UKC

Within the fourth article in the series Dave Garner takes us through a fruitful and frantic period of development during the mid 70's.

Good article

I'm really enjoying the Culm articles: many thanks to all involved

Glad to see the old tin and wood Traveller get a mention

Great articles, keep them coming

Excellent article and photographs Dave, it brought back many memories of my first (mainly inept) forays on the Culm.

Love the stories and amazed that photo collections of this quality have gone unseen until now. Thanks for sharing!

That is  a wonderful tribute to Keith Darbyshire.

Excellent stuff. Wonderful memories & a poignant reminder. Thank you.

Agree. And it's the best series ever. Each episode has been superb (although this is my favourite, so far). A little band of lovable madmen giving it all they had!

Mick

For decades I have seen Darbyshire's name appear in first ascent lists, but I knew nothing of him until I read this article. It is clear that he was a far more important figure in advancing sea cliff climbing in Devon and Cornwall than I had realised.

I suspect that he was a massively important, inspirational figure - by example and by character - to those at the time and all who came after.

Have always loved that quote by Pat Littlejohn to Keith Darbyshire, on the FA of Il Duce. "Keith, we have a problem!" (Hope I'm not misquoting, as ever.)  They sure had, with the belay coming away and Derbyshire swinging helplessly in space. Prusik (very) swiftly - or both die.

Rightly, we revere boldness. And Keith Darbyshire seemed boldness incarnate. Rest in peace.

Mick

I really enjoyed that article, many thanks Dave. I’d heard a little about Keith from John Cleare some years ago, and a little more from Iain more recently, but hadn’t really appreciated quite what a character he was.   

Another brilliant article - I'm loving this series. Well done Dave. The photographs are fabulous and bring to life personalities I have been reading of in history sections. 

This was the era (and these are the names), together with Bob Moulton’s 1977 guide, that inspired me to start exploring the North Devon Coast.  Still one of my favourite places to climb in the world.

I’ve still got a charcoal and chalk drawing of the Cheesewring by you on my wall.

Someone had to  youtube.com/watch?v=57MP5YcCABA& 

Thanks Dave. I was very lucky to be involved in development on the Culm. You may be interested to see more of my work on my website- peteosullivanartist.com

Clearly I'm biased Pete, but having read through your article - which just happens to be the next in the series - I think everyone is in for a treat when it goes live next week.

Thanks once-again for your involvement, both in terms of writing the article, painting the pictures, and putting up the routes (even if some of them fell down afterwards). 

Thanks Rob. It was great fun climbing on that coastline and I was extremely fortunate that Don Sargeant recorded it brilliantly