A total of 140 people, including a child with a heart condition, crammed into Cornwall’s celebrated Jamaica Inn after being trapped by the snow on Bodmin Moor.

People were jammed into bedrooms with strangers and slept on makeshift beds in the pub’s restaurant and in the residents’ lounge.

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Some travellers stayed in front of the fire in the bar until the early hours before slumbering where they perched or finding a corner to rest in.

The first snow-hit travellers arrived at the moorland coaching inn, made famous by Daphne du Maurier, on Thursday afternoon but some were still making their way to the 270-year-old pub in search of shelter at 4am on Friday.

The parents of one eight-month-old child rang the pub from the roadside asking for assistance and members of staff dashed out and carried the baby back to the inn with the exhausted parents traipsing behind.

Sammy Wheeler, the inn’s general manager, said people began to trickle in from about 4pm on Thursday when snow suddenly blanketed the A30. She said: “Some of them walked a good three, four or five miles. People were fed up of being in a cold car and they were running out of fuel.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest People shovelling snow and dislodging ice outside the Jamaica Inn, where more than 100 people sought refuge overnight after heavy snowfall hit the A30. Photograph: Paul Drye/PA

The inn, which recently had a major refurbishment, has 36 rooms. Wheeler said five strangers packed into one of the bedrooms, adding: “They decided to be friends for the night.”

Fifteen beds were made up in the restaurant and another five in the residents’ lounge. “I stole sheets from wherever possible. I’m sure my head housekeeper will kill me,” Wheeler said.

“People have been very good and incredibly high-spirited,” she said. “We were trying to give them as much information as we could. We kept the kitchen open all night and served in the bar until the early hours.”

Jamaica Inn (@jamaicainn) A huge thanks to Sammy & everyone here for pulling the mother of all shifts this eve. 100+ adults, four children under two & an 8month old with heart condition all off the road & into the warm tonight #Cornwall pic.twitter.com/kcctpxMfRe

Charlotte Barron, the inn’s assistant manager, said: “It was actually a lovely atmosphere – we brought out all our board games and complete strangers were playing against each other. A lot of people made friends – probably for life – with one room being occupied by five people who didn’t know each other.

“There were only two people in the kitchen who cooked all night – they were making people steak and ale pie, fish and chips – the usual pub grub. Then we started the breakfast menu at 3am as we were starting to get a little short of food.

“The chef has been making anything he can find for the lunch menu. We are praying for a delivery but aren’t holding out much hope of one getting through.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest View from the Jamaica Inn on Bodmin Moor made famous by Daphne du Maurier’s bestselling novel. Photograph: Jamaica Inn/PA

Paul Drye, 54, from St Austell, Cornwall, was heading home after working in Dorchester, Dorset, when he became stuck on the A30 at about 3.30pm.

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He said: “There had been a bit of heavy snow but while everything was moving it was fine, but as soon as there was a few incidents up ahead everything ground to a halt.

“You never know how long these things are going to last, whether it will be moving in two minutes or four hours as it turned out.”

Drye arrived at the Jamaica Inn around 7.30pm and was met with a real “cross-section” of people including children and truck drivers. He said the pub’s staff were like a “well-oiled machine”, and provided mattresses, blankets and pillows for everybody and stayed up all night stoking fires.

By Friday morning the Jamaica Inn’s maintenance team was transporting motorists to their cars in the pub’s 4x4 as well as shovelling ice from the nearby road.

Devon and Cornwall police said on Friday morning the A30 was passable and asked people who had left their vehicles – including those holed up in Jamaica Inn – to return to them.