About 60 revellers were forced to drink beer and play cards for three days after they became stranded in a British pub cut off by snowstorms on New Year's Eve.

The guests had booked in to celebrate the new year at the Tan Hill Inn, England's highest pub, standing 518 metres above sea level, in the northern Yorkshire dales.

But the heavy, relentless snowstorms that have swept through parts of Britain trapped them inside, unable to get to their cars and leaving the roads home impassable.

"There was a lovely, community atmosphere despite the fact nobody could get home," landlord Tracy Daly said.

"I suppose there are worse places to be snowed in than a pub."

A gritter and snowplough on Sunday finally broke through the 2.13m snow drifts that had sealed off the hotel, ending the revelry, dubbed Britain's longest-running New Year's Eve party by newspapers on Monday.

Daly, 45, said she, her husband and two staff had kept the guests entertained and fed, and offered rooms for a knockdown price of STG10 ($A18) per night.

"We had the rule that the bar could only open at 5pm, the guests were all very well-behaved though," she said.

The landlady added: "The guests were lovely, we were pretty under-staffed and they kept giving us breaks so we didn't get too tired."

Nathan Martin, 26, one of a group from Leeds University cross-country club stuck in the pub, described the experience in the Guardian newspaper as the "ultimate lock-in".