday, however, and every school in Haverhill had reopened their doors as the anticipated bad weather failed to materialise.

Although schools in Castle Camps, Belchamp St Paul and Hedingham stayed shut on Tuesday, other pupils in the Haverhill area returned to school.

In Suffolk, where the west was worst affected, 161 schools were shut, the most since March 4, 2005 when snow resulted in 115 being closed, while 400 were affected in Essex and 100 in Cambridgeshire.

Police in Haverhill had a rise in complaints about people throwing snowballs over zealously, but reported no serious incidents.

Snow may have closed Linton Zoo on Monday, but rare Amur tigress, three-year-old Katinka, appeared to enjoy it.

The Haverhill area is forecast to have another 4cm of snow tomorrow, when temperatures could drop to -10 degrees celsius overnight and -3 degrees in the day. Lighter snowfall is predicted for Sunday.