All posts in Club News

Castle Chronicle #12

As a reflection of the high esteem in which he was held, and the fondness felt for a very special man and good friend, there was an impressive gathering of 33 past and present CMC members to attend Charles’ Knowles’ funeral, some coming from as far away as Scotland, the Lakes and Bristol, joining the 11 family members and 4 staff from his care home on Thursday 21st August at Skipton crematorium.
The family eulogy was given by Gill’s son Matthew (Gill and Sally were Charles’ 2 nieces who gave him practical help in recent years, eventually helping him move into his brother Bob’s care home for a final year together) followed by my eulogy on behalf of the Castle (see below). The vicar picked up my 2 references to Charles’ flat cap, and later at the gathering wake in the pub, there were several ornaments noted to be wearing flat caps!
As I said, Charles had a remarkable life, truly well-lived, and knowing him and sharing some of it, he enriched all ours; he will be missed.
Vanda Boyd

From the left: on the stairway – John Rogerson, Lilias Huxham, Dave Beynon, Paul Gibson, Steve Belk, Gordon Riley, John Barnard, Mike Griffiths, and at ground level – Ali Milne, Josie Davies, Leon Dowling, Karen Jones, Andrew Milne, Vanda Boyd, Mike Jackson, Gill (Charles’ niece), Linda McLeish, Fran Riley, Frank Mellor, David Pendlebury, Mark Proctor, Lynne Clare, Mike and Gill Doyle, Russ Clare, Sue Millar, Jenny Mellor, Martin Whitaker, Gavin Moore.

From the left: sitting or kneeling in the front – Andrew Milne, Linda McLeish, Vanda Boyd, Karen Jones, Ali Milne, and standing behind them – Dave Beynon, Lilian Huxham, Josie Davies, Mike Jackson, John Rogerson, John Barnard, Jenny Mellor, Steve Belk, Gordon Riley, Frank Mellor, Gavin Moore, Mike Doyle, Mark Proctor, Lynne Clare, David Pendlebury, Gill Doyle, Fran Riley, Leon Dowling, Sue Millar, Max Huxham, Paul Gibson, Russ Clare, Mike Griffiths, Dave Crowther.

Not on either photo: Chris Kell, Pat Cocks and Dave Dunk

Vanda’a eulogy:
We’re here to remember and say goodbye to a very special man and good friend, Charles Knowles. Fellow Castle members have been sharing their memories of him, so my apologies that it’s not been possible to include them all.
Charles was already an active member of both the Hallamshire and Eagle Ski Clubs before he joined the Castle Mountaineering Club in 1975. [I’m forever grateful to him, that he introduced me to the Castle when I first arrived in Sheffield in 1980, and he was organising an Eagle Ski Club event which I attended – thank you, Charles!].
He was an experienced and accomplished mountaineer, with two particularly notable expeditions needing to be mentioned, both with his friend Hamish Brown – the first to the Nanda Devi Sanctuary in the Himalayas in 1977, and much later, in 1995, a complete traverse of the Atlas mountains of Morocco [900 miles over 3 months, all 10 of the 4000 metre peaks having already been climbed] being joined by some Castle members I can see in front of me now.
He’d persuaded his boss to bend the rules just this once, to allow him to carry over several weeks holiday to the following year, to allow him to go away on an extended ‘one-off, trip of a lifetime’. A few years later with a new boss, he managed to have the rules bent yet again ‘just this once’. Charles had recounted this to me with a slightly naughty grin on his face.
There were many other Castle trips abroad; a 30th anniversary trip to Ecuador [climbing Chimborazo], cycling in Cuba, and in Europe, to the Dolomites, Pyrenees and Alps [with an epic on the Eiger].
He was a competent and steady skier, joining me on two of our hut-to-hut XC skiing trips in Arctic Norway, and there were numerous Castle ski holidays, which in later years he easily managed even with his two hip replacements, rarely falling over, and taking great satisfaction reporting back afterwards to his orthopaedic surgeon. To be prepared for almost any eventuality, he always had a rather over-large rucksack [not ideal on chair-lifts] but it was full of occasionally useful equipment [one member’s broken ski-boot was mended on a black run].
Back in the UK he was equally active, a true stalwart of the club, joining in enthusiastically with Castle evening, weekend and many away meets.
Two special memories are climbing the Devil’s Slide on Lundy with him, and as a four, climbing Napes Needle in the Lake District, but him declining to do the traditional headstand on the top of it [his excuse was that he was wearing a helmet not his flat cap!]
He obviously liked to set himself different challenges. In Scotland, he completed the Munros, Corbetts and Marilyns, and then started ticking off trig. points, before starting on different canal tow paths. He once tried to see how far he could drive his car without using the brakes – it might have been 20 miles!
He was a kind man, taking and collecting people from hospital, and also very generous, always offering to buy you a drink – it was almost impossible get in first and buy one for him.
Charles certainly liked talking and was never lost for words, and it was sometimes very difficult to escape without appearing rude. I believe it was Hamish who said “Charles is a talker, he needs to be shared”. And who hasn’t heard the story [probably several times!] of him breaking leg whilst out skiing alone in the Dales [before the advent of mobile phones] and managing to drive quite a number of miles [not in an automatic car] to a hospital, with apparently no-one around, so that he needed to drive on further to a second hospital to get the required medical assistance, and even then had to lean repeatedly on his horn to raise staff to get attention.
He never married, so his Castle friends became his Sheffield family, and he was happy to take part in the numerous social events on offer; parties, ceilidhs, visits to the theatre and cinema, slide shows in our clubroom and birthday celebrations. He celebrated his own 70th on the campsite on Skye below the Cuillin Ridge, with Caroline and Ali quietly and secretly decorating his tent while he slept in it, much to his obvious delight when he emerged later. His 80th involved a group cycle ride with a party afterwards. And the following day, Paul and I took him on probably his very last rock climb [on Burbage] when he WAS wearing his traditional flat cap. His 90th was marked in the Grouse Inn, where Castle members met his nieces Gill and Sally, and his longtime friend Hamish came down from Scotland.
Hamish plans to be on a Scottish hill-top today, and like us, will also be remembering Charles. I hope that others unable to be here in person, like Hugh
Dowling, Chris Huxham and Vee Anderson, will be able to be with us in spirit via the zoom link.
Gill and Sally, I’m sure Charles was very appreciative of your caring and practical support in recent years, helping to sell his flat, and later his house, to enable him to spend a final year, sharing time living with his brother Bob in his Keighley care home.
It is surely the end of an era.
Charles, you had a remarkable life, truly a life well lived, and knowing you and sharing some of it with you, certainly enriched all of ours.
We will miss you.

Castle Chronicle #11

Castle Chronicle #10

Castle Chronicle 9

Castle-Chronicle-7

This obituary was written by Frank and Jennifer Mellor, with added notes by Andy Smith.

To reduce the administrative work for the club we are planning to bring all the WhatsApp groups under one Castle Mountaineering Club community group. This has been done by a number of other clubs such as Eagle Ski club , Mynydd and Alpine Club. This means that all club members will automatically become members of the Castle community WhatsApp group. Members will then be able to opt to join sub-groups within this. For example, a climbers group, a walkers group, a chat group, bird watching etc.

ADVANTAGES OF THIS ARE:
Members can be joined onto the big club community group and then opt to join the sub groups of interest.
Members will be made aware of the full range of activities which occur within the club.
It will be much easier for new members to see the range of groups in the club and join the ones they are interested in.
By controlling who is in the community group we can manage who is in the other groups. So if a prospective member does not subsequently join the club, or if a member leaves, we can remove them from the community group and automatically from all the other groups they were in.
As before, we can create groups for away meets. Control of the community group allows us to delete these groups when they are no longer needed.
Everybody is used to using WhatsApp – so we know members will find it easy to use.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
We will move the Walking, cycling and Climbing groups and all its members over to the new Castle Mountaineering Club Community by the 31st January.
Feel free to join any additional groups that interest you.
Once you have done this continue to use WhatsApp as before.

If you are currently not in a WhatsApp group and would like to be, please email me and I will give you further instruction as to how to join. Lornamnicholson@gmail.com

Anyone who is not a castle club member or prospective member will be removed from the WhatsApp community and subsequent sub groups.

ARE YOU ADMIN OF SOME OF THE OTHER EXISTING WHATAPP GROUPS?
eg. gardening, bird watching, wild swimming, art. Would you like your group to be accessible to all castle members?
If, yes, once you have joined the community group, “add group”, then add existing group. You and your members will be transferred over to the community. Please consider if this is appropriate for your group, as non castle members will be removed.

ARE YOU LEADING AN AWAY MEET OVER THE NEXT FEW MONTHS ?
Consider creating a WhatsApp group for your meet by “add group” button, followed by “create new group”

If anyone has any questions please or needs help, please contact me Lornamnicholson@gmail.com

The committee met on 8th January and this is the latest update to let you know what we have been getting up to:
• Recent club highlights have been the talk by Mick Fowler and the well-attended Christmas Meet at the excellent Coldwell Centre on the East Lancashire Moors. Many thanks to Andrew and Ali for the organisation and to everyone who helped prepare the sumptuous Christmas meal.
• The list of away meets for 2024 is looking healthy. Meets are planned to Coniston (January), Capel Curig (Easter), Yorkshire Dales (May), Northumbria (Spring BH), Cairngorms (May-June), Chapel Stile (June), Dentdale (July), Mid-Wales (August), Galway (September) and the Lakes (November).
• After last years’ successful Alps trip to Ailefroide another trip to Aosta is planned for late June / July. Those lightweights who prefer sunshine rock are catered for by a trip to Sicily in October!
• We are organising some skills sessions run by experienced club members including winter skills and navigation. Future sessions may include self-rescue, sports climbing techniques and abseiling. Let us know if you have any suggestions.
• On the social scene, after last years’ successful ceilidh, another has been organised for Saturday 23rd March. Vanda has organised more slideshows and Helen is organising some “Pub Grub” evenings allowing members to share good food and convivial conversation. We are also hoping to hold another photographic competition.
Information about away meets, skills sessions and social events will be posted on the message board.
The committee are continuing to look for ways to streamline club communications and are considering the following proposals:
• Reactivating the Castle Facebook and Instagram accounts. This will allow us to share information about club activities between club members. It will also help us to promote ourselves as an active club to people outside the club, especially younger folk, who may be interested in joining us. We will be encouraging all club members to contribute photos etc which reflect the wide range of current club activity.
• Setting up a WhatsApp Communities group. This is a way of organising the different WhatsApp activity groups which will be helpful to the membership team. Please note that the existing activity groups will operate in the same way that they do now.
• We are trialling a Microsoft programme which will streamline the membership process and reduce the administrative workload of the membership team.
Geoff is working on proposals for the club to reduce our environmental footprint – watch this space for the results.
As always the committee welcome feedback from club members – especially suggestions for meets and other activities. Volunteers to organise climbing and walking meets are even more welcome!