RESCUE volunteers have battled through 7ft snowdrifts to deliver vital medicine to residents stranded in their remote moorland homes for nearly a month.

Occupants of the isolated Yorkshire Dales hamlets of Kexwith and Helwith, between Richmond and Barnard Castle, have been cut off since December 14.

They called for help earlier this week after running short of prescribed medicines.

The Northern Echo accompanied members of Swaledale Mountain Rescue Team in treacherous conditions, fighting through drifts higher than cars yesterday afternoon.

The hamlets are six miles from the nearest shop along exposed moorland roads.

Some occupants are without a telephone service and heating oil. Food is also running short for animals and humans.

The operation came as the freezing conditions again caused misery in the region.

Hundreds of accidents were reported, with black ice creating treacherous driving conditions.

In one accident, a bus collided with a house at High Etherley, near Bishop Auckland.

In North Yorkshire, the icy conditions caused four council gritters to slide off the road. Elsewhere in the region, a major search was under way last night for a fisherman thought to have been swept out to sea. George Derbyshire, 61, was reported missing by his wife late on Tuesday night after he failed to return home.

Police believe the keen angler had been fishing at either Blackhall or Horden beach in east Durham.