Club Meets
1927. – The first meet of the year at the Hill Inn, Chapel-le-Dale, January 29th-30th, was very well attended, having been advertised as including a Country Dinner with a speech by the President. The company of thirty-three, including four ex-Presidents, listened to one of the racy discourses for which Leach has become famous and then underwent a severely critical training as a choir.
To the strains of a suitable anthem, an imposing procession bore into the room a superb Chain of Office on which no expense had been spared and with which the President was invested after C.E.Burrow had read from a sumptuous roll an Address in moving terms, which will be found given elsewhere.
The winter of ’26-27, remarkable for beginning in October with a heavy snowstorm while the leaves were thick on the trees, was generally mild, but provided us with a wild week-end, with snow on the tops and snow storms most of Sunday. The telephone speedily spread the news on Sunday night that a serious accident had occurred to Mr. T. S. Booth. While in Ling Gill he slipped and, falling a short distance, sustained severe head injury and fractured several ribs. He was taken by car to Settle and thence by motor ambulance to Leeds Infirmary. We are pleased to congratulate Mr. Booth heartily on his wonderful recovery.
Ramsgill, March 6th-7th, was approached in wretched weather, but a glorious winter day of sun and wind left more vivid memories of moorland tramps.
The spring opened well, the more enterprising having two good climbing days at Brimham Rocks, and sunny weather attended the company who drove to Ogwen Cottage for Easter, 17th April. It is singular that during the whole time cloud and gloom covered the Snowdon group while Ogwen gloried in sun. Frankland spent three days on Lliwedd, leading the Slanting Gully, East Gully, Roof Route and others.
The week closed with an extraordinary outburst of wintry weather to balance the eccentricity of the previous October.
The Whitsuntide Camp at Gaping Ghyll began with a perfect evening on the Friday, and three good days’ work was put in below, but the weather was not too kind, men having to stand by the hoisting tackle two nights in heavy rain. A small passage was discovered off the Old East Passage, and two parties successfully exchanged places by the Flood Entrance route.
A small party remained in camp and worked Star Pot, but were glad to feel the last of rain and wind, and welcome the sun which bursts out on such occasions at Clapdale Hall.
The Horton-in-Ribblesdale meet, July 2nd-3rd, was well attended, and a dozen or so did the Three Peak Walk, by night in the case of Whitaker, F. and H. Booth, while Woodman and Wade were content with two by night.
The British Association Excursion to Gaping Ghyll is fully described in this number. The feature of the work was the unfaltering and continuous running of the wire rope and chair. Rapid as were operations on Saturday, they were even more speedy and unchecked on Sunday, an incredible number of people being raised and lowered in eleven hours.
A tribute must be paid to the sacrifice of time and the enthusiasm of that well known body of Gaping Ghyll experts which alone enabled the Club to extend the invitation to the British Association. They deserved the glorious weather.
Dovedale, September 24th-25th, was new ground to most of us. The Derbyshire Pennine Club led us down the Manifold Valley, and showed us the entrances into many crawl caves, which, alas, the flooded river completely swamped.
The autumn and winter were remarkably damp, and the South of England suffered very bad weather, of which the culminating point was the Christmas snowstorm, the worst snowstorm within living memory. We in the North escaped with only a touch on the hills, and appreciated a good old fashioned frost over the New Year.
1928. – The damp winter gave no quarter to the meet at Clapham, January 28th-29th. Both days were terribly wet but did not hold up the walkers, while those who explored Clapham Cave had certainly the drier expedition, wet as it was. Twenty-eight mustered at dinner, the President, H. H. Bellhouse, was invested with the Chain of Office, and spoke winged words, for immediately the spirit of oratory descended upon the room, and speech after speech was made, punctuated by thunders of applause and the crash of the weapon with which the Toastmaster of the Day heralded his announcements.
The next meet was at Wath in Nidderdale, March 10th-11th. A thin carpet of snow on the roads met the party who drove out to breakfast, but the moors were well covered by a burst of squalls before they started on their expedition up Ramsgill to the watershed and down Merryfield Beck. On Sunday morning we awoke to a real snowfall and a wild day with fierce gusts. The longest expedition seems to have been that of the President’s party, on the Kirby Malzeard road, across the gill to Dallowgill Church, to Greygarth, and by road to Ramsgill and Wath. The going would have been heavy all the way, but the wind blew the snow on the upland roads into beautiful little drifts and left long stretches of bare patches.
At Easter (April 8th) some twenty rock climbers met at Coniston and enjoyed sunny warm weather on Doe Crags. As in 1927 an extraordinary outburst of winter took place at the end of the week.
At Whitsuntide (27th May) a large party again encamped at Gaping Ghyll. On Friday night Woodman arrived feeling very ill, but took part in the work which was going on. Early on Saturday morning he was discovered to be in a serious condition, suffering from pneumonia, and had to be conveyed on an improvised stretcher by slow degrees to Clapdale Hall. Hither a rough-riding motor cyclist to Dr. Lovett’s had summoned the Settle Ambulance and Woodman was driven straight home in a critical condition. The Club congratulates him on the fight he put up with the disease and his wonderful recovery. He is now on his way to South Africa, after a course of reading in the journals of the Mountain Club.
The principal thing done below ground was to put together in the Pool Chamber of the South Passage a raft sustained by petrol tins. After being wrecked on a reef, certain adventurers were hauled up into the Lost Passage, and made their exit by the West Chamber, proving beyond doubt that the three places are in the same vertical rift.
A joint meet with the Derbyshire Pennine Club took place at the Golden Lion, Horton-in-Ribblesdale, 16th-17th June. In somewhat threatening weather Alum Pot was polished off on Sunday in great style. Long Churn was entered at ten, and the first man up, by the long ladder lead to the Cup, appeared at 12.30. The accidental visit of the Wayfarers’ Club allowed some of them a canter in Long Churn and elsewhere. The lust for speed, once whetted, continued until at 5 p.m. two amazed Ramblers watched the last car but one tear off round the Horton corners as if it were January instead of a June night.
Eighteen men attended the return meet at Castleton, July 21st -22nd. One party did Giant’s Hole on Saturday afternoon, others Peak Cavern, but the official programme began with a pretty little cavern, newly broken into, Trey Cliff. A ladder descent after dinner!
But our hosts went further than that, for they gave us the cave expedition of a dream, having put in much time in rigging Oxlow Mine and fastening the bits of it together. All we had to do was to walk down the ladders, and when in the far extreme of the Great Halls, we found the famous ” sump” unrigged, we just said “Fetch a ladder” and someone actually went and brought one! Eight of the eleven Ramblers then proceeded to get wet.
The only place in Yorkshire that we can think of which could be treated in the same way and made the scene of something like a picnic is Marble Steps Cavern.
The last meet of the year was at Bainbridge, 13th-14th October. Muker and the Buttertubs were visited.