From memory it was E, NE and I recall a NNE in there somewhere which brought the most disruptive snow to the eastern side of the Pennines. I will try and dig some charts out to show. The easterly was very convective in nature too which is what brought most of the very heavy snow fall / showers.
850's should be -5 or less to get snow proper although it has been known to snow in higher temps than that -1 or -2 850's...