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West Bromwich Mountaineering Club

October 28, 2023

West Bromwich Mountaineering Club (WBMC) is one of the oldest and most active climbing and hill-walking clubs in the West Midlands. It meets at "The Red Lion" in All Saints Way, West Bromwich on Thursday nights, where from October to April it holds a series of illustrated mountaineering talks on the second Thursday of the month. It has a membership of around 200 and every month runs a coach to a mountainous region in England or Wales, on which seats are available to its members and the general public on a 'first come - first served' basis and also maintains a members-only hut in the Nant Gwynant valley. It affiliated to the British Mountaineering Council in 2003 and became a Community Association Sports Club (CASC) in 2005.

Poster produced when the Club met at a different venue in West Bromwich

History edit

Early in 1951 Bert Wright, a member of the Climbers' Club, was asked by his Local Education Authority to develop camping trips & outdoor activities for local schoolchildren. At that time there were only 3 outdoor centres in the whole country and no certificates of mountain leadership of any kind, so he set about organising mountaineering courses for schoolteachers based at Helyg and Ynys Ettws huts in Snowdonia. The idea of forming a mountaineering club in West Bromwich materialised while participants socialised at The Royal Hotel (now Plas y Brenin) and the Pen-y-Gwryd. The first meet was to the Long Mynd on 13 January 1952, the first committee meeting on 23 May and the inaugural Annual General Meeting held at the Arden Hotel on 16 October 1952, at which Wright became the first chairman. The "Star and Garter" was the club's first home until it moved to "The Globe" in 1959 where it has remained until September 2012 apart from brief spells at "The Flowerpot" and "Merry Go Round".[1] Sir Chris Bonington contributed the forward to a book published in 2002 celebrating the club's golden jubilee.[2] The group produces a monthly newsletter and copies of these going back to 1989 have been deposited with Sandwell Community History and Archives Service at Smethwick Library and can be consulted there.[3]

Coach meets edit

In the early days the mainstay of the club's activities was rock climbing in Snowdonia, and as few members owned cars, it was important for the club to be able to offer convenient travel to hills in other parts of the UK. So the monthly coach meet was born, typically setting off from West Bromwich at 6:30 am and picking up at 8 to 12 places en route to north or mid Wales, the Peak District or the Malvern Hills. With no M6 the Lake District was out of the question for a day trip then as it was usually after midnight before the coach returned to the West Midlands.[2] Reports on some of these coach meets can be found on the internet. [4] To maximise the amount of time on the hills the pick-up arrangements were altered in the 1990s, and the coach now leaves West Bromwich at 7:00 am with just one extra pick-up on the M6 or M54, enabling it to return passengers to the West Brom at around 10 pm. Coach meets now usually alternate between Snowdonia and the Lake District but South Wales and the Pennines are also visited..

Club hut edit

 
WBMC Hut in Snowdonia

In December 1957 West Bromwich (now Sandwell) Education Authority bought Plas Gwynant, one-time home of prime minister Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, together with its outbuildings for less than £5,000. The Club used this site for camping, but after a few years was offered a disused Dutch barn in the grounds for conversion into a hut. Work began in January 1961 to dig out and level the floors, and it was officially opened for use in 1963. Electricity was connected in 1967 and a toilet and shower block added in 1975.[5]

Achievements edit

To date none of the fourteen 8,000-metre peaks have seen ascents by WBMC members, and the highest points reached so far are around 22,000 ft (6,706 m) by Dot and John Wagstaff during an unsuccessful attempt on Lenin Peak in 1998 [2] and the 23,100 ft (7,041 m) summit of Lhakpa Ri in Tibet by John Edwards in September 2006. On 16 March 2012 a party of 25 club members completed a winter ascent of Jbel Toubkal (4167m) the highest peak in North Africa.[6]

However, there have been many other achievements by individuals in the club. Mike Nicholls, John Hipwood, John Wagstaff, Nev Tandy, Mike Lay, Paul Cleary, Brian Green, Andy Brown, and Chris Dean have completed all the Munros[7] and John Hipwood and Mike Nicholls, having climbed over 1200 Marilyns, were 24th and 34th in the 'RHB Hall of Fame' in 2010. [8] Members' names are also on completers' lists of lesser hills such as the Nuttalls and County Tops in England and Wales.[9] Members have recorded ascents of many alpine peaks including Mont Blanc, Monte Rosa, the Matterhorn and Grossglockner, and further afield have planted the club flag on the summits of Aconcagua, Aneto, Mount Ararat, Mount Elbrus, Jebel Toubkal, Kilimanjaro, Mera Peak while Nigel Kettle & John Edwards have climbed virgin summits in Kyrgyzstan and Antarctica respectively.[5][10] Ken Priest, Pete Poultney and Graeme Stanford are currently three of the club's leading climbers.[11] Van Greaves has published several books of mountaineering photographs and walking[12][13][14][15] as well as many articles in UK walking magazines and Bob Charteris has created the 100 mile Teme Valley Way walk.[16]

Challenge walks and races edit

Neville and Anne Tandy organised two major UK challenge walks for over 40 years.

  • The 25-mile 'Mid Wales Mountain Marathon' over 7 summits between Dinas Mawddwy and Dolgellau, which was first promoted in 1964, includes over 7000 feet of ascent.
  • The 'Reservoir Roundabout', a winter walk of 20 miles in the remote Elenith area around the Claerwen and Elan Valley Reservoirs, was inaugurated in 1967.[17] Neville Tandy (died 2013) was by far the most prolific entrant in the 45 miles Across Wales Walk, with over 30 completions, including the first ever double crossing in 1984.[18]

In the 1970s and 1980s WBMC members regularly participated in the Welsh 1000 m Peaks Race and the Long Mynd Hike. John Wagstaff set a race record of 8 hours 47 minutes for the latter in 1981, which stood until 2002 when the route changed.[19] On 17/18 June 1978 Wagstaff completed a triple crossing of the 14 Welsh 3000s (around 66 miles and 22,800 feet of ascent) in 22 hours 49 minutes, a feat which has so far not been repeated, [20][21] and he is still the only club member to complete the Bob Graham Round of 42 peaks in the Lake District, a feat he achieved in June 1979 supported by a number of club members. John's wife Dorothy Wagstaff is also famous in her own right as a double World Champion, having won her age class (ladies) at the World Triathlon Championships in London’s Hyde Park in September 2013 after previously winning the title in New Zealand a decade earlier.[22]

Accidents and awards edit

Every mountaineering club has its share of mishaps as slips and falls can sometimes lead to sprains, broken bones or worse, but WBMC has been fortunate in that it has only had a couple of serious accidents. On 23 July 1972 Len York reached the summit of the Matterhorn for the second time in 12 months but a fall on the descent led to a spinal injury which left him paraplegic. In spite of this York still managed to reach mountain summits and revisited Zermatt most years up to his death.[23][24] In August 1989 Malcolm Collins fell to his death while climbing solo on Sub Cneifon Arete in the Ogwen Valley when a rock spike gave way.[2] A trophy in his memory is usually awarded at the annual general meeting to a club member in recognition of mountaineering achievement or services to the club. Recipients of the silver rosebowl, which is presented at the AGM the following year, have been 1989 Graham Sockett, 1990 Bob Lister, 1991 Ken Priest, 1992 Geoff Robinson, 1993 Mike Nicholls & John Wagstaff, 1994 Mike Smith, 1995 Peter Woodward, 1996 Iris Cooksey, 1997 Nev Tandy, 1998 Dot & John Wagstaff, 1999 Paul Cleary & Pete Goddard, 2000 John Mitchell, 2001 Hilary Jones, 2002 Nigel Kettle, 2003 Ann Tandy, 2004 John Mitchell, 2005 The "Elbrus Eight" (Andy Brown, John Edwards, Fred Hammonds, Guy Harris, Geoff Hill, Phil Matthews, Oliver Stephenson & Nev Tandy), 2006 John Edwards, 2007 The Hut Trio : Mike Thompson, Bob Duncan & Malcolm Vaughan, 2008 John Eadon, 2009 Bob Duncan, 2010 Not awarded, 2011 Jonathan Howells, 2012 Mel Evans, 2013 Ursula Woodhouse, 2014 Andy Brown & Chris Dean, 2015 Ken Priest, 2016 Tracey Cook & Guy Harris, 2017 Not awarded, 2018 Pete Poultney, 2019 & 2020 Not awarded, 2021 Nigel Tarr, 2022 John Edwards

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Express & Star 27 Sept 2002
  2. ^ a b c d Tandy, Hill & Lister (2002). "West Bromwich Mountaineering Club: The First Fifty years", John Llewelyn Graphics, Cleobury Mortimer
  3. ^ “Documents cared for by Museums and Archives in the Black Country”
  4. ^ "Getting High"
  5. ^ a b Black Country Bugle 15 January 2005 page 30
  6. ^ Birmingham Mail 23 April 2012 page 18
  7. ^ "Scottish Mountaineering Club Munro Compleatists"
  8. ^ "Update to the Relative Hills of Britain April 2010"
  9. ^ "Hill Walkers Register County Tops"
  10. ^ Edwards, John et al (1969). "Western Coronation Island Journey 29 Aug – 21 Sept", British Antarctic Survey Report K/1969/H, Cambridge.
  11. ^ "UKC Logbook - 'The Devil's Slide'".
  12. ^ Greaves, Van (1991). "Discovering the Pennines", The Crowood Press, Marlborough, Wiltshire. ISBN 1-85223-520-9
  13. ^ Greaves, Van (1994). "100 Walks in Hereford & Worcester", The Crowood Press Ltd, Marlborough, Wiltshire. ISBN 978-1-85223-785-1
  14. ^ Greaves, Van (2005). "Moods of Shropshire & the Marches", Halsgrove, Tiverton, Devon. ISBN 1-84114-465-7
  15. ^ Greaves, Van (2009). Mountain Magic, Frances Lincoln, London. ISBN 978-0-7112-2858-0
  16. ^ Charteris, Bob (2006) The Teme Valley Way: sauce to source, Diggory Press, Liskeard, Cornwall. ISBN 1-84685-098-3
  17. ^ Blatchford, Alan & Barbara (1980). "The Long Distance Walkers Handbook", Willow Press, Godalming, Surrey. ISBN 0-906862-01-9
  18. ^ "Report of the 40th Anniversary Across Wales Walk"
  19. ^ "The Longmynd Hike Historic Results"
  20. ^ "The Record" Snowdonia Society website
  21. ^ Clayton & Turnbull (1997) "The Welsh Three Thousand Foot Challenges: A Guide for Walkers and Hill Runners" Grey Stone Books, Darwen, Lancashire. ISBN 978-1-902017-02-0
  22. ^ "70-year-old Dorothy overcomes injury to become triathlon world champion".
  23. ^ Drew, Brian W. (2001). "A Long Way from Clent", Brewin Books, Studley, Warwickshire. ISBN 1-85858-194-X
  24. ^ The Blackcountryman (2001) Vol 34, No 4, pages 9-14

External links edit

  • West Bromwich Mountaineering Club
  • The British Mountaineering Council
  • The Mountains of England and Wales
  • Database of British and Irish Hills
  • The Long Distance Walkers Association
  • Sandwell Community History & Archives Service
  • West Bromwich Mountaineering Club Archive Catalogue

October 28, 2023
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West Bromwich Mountaineering Club WBMC is one of the oldest and most active climbing and hill walking clubs in the West Midlands It meets at The Red Lion in All Saints Way West Bromwich on Thursday nights where from October to April it holds a series of illustrated mountaineering talks on the second Thursday of the month It has a membership of around 200 and every month runs a coach to a mountainous region in England or Wales on which seats are available to its members and the general public on a first come first served basis and also maintains a members only hut in the Nant Gwynant valley It affiliated to the British Mountaineering Council in 2003 and became a Community Association Sports Club CASC in 2005 Poster produced when the Club met at a different venue in West BromwichContents 1 History 2 Coach meets 3 Club hut 4 Achievements 5 Challenge walks and races 6 Accidents and awards 7 See also 8 References 9 External linksHistory editEarly in 1951 Bert Wright a member of the Climbers Club was asked by his Local Education Authority to develop camping trips amp outdoor activities for local schoolchildren At that time there were only 3 outdoor centres in the whole country and no certificates of mountain leadership of any kind so he set about organising mountaineering courses for schoolteachers based at Helyg and Ynys Ettws huts in Snowdonia The idea of forming a mountaineering club in West Bromwich materialised while participants socialised at The Royal Hotel now Plas y Brenin and the Pen y Gwryd The first meet was to the Long Mynd on 13 January 1952 the first committee meeting on 23 May and the inaugural Annual General Meeting held at the Arden Hotel on 16 October 1952 at which Wright became the first chairman The Star and Garter was the club s first home until it moved to The Globe in 1959 where it has remained until September 2012 apart from brief spells at The Flowerpot and Merry Go Round 1 Sir Chris Bonington contributed the forward to a book published in 2002 celebrating the club s golden jubilee 2 The group produces a monthly newsletter and copies of these going back to 1989 have been deposited with Sandwell Community History and Archives Service at Smethwick Library and can be consulted there 3 Coach meets editIn the early days the mainstay of the club s activities was rock climbing in Snowdonia and as few members owned cars it was important for the club to be able to offer convenient travel to hills in other parts of the UK So the monthly coach meet was born typically setting off from West Bromwich at 6 30 am and picking up at 8 to 12 places en route to north or mid Wales the Peak District or the Malvern Hills With no M6 the Lake District was out of the question for a day trip then as it was usually after midnight before the coach returned to the West Midlands 2 Reports on some of these coach meets can be found on the internet 4 To maximise the amount of time on the hills the pick up arrangements were altered in the 1990s and the coach now leaves West Bromwich at 7 00 am with just one extra pick up on the M6 or M54 enabling it to return passengers to the West Brom at around 10 pm Coach meets now usually alternate between Snowdonia and the Lake District but South Wales and the Pennines are also visited Club hut edit nbsp WBMC Hut in SnowdoniaIn December 1957 West Bromwich now Sandwell Education Authority bought Plas Gwynant one time home of prime minister Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman together with its outbuildings for less than 5 000 The Club used this site for camping but after a few years was offered a disused Dutch barn in the grounds for conversion into a hut Work began in January 1961 to dig out and level the floors and it was officially opened for use in 1963 Electricity was connected in 1967 and a toilet and shower block added in 1975 5 Achievements editTo date none of the fourteen 8 000 metre peaks have seen ascents by WBMC members and the highest points reached so far are around 22 000 ft 6 706 m by Dot and John Wagstaff during an unsuccessful attempt on Lenin Peak in 1998 2 and the 23 100 ft 7 041 m summit of Lhakpa Ri in Tibet by John Edwards in September 2006 On 16 March 2012 a party of 25 club members completed a winter ascent of Jbel Toubkal 4167m the highest peak in North Africa 6 However there have been many other achievements by individuals in the club Mike Nicholls John Hipwood John Wagstaff Nev Tandy Mike Lay Paul Cleary Brian Green Andy Brown and Chris Dean have completed all the Munros 7 and John Hipwood and Mike Nicholls having climbed over 1200 Marilyns were 24th and 34th in the RHB Hall of Fame in 2010 8 Members names are also on completers lists of lesser hills such as the Nuttalls and County Tops in England and Wales 9 Members have recorded ascents of many alpine peaks including Mont Blanc Monte Rosa the Matterhorn and Grossglockner and further afield have planted the club flag on the summits of Aconcagua Aneto Mount Ararat Mount Elbrus Jebel Toubkal Kilimanjaro Mera Peak while Nigel Kettle amp John Edwards have climbed virgin summits in Kyrgyzstan and Antarctica respectively 5 10 Ken Priest Pete Poultney and Graeme Stanford are currently three of the club s leading climbers 11 Van Greaves has published several books of mountaineering photographs and walking 12 13 14 15 as well as many articles in UK walking magazines and Bob Charteris has created the 100 mile Teme Valley Way walk 16 Challenge walks and races editNeville and Anne Tandy organised two major UK challenge walks for over 40 years The 25 mile Mid Wales Mountain Marathon over 7 summits between Dinas Mawddwy and Dolgellau which was first promoted in 1964 includes over 7000 feet of ascent The Reservoir Roundabout a winter walk of 20 miles in the remote Elenith area around the Claerwen and Elan Valley Reservoirs was inaugurated in 1967 17 Neville Tandy died 2013 was by far the most prolific entrant in the 45 miles Across Wales Walk with over 30 completions including the first ever double crossing in 1984 18 In the 1970s and 1980s WBMC members regularly participated in the Welsh 1000 m Peaks Race and the Long Mynd Hike John Wagstaff set a race record of 8 hours 47 minutes for the latter in 1981 which stood until 2002 when the route changed 19 On 17 18 June 1978 Wagstaff completed a triple crossing of the 14 Welsh 3000s around 66 miles and 22 800 feet of ascent in 22 hours 49 minutes a feat which has so far not been repeated 20 21 and he is still the only club member to complete the Bob Graham Round of 42 peaks in the Lake District a feat he achieved in June 1979 supported by a number of club members John s wife Dorothy Wagstaff is also famous in her own right as a double World Champion having won her age class ladies at the World Triathlon Championships in London s Hyde Park in September 2013 after previously winning the title in New Zealand a decade earlier 22 Accidents and awards editEvery mountaineering club has its share of mishaps as slips and falls can sometimes lead to sprains broken bones or worse but WBMC has been fortunate in that it has only had a couple of serious accidents On 23 July 1972 Len York reached the summit of the Matterhorn for the second time in 12 months but a fall on the descent led to a spinal injury which left him paraplegic In spite of this York still managed to reach mountain summits and revisited Zermatt most years up to his death 23 24 In August 1989 Malcolm Collins fell to his death while climbing solo on Sub Cneifon Arete in the Ogwen Valley when a rock spike gave way 2 A trophy in his memory is usually awarded at the annual general meeting to a club member in recognition of mountaineering achievement or services to the club Recipients of the silver rosebowl which is presented at the AGM the following year have been 1989 Graham Sockett 1990 Bob Lister 1991 Ken Priest 1992 Geoff Robinson 1993 Mike Nicholls amp John Wagstaff 1994 Mike Smith 1995 Peter Woodward 1996 Iris Cooksey 1997 Nev Tandy 1998 Dot amp John Wagstaff 1999 Paul Cleary amp Pete Goddard 2000 John Mitchell 2001 Hilary Jones 2002 Nigel Kettle 2003 Ann Tandy 2004 John Mitchell 2005 The Elbrus Eight Andy Brown John Edwards Fred Hammonds Guy Harris Geoff Hill Phil Matthews Oliver Stephenson amp Nev Tandy 2006 John Edwards 2007 The Hut Trio Mike Thompson Bob Duncan amp Malcolm Vaughan 2008 John Eadon 2009 Bob Duncan 2010 Not awarded 2011 Jonathan Howells 2012 Mel Evans 2013 Ursula Woodhouse 2014 Andy Brown amp Chris Dean 2015 Ken Priest 2016 Tracey Cook amp Guy Harris 2017 Not awarded 2018 Pete Poultney 2019 amp 2020 Not awarded 2021 Nigel Tarr 2022 John EdwardsSee also editScottish Mountaineering Club Alpine Club Climbers Club Hill lists in the British Isles Mountains and hills of ScotlandReferences edit Express amp Star 27 Sept 2002 a b c d Tandy Hill amp Lister 2002 West Bromwich Mountaineering Club The First Fifty years John Llewelyn Graphics Cleobury Mortimer Documents cared for by Museums and Archives in the Black Country Getting High a b Black Country Bugle 15 January 2005 page 30 Birmingham Mail 23 April 2012 page 18 Scottish Mountaineering Club Munro Compleatists Update to the Relative Hills of Britain April 2010 Hill Walkers Register County Tops Edwards John et al 1969 Western Coronation Island Journey 29 Aug 21 Sept British Antarctic Survey Report K 1969 H Cambridge UKC Logbook The Devil s Slide Greaves Van 1991 Discovering the Pennines The Crowood Press Marlborough Wiltshire ISBN 1 85223 520 9 Greaves Van 1994 100 Walks in Hereford amp Worcester The Crowood Press Ltd Marlborough Wiltshire ISBN 978 1 85223 785 1 Greaves Van 2005 Moods of Shropshire amp the Marches Halsgrove Tiverton Devon ISBN 1 84114 465 7 Greaves Van 2009 Mountain Magic Frances Lincoln London ISBN 978 0 7112 2858 0 Charteris Bob 2006 The Teme Valley Way sauce to source Diggory Press Liskeard Cornwall ISBN 1 84685 098 3 Blatchford Alan amp Barbara 1980 The Long Distance Walkers Handbook Willow Press Godalming Surrey ISBN 0 906862 01 9 Report of the 40th Anniversary Across Wales Walk The Longmynd Hike Historic Results The Record Snowdonia Society website Clayton amp Turnbull 1997 The Welsh Three Thousand Foot Challenges A Guide for Walkers and Hill Runners Grey Stone Books Darwen Lancashire ISBN 978 1 902017 02 0 70 year old Dorothy overcomes injury to become triathlon world champion Drew Brian W 2001 A Long Way from Clent Brewin Books Studley Warwickshire ISBN 1 85858 194 X The Blackcountryman 2001 Vol 34 No 4 pages 9 14External links editWest Bromwich Mountaineering Club The British Mountaineering Council The Mountains of England and Wales Database of British and Irish Hills The Long Distance Walkers Association Sandwell Community History amp Archives Service West Bromwich Mountaineering Club Archive Catalogue Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title West Bromwich Mountaineering Club amp oldid 1174653749, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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