K Fellfarers

The highlight of the 75th celebrations was the party at the Town Hall, with over 170 people attending. The many guests included - - Friends from regular visiting clubs to High House - Oread MC, Burnley MC, Swaledale Outdoor Club, Sunderland MC, Phoenix MC, and Leeds MC. - Kendal Mayor, John Bateson, and the Deputy Mayor, John Veevers. - K Shoes Male Voice Choir with their conductor Martin Webster. Another 'off-shoot' from K Shoes, they are celebrating their 40th Birthday this year. - Jonathon Somervell representing the family that gave us our existence. . - Bill Birkett, famous Lakeland climber and author, and his wife. - Ex-employees of K Shoes and 'friends of Fellfarers', and many ex-members. There was serious shortage of cameras for the occasion, but Bill Hogarth managed to take the following three photos in between selling 75th anniversary clothing and mugs. Below left shows our ex-President John Peat addressing the Hall, and below right our current president Gordon Pitt. Below those is the K Shoes Make Voice Choir on stage.


Below are both sides of the brochure that was printed for the event.



The rain on Thursday the 19th and Friday the 20th was tremendous and broke records for the most rainfall over 24 hours. The Environment Agency said on Friday that their "gauging station at Seathwaite Farm recorded 314.4mm over 24 hours until 00.45 this morning – a record for England." That's over 12 inches!!! The group who should have stayed over the weekend couldn't get down the valley. Roger paid a visit to High House on the Saturday morning to check on the state of the place, revealing that High House was OK. The track had suffered water damage but was passable with care in a saloon car. The pipe bridge was blocked, causing the beck to overflow onto the track, with the prospect of further rain making the situation worse. See below left for his photo of the 'Chinese bridge' opposite Shepherds Crag, and below right for the state of the lane up to High House.

A work party of Roger, Peter, Alan, Richard, and Hugh visited on a wet and windy Tuesday and managed to dig out the gravel from the beck in front of the pipe bridge and release the flood. They cleared away some of the gravel from the bed of the beck and repaired most of the track. The photos below show the state of the bridge and track on their arrival. Alec completed the job of digging out the gravel when he visited on the following Thursday. Considering the amount of rain that fell, its surprising that more damage wasn't done. Talking to 'even younger' Stan at the Fish Farm in Seathwaite, he says that the rain in the valley was heavy for a long time without being of the cloudburst variety, and this probably accounts for the lack of damage. See this story about the last time there was a lot of rain in the country!

Two atmospheric shots from Kevin are shown below, including a lovely Brocken Spectre with a Glory.

Remembrance Day sees the Club remembering past members and others who died in conflicts around the world. Two locations are used to share this ceremony with others, one on Great Gable, and the other on Castle Crag shown below.

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