HELP: visited plot today: broad beans, peas, looking very ill

I'm a new allotmenteer (if thats even the right word to use) and popped up the allotment today to see how the hardy varieties of broad beans and peas had faired during the redent cold spell (snow in my area, coventry) and to start preparing parts of the plot for planting.

was shocked to discover state of broad beans and peas. looked at nearby plots and their's seem similar too. a cpl of weeks ago the broad beans were looking pretty good and i was about to start putting some supports in the ground for them.

plot: fairly exposed. wind does whip across it a bit from east to west.

soil: clay

I wonder if they've got some kind of infestation? maybe should have been cloched? or just couldnt cope with snow / rain / cold despite being called "hardy"??

what do you think? if you need any other info, please let me know.

Photo are not very big, but pound to a penny, that's frost damage.

hiya, unfortunately i couldnt post any bigger photos.

what a nightmare, guess i should have cloched them. its all learnings i guess.

hey, my broad beans didn't make it thought the cold snap either, but my peas did i covered them with some old 2lt coke bottles with the bottoms cut of which i save from last year seems to of worked fine.
I was also told to plant some over the winter to get an early crop, might not bother next year but hey being a beginner myself it's all a learning curve. 

When autumn/winter starts looming and there is not alot left to sow in the garden, it can seem like a good idea to sow peas or broad beans. The promise of early crops and hardy plants are often enough to guide people into trying to nurture a few plants through. In reality though it is alot of hassle to look after these plants for the whole winter. As DD said, your crop will only be a few weeks earlier (if the winter weather has not savaged your plants) and in my opinion NONE  of the overwintering variety's taste anything like as good as the spring sown.

Totty

Garlic, but don't need too much nurturing, and overwintering onions.

The broad beans look to me as though they can recover so do not be in a hurry to pull them up. Even if there are gaps it will not matter.

You could well find that the plants send out new shoots from the bottom.

thanks for your advise folks. for future reference what veg would you recommend are worth nurturing over the winter period?

Sprouts and parsnips sown the prevoius spring. If it is going to be very frosty it pays to dig up some parsnips before the frost gets into the soil.