Do a search for my winter tyre thread from a couple of years back. I've run vredestein wintracs in 225/40/18 format for a couple of years, they're excellent. My old commute was on 22 miles of ungritted B roads in deepest Yorkshire, and the only other cars I ever saw were 4x4s.
Due to pothole damage I had to run on just winters on the front axle from mid December (i think) last year year till change time in march/April. I couldn't source any replacements due to supply drying up, so had to put summers on the rear.
Snow was actually fun with this combination, as it was so easy to lose the backend. However, I wouldn't recommend it as you'll have to drive very carefully - but it's doable.