You must have been unlucky - I was only a bit south of Coventry - hanging around in the Westcott / Milton Keynes / Daventry triangle - and it was lovely. Patches of sun and the rest of the cloudbase up at 5,000' - loads of room to do all those general handling exercises I'd been yearning to do over Christmas. Not clear as crystal, but I could easily see Didcot from well north of Westcott - what's that, about 20 to 30nm. A bit bouncy low down, but good viz and a healthy breeze almost straight down the runway back at Elstree.
Cheers,
Wrong Stuff