Walking Through History..BRONTE COUNTRY

[midas]

This may interest some of you who have never been to West Yorkshire??
On channel 4 at 8pm tonight.25th Oct..Tony Robinson (I know he's a bit like "Marmite")Returns with a new series
of his very watchable walk through the pictursque historic landscape.
He begins on the West yorkshire Moors,taking a 4 day hike through the landscapes that will forever be
associated with the BRONTES
His walk starts in the suburb of Thornton,were Tony enjoys a coffee in the Bronte sisters birth place,now a cafe.Then its on to Haworth.,the tourist hub of the tourist industry,where Tony commendably goes beyond the familiar family story to explore the harsh realitiesof mill town life in the 1820's.

[saxonaxe]

Hopefully that will appear on BBC Iplayer later, as I don't have a TV set. My memories of West Yorkshire are from so long ago I've forgotten most of it, but I remember being kicked out at Hebden Bridge with a big reservoir to the North and a RV point at the North end of it, Wilshaw?? Tough country in late February early March. I remember the Pennine Way was close by but obviously not for us.. Was given accommodation at a big Police building at Wakefield.. :)

[saxonaxe]

I had to cheat Sapper and look it up..:ashamed: It was Walshaw ( Dean Middle) not Wilshaw, out at Hebden Bridge and head North. I remember too going to a range that the Police used at a place called Deer Hill, we used to go from Wakefield then via Hudderfield to get to it, but that's about all I can recall of that area, except laying in the frosty grass, freezing, and trying to work the bolt on a L96A1 which had only just been adopted...:)

[saxonaxe]

Good grief! Small world. Well hat's off to you for volunteering to rescue people in that sort of terrain, at any time of the year let alone winter!! It was bright cold with enough wind to blow the Lapua off course, but not really at all bad. Search and rescue in that area for someone in a winter storm over that wild ground must be absolutely terrible.

[saxonaxe]

13 years, that's a lot of miles walked..:) Not for the forum really but I was just doing a guest appearance up there at the time... There'd been an incident involving Police searches in which someone who had been with 22 helped find a man wanted for shooting people. It was North of your area but as a result it was decided that police officers needed training in such things as open country search/tactical movement, basic map and compass work etc: So I ended up sight seeing some beautiful countryside..:D

[Silverback]

Aye lots, been blown over fallen in bogs avalanched just in these parts but my service took me to the 4 corners of the UK. Passed our search dog assessmenta on the flanks of the Fan and Fan Fawr for example.

The search was for Barry Prudom.... Eddie Magee was called in to track him, remember it well. I'm friends with his son Perry vis facebook.

We very often ended up doing those types of searches particularly for high profile mispers...People like Shannon Matthews, Claudia Lawrence and April Jones, I was briefly involved and en route to Cumbria to search for victims of Derrick Bird early on in my dog handler service....

[midas]

Lydgate Rifle n Pistol Club at Deer Hill,Still going strong,as is Diggle at the otherside of moor.
It can be very hard going over our safety zone.Tho the grouse shooting syndicate seem to manage.

[Silverback]

Deer Hill is pretty easy going compared to out on Saddleworth or Blackhill......maybe its because they do it in daylight and without the additional weight of a casualty on a stretcher ;)

[saxonaxe]

This is what is great about this forum, here I am miles away in the South and there's folk who know the same places, a lot better than me I might add...:D I was just helping out on a course and passing on drills etc: that the police were not familiar with. Some real problems were identified at the Prudom de-brief and I do believe that the local Search and Rescue Team(s) had quite an input advising about equipment, appropriate first aid ( Not Police stick a plaster on it type drills...;) ) and other aspects highlighted by the incident. It became obvious that searches of that kind of terrain need to be conducted by properly trained people. If the local Bobby is sent up there even in summer he can get into trouble. As you point out Sapper, injuries, falls and on that occasion a few cases of dehydration I seem to remember.
Only got to use Deer Hill, Mike. I took the oportunity to get acqainted with my shiney new L96 with Smit and Bender...:happy-clapping: ;)

[Silverback]

Ha ha we had 2 cyclists find a wartime 17lb shrapnel shell, the police left a bobby in the middle of a bleak moor to guard it and he was in a quite bedraggled state when we got involved...lots of UXO up on that bit of the moor, had hypothermic police and ambulance staff who had gone up there to do their jobs but completely unprepared for the terrain or the weather.

Deer Hill is Tame in comparison to Black Hill and Bleaklow...

[midas]

Hi John.yes the Accuracy International,isa very accurate piece of kit,and now more readly avialable to civilians.The L115A3 alot better, more modern rifle.I've got the US M40A1,Based on the Remington 700 PPS.Went for a Leopold scope though.
If one can shoot at Dear Hill or Diggle !you can cope with anything.
West Yorkshire Police Had one of the first Firearms tactical training in the country.Thanks to a Superintendant Colin Greenwood.Can remember us helping to finance his unofficial Book in 1969.TACTICS in the police use of firearms.
Only the Met came anywere close.
Sapper don't know if you ever got to the site of the US B52 Bomber that crashed in 1945 in Dear hill safety zone.(.All the kids hadCartridges/ bullets n souvineers.as one said to me we couldnt carry the machine guns.)Police called at school next day n recovered most stuff)
It wasn't carring any bombs n I think they were running their engines in n decided to fligh north to "look" at Manchester .which they'd heard so much about,Think on their second pass getting lower.the moor caught them out.
some were I have the details n map ref but just cannot put my hand on it.

Ps.That area,and the caves,were the site of "The Secret Army"for the area.
and as one old pal,(passed now)told me there are still lots of things buried up n around there.

[Silverback]

There are 250 aircraft wrecks in the Peak District...been to a few navigation training for the MRT ;) the one of which you speak is on the edge of the safety area towards Shooters Nab and is of a B17

[midas]

There are 250 aircraft wrecks in the Peak District...been to a few navigation training for the MRT ;) the one of which you speak is on the edge of the safety area towards Shooters Nab and is of a B17

Thanks wayne,Been a long time since I was poking about it n couldnt find map with date n notes on.B52 was first thing that came into my head.
Do remember,once seeing a book with lots of aircraft wrecks in locations n history etc.made very interesting reading.

[Silverback]

Aye Peak District Aircraft Wrecks...sadly the author passed away a few years ago. Theres 3 wrecks just beyond at Black Hill, A F86 Sabre, A swordfish, and 2 Meteors and a few more besides on that same flightpath....We even had a body up there believed to have come from a passenger aircraft

[saxonaxe]

Talking of aircraft, even after 30+ years I can remember being high up somewhere one day, 3 of us doing a route recce for a course. We were sitting having a brew and the local man said that the reservoir far away to the South was where they made the Dambusters film, or did the training, I'm not sure now. Almost like magic 2 Warthog A10 'Tank busters' went hacking down the valley below us..I think it's the only time I've ever looked down and not up and seen an aircraft..:shocked:...:D

[Silverback]

Been sat at Wrigleys cabin on the edges of ack Hill and watched an AC130 gunship fly under us :)...The dams are the Howden and Derwent dams and were indeed used by 617 for their practice - saw the only 2 remaining airworthy Lancs fly over the same dams last month :)

[midas]

...We even had a body up there believed to have come from a passenger aircraft

Not trivalizing it!But those aircraft toilets have quite a visious suction.!
Might possible,have been a stowaway in the landing gear????

[Silverback]

That's what the general consensus was although the cause of death was given as 'hypothermia' go figure

[midas]

A Tornado puts wind up walker.
We were talking about this n on page 11 of todays Daily Mirror is a super shot of the tornado n you can see the whites of the navigators eyes!9read the transfers on back of cockpit too)
Quote A RAF Tornado roars by,giving a mountain walker an eye level cockpit view.Craig Sulman was on Cadiar Idris,in Gwynedd.when the jet screamed passed and he took a photo just as the navigator glanced at him..Craig of Doncaster.SY.said the jet was just 550feet away.!

Often think its a shame that most people only remember "The Lancaster",.when there was another just as famous "The HALIFAX"