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IN FOCUS: Culm Dancing - A Second Wave (1968-73)

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 UKC Articles 11 Mar 2021
Pat and Keith on The Parson, Ladram Bay

In the third instalment of the series, Pat Littlejohn describes the 'second wave' that took over new routing, exploration and development along the Culm coast.



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 Mark Kemball 11 Mar 2021
In reply to UKC Articles:

Great article, thanks.

 alan moore 11 Mar 2021
In reply to UKC Articles:

Those John Cleare pics are stunning! Haven’t seen them before. Love the ones of The Verger; almost capture the scale of it!

 Michael Hood 11 Mar 2021
In reply to UKC Articles:

It's like the history section of a guidebook, but on steroids 💪 great stuff.

 Steve Woollard 11 Mar 2021
In reply to UKC Articles:

Brilliant, brings back fond memories. My claim to fame is that I was in the car with Pat etal on occasions, now people who I say that to will understand.

Also walking to Chudleigh from Exeter with John Hammond to go climbing because we'd missed the bus!

Post edited at 17:58
 Mark Kemball 11 Mar 2021
In reply to Michael Hood:

That's pretty well how it started - James Mann was researching to help Iain Peters with the history section of the guide when he had the idea for these articles. As an aside, the ruined, haunted summerhouse , the Blackchurch doss, has now been renovated and is a very upmarket wedding venue...

 John2 11 Mar 2021
In reply to Michael Hood:

It's a bit more than the history section of a guidebook - it's an account of events from one of the principal protagonists.

 james mann 11 Mar 2021
In reply to UKC Articles:

In putting this together, I would like to thank Pat firstly, for his fantastic account of this exciting and adventurous period in the South West and also for John Cleare for being generous enough to allow us to use his amazing images. We have had these put together for some time now and it is great to finally share a lesser known bit of climbing history of this unique and wild coastline. 
 

James Mann

 kingholmesy 11 Mar 2021
In reply to james mann:

Thanks to James and Pat and anyone else involved for putting these great articles together.

In reply to UKC Articles:

A very interesting article with a lot of (unsurprisingly) great historic pictures by John Cleare.

 Mick Ward 12 Mar 2021
In reply to UKC Articles:

A marvellous article. Have always been in awe of the commitment shown by that little band of activists. Big lines on big, scary crags.

Mick

1
 pete osullivan 12 Mar 2021
In reply to UKC Articles:

A wonderful account of the early development of the Culm coast by a climber who influenced many subsequent suitors. An ascent of Archtempter in early February  in the late 70's really fired up my interest in this coastline

 Sean Kelly 12 Mar 2021
In reply to Mark Kemball:

A haunted setting for a Honeymoon conjours up some exciting images!

Great reading up on somewhere that was out of the mainstream at the time. Everyone was focused on either Peak, Gogarth or Pembroke at that time. Thanks for writing Pat.

 Kafoozalem 12 Mar 2021
In reply to UKC Articles:

Wonderful stuff. It had me hooked from the opening sentence "Back in the day, when climbing was an anti-sport and climbers were eccentrics, romantics, rebels or drop-outs"...

I well remember this spirit of climbing from the later 70's and emulating such characters was immensely attractive to a teenager looking for direction in life. 45 years on I have been through many phases in climbing but the early romance remains. It is wonderful to have it rekindled by such quality reminiscences from Pat accompanied by excellent photographs - many of them looking better than ever.

Thank you to all involved.

In reply to UKC Articles:

This reminds that Pat Littlejohn's biography is a notable gap in the rich literature of British climbing. Will someone please persuade him to fill that gap.

Post edited at 16:29
 Bobling 12 Mar 2021
In reply to UKC Articles:

Thank you UKC!  I very much enjoyed reading that.  I have a strange hankering now to leave my comfy arm chair and go and place myself in mortal danger on some deathtrap Culm cliff.  I think I should sit down till it passes : )

 Mark Kemball 12 Mar 2021
In reply to Bobling:

One thing I hope that folks will get from the new guide is that although the Culm has plenty of scary cliffs, there's also a lot of friendly reasonably solid and well protected routes.

 oscaig 12 Mar 2021
In reply to Mark Kemball:

Great stuff, I'm really loving this series. Thanks to everyone involved.

Mark - am I right that the latest release date for the new guide is mid-June?

Cheers,

Ian

  

 Mark Kemball 12 Mar 2021
In reply to oscaig:

Mid June looks realistic at the moment. 

 oscaig 13 Mar 2021
In reply to Mark Kemball:

Cheers Mark, sounds good.

Ian

 Blake 16 Mar 2021
In reply to UKC Articles:

I'm absolutely loving these articles lately... they really have me pining for the South West. I keep going off into lengthy day dreams about balmy days on those sea cliffs.

In reply to Blake:

Hi Blake (and also to everyone else posting/commenting),

Thanks for such positive feedback. Whilst I only had a very little hand within the series, it's been one that I've thoroughly enjoyed being a part of. Hopefully it provides equal amusement both to those who've climbed extensively along the coastline and those who haven't. For me it's added a whole host of colour to an already colourful coastline and Michael Hood's comment "it's like the history section of a guidebook, but on steroids" is something that really chimes.

Following on from the above, given the appetite there's been for this series I'd love to roll it out for other areas across the UK, but it'd be quite a task. James Mann has done an incredible job here, both in terms of his writing, filming, editing and also his efforts to compile other people's stories and photographs. It's a massive undertaking, and one which has left such a fantastic legacy of articles which will no doubt act as a source of research and inspiration for future generations visiting the area. James, if you're reading this - thanks (again, and again, and again). It really is amazing to be in a position to publish this sort of stuff.

I'll start to have a think about other suitable areas once this series is over, but in the meanwhile - enjoy the rest. I won't spoil the surprise, but there's still some absolute beauties left to go...

 Nic 16 Mar 2021
In reply to UKC Articles:

"I could get nearly 100mph from my Morris Minor"

...that is possibly even more frightening than some of the routes!


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