UKC

I understand Avon's famous Bog Walls have finally been demolished.
When I started climbing in the gorge they were the epicentre of Avon climbing, home to fingery traverses, The Clean Hand Gang dinners, hand dryers for warming up on cold days and even at times various itinerant climbers such as Phil Thornhill.

In reply to Postmanpat:

I believe that when Phil was living inside he once woke up to find a dead tramp next to him.

In reply to John Alcock:

Not to mention some spectacular graffiti in the gents' cubicles.

In reply to John Alcock:

They were still standing on Sunday.

In reply to Mark Kemball:

In that case I was misinformed at the Avon guidebook launch on Saturday night

In reply to John Alcock:


Possibly. Back in my youth (ca 1970) the residence of choice at Avon was the railway tunnels, a damp/cold and ghoulish place and one night my brother and I were woken by a terrible moaning approaching. The ghost turned out to be Tony Wilmot and Matt Peacock, Tony suffering from an impacted wisdom tooth. In the morning we went to leave and climbed over the rough wall near the end to find the resident tramp (might have been called Ted or was it Ted who had the tea van?) had sadly expired in the night.
The other favoured place to sleep was in the roof space above the tennis club toilets, (not in the toilets themselves) or nip up to the cave.

In reply to John Alcock:

There seems to be a lot of work going on there - Phil Wilson said they're working on the main sewers, the bogs themselves are in the fenced-off area.

In reply to Mark Kemball:

I remember reading about the annual dinner of the Avon Mountaineering Club, which was held on the bog roof. The invited speaker was Jim Curran, and before he arrived the members smeared the holds of the easy way up with butter. His arrival was substantially delayed.

In reply to jimtitt:

Was it not Stan's Van?
"you want 'n 'ot paaasty"?

In reply to Steve Clegg:

It was indeed, remember that powdered tea he used?

In reply to John Alcock:

They were a great way to warm up before heading to the cliffs.

Does this mean you need to take a trowel to the crag now?

In reply to John Alcock:

Thanks, gentlemen, for the reminder that ukc isn't just a bunch of people shouting at each other and starting fights.

I was assuming it was the bog walls at Durness, but delighted to hear the stories from Bristol

b

In reply to ben b:

There is also a brilliant bog wall in Hereford; back of the Castle Green toilets for those interested.

I think a few 80's gritstone heroes might have used them (not the toilets).

In reply to John Alcock:

We used to pitch tents in the Gorge and one of our Club got stoned, fell asleep with a paraffin lamp and set his tent on fire. So he spent the night sleeping in the bog.

We all thought it was quite normal at the time.

Mind you it was quite fancy compared with Froggatt Barn.

In reply to John Alcock:

PS I'm amused that this thread wont let you Like or Dislike because it has RIP in the title!!

Don't want to cause offence to any friends or relatives of the bog.

In reply to ben b:


Eh?I remember a pebbledashed toilet in Durness from my 70's
childhood holidays, where my brother was almost killed on the neighbouring track by a car driving back from a football match. That wouldn't have been much use for bouldering. Is there a new one?

jcm

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

Well they were stone in, erm, 1998...

I appreciate we might not be the most up to date sources of information

b

In reply to John Alcock:

First time I went to Avon the Portway was closed so we bivied in the bogs - on the Ladies side so as to escape the noise of the urinals flushing all night. For decency's sake, in the day time we brewed up on the Mens side, and the council's cleaning men were very patient with us, waiting whilst we moved our gear out of their way.

In reply to pasbury:

Im not a hero but used that Hereford wall in the 80's, great free resource right in the middle of the city.

In reply to FBSF:

I hope it's still there? My folks still live in Hereford, I must check it out again.