Happywanderers Cave and Pothole Club

How the “Happy Wanderers” came into being

Five lads were exploring around Castleton in Derbyshire. We bumped into each other once or twice and formed a lasting friendship. We visited Peak Cavern, Winnets Pass, Giants Hole and Peveral Castle. There was Malcolm (Tiger) Culshaw from Southport, Pete Matley from Salford, Frank Shuttleworth (Bazz of Bolton) and Philip Wallace from Bolton and myself from Barrow. It was summer 1955. We decided to meet up again the following Easter at Ingleton.
Mike Myers

It was summer 1955. We decided to meet up again the following Easter at Ingleton. So in 1956, after exploring a few caves around Ingleton and Clapham, we decided to form ourselves into a proper group. It was August-September 1956 we held a meeting in the Wheatsheaf Hotel, Ingleton.

AFTER THE TRAGEDY


BUILDING THE MOSSDALE MEMORIAL CAIRN by Alan Brook

Dave and Alan BrookAbout 2 weeks after the Mossdale incident David Brook, Alan Brook and Dave Weston went to Mossdale Scar with tape, compass, clino and notepad. We knew the Bearing and the distance from the entrance to Rough Chamber. We surveyed the line with Dave Brook on tape and notepad, Alan on compass and clino and Dave Weston on line spotter duty and clino correction surveyor. On arriving at the Rough Chamber position we were spot on for the stake marking the induction phone link to Rough Chamber down below. We now knew the bearing and distance to the point in the cave where the bodies were found. We surveyed to the correct position a little before Priests Tarn on a flat area of moor. A stake was placed at the spot and some rocks from Priests Tarn brought to pile around the stake. The game keeper for this area was Joe Cussins who had allowed ULSA to use How Gill Nick hut as a base for Mossdale trips.

Over the next six months I spent many weekends ferrying rocks from Priests Tarn to the stake using a heavy duty canvas rucksack. I would build up the cairn but other cavers reported seeking Mr Mallinson, the Mossdale gamekeeper, attempting to knock down the cairn. When the cairn had been rebuilt to its present height a group of ULSA cavers including Dave Brook, Alan Brook and Dave Weston took some limestone rocks with good fossils in them from Mossdale Scar to top out the Mossdale Memorial Cairn. After a few years I made a small brass plaque and screwed it to a squarish block on the cairn. At first the cairn sank into the peat but stabilised after a few years.

Several years after fixing the plaque a contributor of walks for 'The Dalesman' found the cairn and included it in a walk on Grassington Moor for 'The Dalesman'. There was a photograph of the cairn and the inscription on the plaque was quoted followed by the words "there is nothing more to say". The inscription on the plaque reads:

Plaque on the Mossdale Memorial Cairn