WHEN Richard Starsfield's son John was a ten-year-old, he bought him a proper wooden sledge.

Then they waited for a good snowy day in Nottingham. And they waited. And they waited.

Yesterday, 13 years on, Richard finally dusted off the sledge for its first ever outing – with his grandchildren being the ones giving it a debut run out.

"Never been able to use it," Richard said as John (now aged 23) helped his daughter five-year-old Maya and two-year-old son Lewis up and down the hill at The Forest recreation ground yesterday. "I hauled it out of the attic today."

Maya and Lewis were among the throngs of young – and not so young – sledgers on The Forest's snow-covered slopes.

Meanwhile others built snowmen and hurled snowballs.

Tendai Sitima and husband Darlington tried – with bare, frozen hands – to push a giant block of snow somebody else had rolled before apparently giving up on snowman-building.

This wasn't quite the sort of weather they had ever encountered in their native Zimbabwe.

"It's amazing," said Darlington. "I wish I could have the courage to be on the sledge."

Friends Gwladys Etienne and Lyna Sim were proving that snowman-building is not just for the primary school set.

They had plenty of competition from other snowman-builders. Eight-year-old Bilaal Mirza and sisters Ammarah and Imaan Naeem, five and four, walked to the park with teachers from nearby Nottingham Islamia School.

After the obligatory snowball fight, they set to work on their creations, Snowy and Rosie, Snowy in a fetching bin-liner hat, and Rosie with tree-branch antlers.

Meanwhile Jason James, Barbara Sandin and their children - ten-year-old Veronica, nine-year-old Carmen and five-year-old Alicia - had ambitious architectural plans.

"We're going to start making an igloo," Jason said.

Across the park James Hawes was encouraging Cadan, six, and Afton, four, on makeshift sledges, which included a bin top and creative sledge-like object made from the base of a rocking horse.

Cadan explained that if school had been open he would have been in the middle of a maths lesson. He seemed to be coping with the loss...