The Changing Face of Meets

Michael Smith

The 1932 Journal outlines the meets held over the preceding two years. These include the expected round of climbing on the Roaches, Capel Curig, caving from Horton-in-Ribblesdale, Castleton and Braida Garth, the Hill Inn, Swaledale, Wastdale (sic) Head and the newly fitted out RLH by the new road up Great Langdale. A familiar list.

Nowadays, with improved transport systems and greater leisure time (for some at least, through reduced employment hours, flexible work patterns or earlier retirement) our meets list includes venues from further afield. Scotland, the South West and even France figure as ‘weekend’ meets. This is simply progressive change. There is another type of change to which I would like to draw attention.

Consider a typical meet on the current calendar. A few get an active day on Friday, eat out perhaps then are joined in the evening by those later arrivals. The talk will be of recent activities, catching up on news of and from recent meets and the latest afflictions of those present and some of those who are not. Reasonable weather on Saturday will prompt an early breakfast and small groups forming to go off` and walk, climb or cave as they choose. Saturday evening may well have a discussion or slide show centred around a similar activity. Sunday is often starts more slowly and is a little less energetic, some parties opting for .a shorter day. I am confident that you will recognise this thumbnail sketch.

Compare it, if you please, with these extracts from the 1932 Meet notes:

. . . twenty men did the through route, Long Kin East to Rift Pot . . .

. . . a “Scouts and Outposts” affair over Fountains Fell with the Gritstone Club. Twenty Ramblers in five cars went to Horton, crossed the Penyghent ridge and stringing out along the Siverdale Road reached Malham in under the four hours allowed but only collected two or three Gritstone men on the way.. One capture was made by stalking successfully a man who had got through by crawling . . .

. . . at the Hill Inn on 6th February.. The President organised a murder and a trial, with preliminaries which left some doubt as to whether there is or is not a Water Pollution Research Board. The subsequent bonfire and rockets must have left Ingleton wondering.

These extracts would indicate a greater emphasis on communal activity. Organised entertainment and general rumbustification augmenting the serious business of crag, cave or fell.

I think I recall members speaking of challenges to reach as many crosses on the North Yorkshire Moors as possible in a fixed period and making traverses of the Lakes taking in peaks each of which rated a score which increased the further it was from the direct line.

Has society, if the ex-Prime Minister will allow such a term, changed so that individualism has replaced the ‘club’ activity? Has the attraction of nearby hostelries increased to the point where fragmentation of those gathered leaves too few to support such events? Answers please, not on a postcard, but in a brief article or letter on the state of the Club.

Anyone offering to organise a “Scouts and Outposts” affair might like to contact the Meets sub-committee. Alternatively anyone who knows what one is might care to put me out of my misery on this score.