UKC

If anyone fancies building a climbing wall the area Nor Nor West of Manchester is poorly served.
There is a large catchment in Bury, Rossendale, Rochdale, Burnley and the East of Bolton who have a 20 mile drive to a wall.

I'd love to see one but each of those towns is fairly small (and Bury is only about 8 miles from Rockover). I'm not sure how many people are required, on average, to support a wall but it I'd expect it to be north of >100,000

Bury 187,884

Rossendale 69 200

Rochdale 211,699

Burnley, Brierfield, Barrowford and on that way ?????

East of Bolton, a lot of houses there.

Rockover, I never consider there, I am off to the Depot shortly, I always thing going to Rockover as driving into Manchester with the associated traffic.

BUK is great, but a bit of a Drag.
Awesome at Stockport, Ditto

I didn't realise Rochdale was that big so I guess that could work (there was one before). I wouldn't put one in Rossendale as traffic is a PITA. Burnley has a large catchment before you hit another wall but I think the town itself is only about 80k and not full of the middle class families and young hipsters that seem to be the main patrons of walls these days.

There is one in Todmorden and that's only around 10K population. Its quite small but small is better than nothing. 

I guess the closest one to Burnley or Rossendale might be the one in Preston at West View, still a bit of trek though!

There's small and there's small! I live 3 miles from it and have never used it - it's not really  a training wall. It does a good job introducing/entertaining kids, families etc though

Complaining about having to drive only 20 miles to a climbing wall??!! FFS! A depressing example of entitlement syndrome! In our day we happily drove much farther and in those days we had crap cars like Austin Allegros (if we were lucky!). Next you willl be moaning about having to drive more than 20 miles to a crag!

Next you willl be moaning about having to drive more than 20 miles to a crag!

Yes it is disheartening, I had a crag 4 minutes from my house, now I have moved, its 8 minutes.

My dad's house is just round the corner from it, I've been in but never climbed there. It's bigger than The School rooms but I doubt there's enough people wanting training facilities to that level.

My point being it's not really the population that matters, it's someone just doing it. However isn't there something about climbing walls not making money from climbers, they make it from punters so anyone starting a wall isn't really going to be starting a training wall.

Once we got a car full, set off early from ambleside, went to Altrincham wall, then two in yorkshire. Dickie Dunn's and rothwell? Full session in each then chips at the original harry Ramsden's before it became a chain. Luckily I was not the driver. Could hardly keep my eyes open on the way back. Missed last orders at the rule.

A full day 

Edit. I don't think the car would have been an allegro. The daytrip was in early 1983, they had all self destructed by then.

We used to think nothing of driving from Blackpool to that converted un-heated squash court in Ambleside for an evening’s training 

Tend to go to ROKT in Brighouse and I'm not far from Tod either.

Still astonished nobody's built one in Bolton, a huge town with a pretty big climbing heritage and fraternity.

They did. Bolton Technical College Wall’s brick edge cruising was the spawning ground of Lancashire and hence the world’s best climbers in the 1980s, but it was demolished 

The original Ambleside wall was purpose built by local climbers on a shoestring budget in around 1984. It was 6m by 8m so smaller than a squash court.

The heater worked until some sh*t for brains instructor set up a top rope that wore through the cable.

Sorry, should have included the word ‘recently’.

You’re right to bring that up, just reinforces the fact a contemporary wall there today would end being well frequented. 

Talking of ‘back in the day’ walls, remember Blackburn? Now that was a bit of class!

Bloody hell, when I was based in Colchester the nearest good wall was Mile end or later Norwich, Min 90 min on a good run, taking my unit club one night finished at 1700 didn't get home until gone nine!! 20 miles is a gift, but if you don't ask.......

I'm not sure what you guys want. Boulder uk in Blackburn was too small. So we have just built the new Boulder uk at Walton Summit. It's state of the art with easy Motorway access from Burnley and Bolton. People even come down from Kendal. Have you ever been yet ??

There is a climbing wall in Bolton! It's at the end of the Jason Kenny/Bolton One building and is run by Bolton University. There are eight (?) or so lines with 2 or 3 routes per line and two auto belays, all about 20 metres high. It gets warm and crowded if there's more than a dozen climbing but it's open to the public and current price of entry is £4.00.

Apologies to those regular users who wish I'd kept my mouth shut!