When I was in junior school aged around 10 years old we had a very basic playground. It was a completely sealed concrete yard about the size of half a football pitch, that was all the space we had for recreation at the school.

Winters in the UK were usually bitterly cold and windy. Sometimes it would snow and stay on the ground for a week or so. When it did we would all run into the yard at break time and play in the snow. We’d throw snowballs at each other and have heaps of fun. Some of us had no tread on our shoes and we’d sprint and skid along the snow that was compacted to the concrete.

At some point me and a couple of mates would start building a snowman. Progress was slow with our small hands. As the snowman began to take shape other kids who had got bored of throwing snowballs saw what we were doing and would join in.

As the snowman gained in height it would attract extra helpers who would carry the snow from further corners of the yard. We’d be happy for the additional help as the base of our snowman would have used up all the snow in close proximity. Soon enough there would be quite a lot of us all building this huge snowman.

It was amazing to behold, we were just kids, no one was organising, everyone was just pitching in with what was needed. We just started building and people wanted to join in and be part of the effort. The finest scarf in the playground was sourced and donated. Sticks for arms were found from somewhere - which was unusual as the playground was devoid of trees.

All the kids in the playground then had a choice, help us build our already quite big and steadily growing snowman with a team of helpers, or, start your own snowman.

Inevitably some kids would start their own snowman and it would generally be a lot smaller and less stable than the one we were building. The kids building the smaller snowman wouldn’t attract many helpers either as everyone building the bigger snowman had a level of ownership in it and seeing it get bigger and bigger gave you a sense of pride.

At the end of break the snowman was magnificent, a two metre monstrosity encompassing a significant proportion of the snow from the playground. It would be the only snowman in the yard as the kids building their smaller versions would have kicked them down for fun.