Northwich u3a monthly meeting - May 2026
The presentation this month was entitled, ‘Oldham Mountain Rescue Service’ and was given by one of its long-standing members, Peter Hyde. This service is a charity, manned entirely by volunteers, which relies on donations and needs £50,000 annually to carry out its work. There are 47 rescue teams in 8 regions across the country and their patron is King Charles.
Peter began the session with a fact-based film about The Mountain Rescue Service and everything it does – and there is a lot more to it than anyone thought!
In the 1930s, after someone locally had a climbing accident, Eustace Thomas designed (with the help of others in ‘The Rucksack Club’) a stretcher which could transport an injured person over rough terrain. This was known as the ‘Thomas Stretcher’ and was used until the 1970s when it was superseded by the ‘Bell Stretcher’. Over the years, it was noted that more people needed rescuing from different environments and situations and eventually, in 1964, The Mountain Rescue Service was founded.
A rescue usually follows a set itinerary: a rendezvous, a briefing, a search (maybe using dogs), medical care, evacuation. A rescue may also require air support, coastguard, stretcher winching, police involvement or other services and could be at any time of day or night and in very poor weather conditions.
There are different sorts of rescue and evacuation which require different sorts of techniques: crag rescue techniques, horizontal stretcher evacuation, cableway evacuation, steep ground raise, shaft rescue, buildings rescue, tower crane rescue, wildfire aid, rescue from railway tunnels, water rescue, helicopter/plane crash rescue and road traffic accident rescue.
As if all that isn’t enough, the service also helps with animal rescue, replacing stepping stones in out of the way places, rubbish recovery, attending Remembrance Sunday, rebuilding a Sri Lankan school and being on set of TV programmes (e.g. Emmerdale).
A volunteer will probably train for 2 years to become accomplished in mountain skills as well as attending a series of courses in other skills necessary. It will take approximately 18 months to train a dog.
The service has a long list of well-deserved awards, including ‘The Pride of Oldham’ and the Queen’s Award (2019).
This was a thought-provoking, interesting and informative presentation as many in the audience did not realise the amount of people and skills needed or the wide range of activities that the service carries out. Peter told many stories of rescues and members enjoyed the afternoon tremendously.
Come and join us for the meeting on 17th June at 2pm at Owley Wood Recreation Club, Weaverham, when Gary Conley will tell us all about his ‘Life at the Manor’.