Huddersfield is just over 50 miles from Southport beach, which isn’t that much less than the furthest distance from the nearest sea of any part of England, an honour that goes to Coton in the Elms, Derbyshire. One would think that there would be little need for the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute) in any areas that are this far from the sea, and of course one would be correct, but this doesn’t stop us greatly admiring the work that these extremely brave volunteers carry out.
There is little more admirable than a person who knows that they are putting their life at risk and still attempts to save the life of another, and in the case of the RNLI very likely to be the life of a stranger.
The RNLI head office is in Poole, Dorset. It has 238 lifeboat stations operating 444 lifeboats around the UK and Ireland. The RNLI was founded in 1824 and predates the foundation of the Irish state. Even if it didn’t, I couldn’t see an organisation like the RNLI not responding to any vessel in distress in any part of the coastal waters around the mainland and all its Islands.
The RNLI: founded to save lives at sea
Some 97% of the frontline crews are volunteers. Including 5,700 lifeboat crew members, 12% of whom are women, and a further 4,000 volunteer shore crew members. The Humber is the only station with a fully professional crew.
At the time of the RNLI’s founding, there was an average of 1,800 shipwrecks around our coast. With vessels relying on sail for propulsion, they, and their crew, were completely at the mercy of the wind and tide; therefore, if nature dictated that a vessel was on course to be dashed against the rocks, there was little that the crew could do to prevent it.
Sir William Hillary lived on the Isle of Man and had witnessed many shipwrecks around the Manx coast and had saved lives with the help of locals. in February 1823 Sir William made an impassioned appeal to the nation and his vision for a dedicated group of volunteers to save lives at sea became a reality during a meeting in London in March 1824.
The admirable Mountain Rescue volunteers
There is another group of volunteers nearer to home that also deserve our admiration. These volunteers are members of the Mountain Rescue organisations. Huddersfield is positioned part way up the east side of the Pennines, but has little in the way of mountains. Instead, it has more moors than we could shake a stick at, and in my ramble “A bucket list fulfilled” I described how easy it is to walk in circles or in the opposite direction to which you think if you’re going, if you get caught on the moors unprepared and in the all too common mist.
Originally based in Meltham, Holme Valley Moorland Rescue was formed following the deaths of two Boy Scouts who were taking part in a local moorland challenge walk in 1965. The rescue team was re-located to Marsden in the Colne Valley in 2005 and shared the town’s fire station. When West Yorkshire Fire Service decided to close the station in 2013, the rescue team collected £60,000 and bought the building in 2015. This was at the time when all the rescue teams from around Britain co-ordinated their systems and became “Mountain Rescue” from whatever location they were based at.
The rescue teams are not confined to finding and rescuing people from moors and mountains but could, and often do, get asked to help the police search for missing people. Teams also help the ambulance service when casualties need rescuing from less accessible locations.
Pork pies and old mobile phones – dubious navigational aids
Two of my old biking mates John (Hodge) Hodgson and Mick (Tats) Tailor had been rescue team members for many years. They, particularly Hodge, were always willing to tell stories and anecdotes collected during their time rescuing the unprepared.
One piece of advice that was always given by the rescue volunteers is, if you are going to walk over our vast moors, you must of course wear the proper outdoor clothing and footwear, but you should also carry a pork pie; in that way the dog will always find you! This is of course not guaranteed and not all that practical; you could later find yourself trying to discover the source of a horrible smell in the bottom of your rucksack and discover a month-old pork pie.
One of my more recent friends, Oskar, was a keen hill walker and, while out walking with his friend Paul, they got themselves badly lost on the moors. Luckily they had a mobile phone but this was about 25 years ago – long before satellite navigation or electronic aids and apps that are available on smart phones these days that can pinpoint your position to within a few yards. Therefore, they could ring for help but couldn’t tell the rescue team exactly where they were.
The moorland rescue were alerted but as it was getting late in the day, a rescue helicopter was also sent to search a much larger area than the moorland rescue could hope to search. An hour later they were found safe and well but not a little embarrassed.
Not again, surely?
Oskar and Paul are sensible professional people and, since such a thing surely couldn’t happen again, this experience didn’t put them off and so they continued their adventures. After all they are sensible professional people …
About two years later they were walking in a similar area and, I’m sure you’ve guessed it, they got badly lost again. Just as before, they couldn’t tell the rescue team where they were and again it was getting late in the day. Both moorland rescue and the helicopter were sent out and it was again the helicopter crew who found them, strangely enough within half a mile of where they were found two years earlier.
This rescue resulted in much more embarrassment for both Oskar and Paul for their names and responsible professions were placed in the local Huddersfield Examiner in bold text for all to see.
Once is irresponsible, but I don’t think there is a word to describe doing it twice. If it wasn’t for the rescue teams, I’m sure Oskar and Paul would have ended up being among the list of permanent casualties.
Please support our brave volunteers in any way you can, they do it because they care.
