UKC

Phil Kelly talks about his project The Rock Archivist.

With an audio recording from Rowland Edwards and other historical information.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=53262

In reply to UKC News:

Interesting stuff. Will the originals then be donated to the Mountain Heritage Trust?

In reply to UKC News: Great stuff. Any southern books yet? It will be really good if the information is linked to the logbook stuff here, come on Mick!

In reply to Tom_Harding:

That's not my job. Alan and Nick's department.

In reply to UKC News: Thats awesome, particularly interesting reading steve bancrofts new route book, love the notes next to hairless heart ("Poxy v.diff") and profit of doom ("Another shit route").

In reply to UKC News: Great stuff! Just finished my History dissertation on the development of Dinas Cromlech, (a good excuse to spend time in pete's), so this will be really interesting. Hopefully there'll be a few more academic works. cheers

In reply to remus:

Phil's doing a fantastic job. It's a bit sobering seeing how cutting many of us were. But we were very young, climbing (literally) away from dull post-war conformism into far too much freedom to handle.

It was a wild time to be active - and many great routes came into being.

Mick

In reply to Henry Iddon:

Hi

All the originals have been and will be returned to their respective owners. It's really up to them what happens with the physical resources in the longer term.

Whatever happens, the RockArchivist site should become a permanent and growing site where we can view digitised versions of the originals online, something that's not available anywhere else.

The MHT are aware of this work but so far haven't asked about access to the originals.

Phil

In reply to phil kelly:

Have you tried contacting Andy Hyslop for the old Rock and Run new routes books from the 80's and 90's. Some good stuff in them.

Woody

In reply to The EpiCentre:

They're hopefully on their way. Mick....?

Phil

In reply to UKC News:

Really glad to see this project of yours taking off Phil. I'd love to help out any way I can, message me if you need anything specific doing.

Jon

In reply to UKC News: Afternoon

I noticed the site is a bit thin on the ground for southern climbing areas; Cornwall, Devon, Portland, Swanage, Avon, Sandstone, Chalk etc etc). I'm of the new generation so have only ever seen one of two route books in my life, but were they extensivly used down south as well and can anyone get hold of any for use on the website? It would be really intresting to see books relevent to where i do most of my climbing.

In reply to Tom_Harding:

That's a very good point. My perception is that stuff tended to get documented much faster up north. The "usual suspects" would often be sat beside each other in Stoney caff, happily slagging off each others' contributions in the new routes book!

I know Neal had two new routes books in Rockies on Portland. I'll ask him about them. They made interesting reading! It wasn't all cream teas and politeness down here either...

If you check out Rob Kennard's excellent website, dorset climbing, there's a profile of Pete Oxley which gives some history of developments in Dorset. Written by me, I'm afraid, but feel free to ignore that.

Thanks for being interested in our history. It is so very rich...

Mick

In reply to jonny2vests:

Hey, thanks for that!

I suppose there are a few things that need to be done. I've just uploaded around 1500 pages of Pete's Eats books, and these need to be indexed, and then they can be uploaded into the database. Once there the details will automatically appear under the relevant book, as well as in individual climbers' profiles and also the crag profiles.

On the subject of profiles, when you select a first ascentionist you'll see a list of their claims. There's also space above that for a piece of hand written text and images, so we have the ability to create a more rounded profile rather than just references to routes, letters, articles, corrrespondence etc (ooops, did I let something slip?) If anyone fancies taking on a profile for any first ascentionist, then that would be great.

It is the same for crags as well, although Mick knows I might be knocking on the UKC door for that one.

As for books in other places, one of the aims of the site is to have as much available in one place. This isn't just a selfish thing; the more information in one place, the more comprehensive the individual climbers' list and portfolio becomes and therefore the more useful the resource becomes.

Anyway, I just hope everyone find it useful and interesting. There's some absolute gems in there and the sooner we can get them all indexed the better it will be.

Phil

In reply to Mick Ward:

Not sure about the south, but there were several new route books in Scotland, eg in most (all ?) of Tiso's shops, Nevisport in Fort William (& Glasgow ?), Highrange (I think). No doubt others I never saw as well

In reply to phil kelly:

Ok, not sure I feel qualified to write a profile, but I don't mind doing some page cataloging / indexing Phil. I'm jobless until early June.

In reply to phil kelly:
Are there any (distant) plans to extend this back in time?
Do the old 19th/early 20th century Wasdale Head books still exist for instance?!

In reply to jonny2vests:

Just pick any of the Pete's Eats books - a few if you want - and let me know which so's no-one duplicates and I can put your name against them.

Then it's a simple matter of a spreadsheet with columns for page number, crag, buttress, FA name, day, month, year and finally comments.

It's pretty simple but the great thing is you can read all the entries and add comments either from the books or your own if relevant.

A great way to catch up on the books!

Phil

In reply to Henry Iddon: all mine have

In reply to phil kelly:

How about Pete's Eats 1983-1985?

Jon

In reply to jonny2vests:

Sounds good. Thanks for your help!

Phil

In reply to UKC News:

For the historians of the esoteric, I've uploaded two old handwritten guides this morning.

The first is a copy of Graham Kilner and Harry Taylor's guide to the Wilton Face (the Inside Face of the Prow in Wilton One), dating from 1960 or 61. I'm not aware of any earlier guides to Wilton than this, so if anyone has any information to the contrary I'd love to know.

Second is another handwritten guide dating from around the same time, documenting Buckhurst Outcrop (now known as Deeply Vale) and written by Mick Pooler.

Coincidentally, Mick also climbed with certainly Harry Taylor and is also credited with the first free ascent of Dawn in Wilton One - described as Sunset Boulevard (A2 - pegs) in the guide above.

You can get to these two guides from the Archives link on the site.

Phil

In reply to UKC News:

A few more pages added and indexed today from Brian Cropper's route books, and on a Dave Knighton theme....

Dave proudly recorded his ascents in extremely neat handwriting, often accompanied by excellent explanatory diagrams.

The ones I have added today are:

Head over Heels Raven Crag - Coniston Dave Knighton
Good Times, Bad Times Falcon Crag - Borrowdale Dave Knighton
Blue Oyster Cult Gogarth Andy Hyslop
True moments Gogarth Dave Knighton
Caress of Steel Gogarth Andy Hyslop
North West Passage Gogarth Jim Moran
Where Puffins Daren't Gogarth Al Evans
Visions of Jan Hoghton Quarry Dave Knighton
Evil crystal Lester Mill Quarry Dave Knighton
High Revver Anglezarke Quarry Dave Knighton
Spleen Road Hoghton Quarry Dave Knighton
Highway Star Hoghton Quarry Dave Knighton
Fingertip Control Anglezarke Quarry Dave Knighton
First Night Anglezarke Quarry Brian Cropper
Double Trip Anglezarke Quarry Dave Knighton
Rock and Roll Suicide Trowbarrow Dave Knighton
Touch of Class - Left Hand Trowbarrow Dave Knighton

Phil

In reply to UKC News: Next update will be this weekend and will feature:

1. Over 900 (uncatalogued) pages from Brian Cropper's new route books
2. A number of handwritten guides

There will also be a quick fun competition running through June - I'm really looking forward to that!

Phil