The nasal steroid sprays have been a real revelation for me this year in dealing with hay fever symptoms: Beconaize (sp?) is the brand name but Tesco do a clone. Almost instant and complete relief from the symptoms.

Beconase. How I learned how to inhale while squirting a puff of funny stuff up my nose.

Terfenadine works for me, but breaks down into X and Y, where X is the useful bit that is now sold separately, and Y is bad somehow (for your heart?). Unfortunately, I can't remember what X is.