UKH

Hi. Our club has received the following message which seems to be from Sky Studios. 

Just posting it on here in case it saves someone a wasted journey. 

Sky Studio's are filming a brand new TV drama and filming will be taking place at Windgather Rocks at Kettleshulme on Friday the 13th and Monday 16th August during day light hours.

With prior approval from Derbyshire council and the Forestry Commission, we wanted to politely let rock climbing groups before hand know of any disruption we may course to there climbing event.

The filming will take place on top of the rocks with large filming equipment. The layby on Side End Lane will be taken up with filming technical vehicles and traffic management will be in place to stop and go traffic whilst various shots are being filmed.

The last thing we want to do is annoy and dishearten anyone with our filming activities and ruin your climbing event. We would please like to make you aware now rather than on the filming days after your long journey to the rocks.

We do apologise for any inconvenience.

Cheers

Paul E

Hi Paul, why would Sky contact a club rather than the BMC? Did you reply? I guess looking at the spelling and capitalisation errors they’re not into proof reading😂

I think the crag is owned by the Peak District National Park, but they cite Derbyshire council (sic) whatever that is, and the Forestry Commission? 
I may be completely wrong, but something doesn’t seem right.

all the best Paul

I think they've been contacting everyone, as we received two separate messages via two separate channels yesterday. Suspect the BMC have had something similar too.

That said, I'll drop them a line just to be sure.

It’s probably nothing, I guess the interns are handling corporate comms now

paul

Damnit - I was planning to work at Windgather on Friday.  Is the implication that the whole crag is going to be closed off?  Nothing in RAD about it yet.

Hi Jamie. 

Sorry, I only know what was in the note. Sounds like you could access some routes but you'd have a mare parking. 

Paul

Were there any contact details?  I might see if they will be working all the way over on the left hand buttresses.  Otherwise I'm going to need to replan my weekend.

Hi Jamie

Have PM'd you the email address I got the message from. 

Cheers

Paul

Thanks, Paul!

I think it looks like the whole crag will be getting used....as a local we have had letters about it and the signs have been on the road for the last week or so....caused a bit of commotion here in Kettleshulme....some locals are keen to spot any celebrities!!

You could go the other way from the reservoir and park up at Pyms Chair or directly up to Pyms Chair from the Macc to Whalley Bridge Road....might be worth a walk down to see if you could get on the bouldering area lower down but I'd give it a miss personally....Castle Naze isn't far away as the nearest alternative...

Just spoken to the originator of the email.  It is genuine - he had no idea of how to publicise the closure so simply emailed a bunch of local climbing clubs.  I've told him how to find UKC and the RAD for the future.

They're going to be there all day Fri and Mon, and indeed occupying the entire crag, but not at all during Sat or Sun.

I will probably go to Castle Naze instead on Friday - thanks for the suggestion!  

Wingather crag is on open access land and there is a public right of way running along the top of crag so they can't stop you being on the land/climbing provided you use the ROW to access the land, (not the normal approach). This is true unless they have applied for a landowner closure, which looking at the natural England website they haven't:

(http://www.openaccess.naturalengland.org.uk/wps/portal/oasys/maps/MapSearch...) 

Therefore you should still be ok to climb but perhaps be accommodating of them out of politeness, and they should do the same for you as you are entitled to be there too.

Perhaps someone can inform the originator of the email of this information as it is a busy footpath and many people will not see this information before traveling but will unfortunately likely be lied to by the security team that they can't access the land.

An underrated crag in my view....if you haven't been before parking can be an issue but there are some good routes....enjoy the day, the weather is picking up so hopefully time to dry out by the weekend...

IT'S MY FAULT! It was a beautiful morning. I was the only one climbing when along came this young man, very pleasant, said he'd just joined a TV production company and they'd sent him out to scout around for location(s) for some romantic drama series. I couldn't deny the perfection of it all, but did stress the importance and popularity of the place as a venue where TV filming might not sit well with those using it. He said he was in a hurry, had to get to Congleton, and probably didn't look for other alternatives - SORRY!

Been there a few times - there is some nice climbing there.  Just hoping it's all dried out; Thursday looks like a good sunny and windy day.

Graeme, I am sure you're right - the chap I spoke to didn't really seem to be terribly experienced.  Not an argument I'm going to have on the day, though...

Imagin the fuss on here if a uni group had given notice they where bringing their freshers out... 

Hi All,

It transpires that the BMC hadn't been contacted, so I'm glad I dropped them a message after all.

The RAD has now been updated, so please help to spread the word: https://www.thebmc.co.uk/modules/rad/view.aspx?id=749

Graeme my friend, finding small loopholes like that is for proper turds. It's a good habit to give up like yesterday.

Though I fully agree with what you are saying my experience with TV is they can be painful.

I was sitting in the car park at Masham eating fish and chips for my lunch in my van. A TV person knocked on my window "can you move your van, we are filming something for the TV and can't have a lettered van in the shot"

Yes no problem, where won't I be in the shot.

Well we need you out of the car park.

In that case give me 20 minutes to finish my lunch and I will be out of the way.

We need you out of the way now.

You find me a parking spot where I can sit and eat my now going cold lunch and I will move.

I don't have time to do that, I need to get the other vans with advertising on them moved.

Your shit out of luck then because I'm not moving until I finish my lunch, good by.

Arrogant tosser. 

What's the 'loophole'? And what gives TV or filming companies any primacy over any other legitimate users?

I had a similar experience at Burbage one time.

Once they finally started to speak politely to me, rather than try to push me around, it all worked out okay.

Not so much for climbing, but closing public rights of way and access land without a proper closure being applied for is unacceptable, and filming companies should not be tolerated doing it.

If they cannot be bothered following due process, I don't see any reason we should respect them any more than anyone else asking if you can move out of a place you are completely entitled to be.  Which for me goes "if you ask nicely, yes, if you ask rudely or tell, no" - and I don't think I've ever heard of or experienced filming company security guards ever being nice.

If it's open access land then they've got as much access rights as any one else, so pretty much first come first served and the fact that their length of access doesn't fit in with our climbing norms is tough for us.

But this only applies to (effectively) where they're standing, they've got no right to deny access to unoccupied space.

Presumably from the commercial point of view, they will have reached agreement with the landowner. If not then I would have thought they'd be on pretty shaky ground.

Yes, true.

Exactly this - what they are usually after is exclusivity, they tend not to want random climbers in their shot!

They probably have, yes, but the landowner does not have the right to unilaterally close public rights of way, there is due process for that.  Legally it's very similar to closing a road, and quite rightly so, too.

And the way to get that is to talk nicely to people (which they may well do) rather than arrogantly assume they have the right, which appears (anecdotally) to be the attitude of some TV companies.

If I was more recovered from my bad back I'd be tempted to wander up there on Friday and see what's what (not to be an arse but just to see how they were handling it).

Assuming streetmap at 25k is up to date, it's interesting how the crow land includes that gated bit across the sheepfield, just the small gap between the bottom gate and the road to negotiate on non-crow land.