West Bromwich Mountaineering Club (WBMC) is one of the oldest and most active climbing and hill-walking clubs in the West Midlands. It currently meets at "The Globe" in Reform Street every Thursday night and has a membership of almost 300. Every month it runs a coach to a mountainous region in England or Wales, on which seats are available to its members and the general public on a 'first come - first served' basis and also maintains a members-only hut in the Nant Gwynant valley. It affiliated to the British Mountaineering Council in 2003 and became a Community Association Sports Club (CASC) in 2005.
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Early in 1951 Bert Wright, a member of the Climbers' Club, was asked by his Local Education Authority to develop camping trips & outdoor activities for local schoolchildren. At that time there were only 3 outdoor centres in the whole country and no certificates of mountain leadership of any kind so he set about organising mountaineering courses for schoolteachers based at Helyg & Ynys Ettws huts in Snowdonia. The idea of forming a mountaineering club in West Bromwich materialised while participants socialised at The Royal Hotel (now Plas y Brenin) and the Pen-y-Gwryd. The first meet was to the Long Mynd on 13 January 1952, the first committee meeting on 23 May & the inaugural Annual General Meeting held at the Arden Hotel on 16 October 1952, at which Wright became the first chairman. The "Star and Garter" was the club's first home until it moved to "The Globe" in 1959 where it has remained apart from brief spells at "The Flowerpot" and "Merry Go Round".[1] Sir Chris Bonington contributed the forward to a book published in 2002 celebrating the club's golden jubilee.[2] The group produces a monthly newsletter and copies of these going back to 1989 have been deposited with Sandwell Community History & Archives Service at Smethwick Library and can be consulted there.[3]
In the early days the mainstay of the club's activities was rock climbing in Snowdonia and as few members owned cars, it was important for the club to be able to offer convenient travel to hills in other parts of the UK. So the monthly coach meet was born, typically setting off from West Bromwich at 6.30am and picking up at 8 to 12 places en route to north or mid Wales, the Peak District or the Malvern Hills. With no M6 the Lake District was out of the question for a day trip as it was usually after midnight before the coach returned to the West Midlands.[2] Reports on some of these coach meets can be found on the internet. [4]
In December 1957 West Bromwich (now Sandwell) Education Authority bought Plas Gwynant, one-time home of prime minister Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, together with its outbuildings for less than £5,000. The Club used this site for camping but after a few years was offered a disused Dutch barn in the grounds for conversion into a hut. Work began in January 1961 to dig out and level the floors and it was officially opened for use in 1963. Electricity was connected in 1967 and a toilet and shower block added in 1975.[5]
To date none of the fourteen 8,000 metre peaks have seen ascents by WBMC members and the highest points reached so far are around 22,000 ft (6,706 m) by Dot & John Wagstaff during an unsuccessful attempt on Lenin Peak in 1998 [2] and the 23,100 ft (7,041 m) summit of Lhakpa Ri in Tibet by John Edwards in September 2006. However, there have been many other achievements by individuals in the club. Mike Nicholls, John Hipwood, John Wagstaff, Nev Tandy, Mike Lay, Paul Cleary & Brian Green have completed all the Munros [6] and John Hipwood and Mike Nicholls, having climbed over 1200 Marilyns, were 24th & 34th in the 'RHB Hall of Fame' in2010. [7] Members names are also on completers lists of lesser hills such as the Nuttalls & County Tops in England & Wales.[8] Members have recorded ascents of many alpine peaks including Mont Blanc, Monte Rosa, the Matterhorn & Grossglockner and further afield have planted the club flag on the summits of Aconcagua, Aneto, Mt Ararat, Mount Elbrus, Jebel Toubkal, Kilimanjaro, Mera Peak and virgin summits in Kyrgyzstan and Antarctica.[5][9] Ken Priest & Pete Goddard are currently two of the club's leading climbers.[10] Van Greaves has published several books of mountaineering photographs and walking[11][12][13][14] as well as many articles in UK walking magazines and Bob Charteris has created the 100 mile Teme Valley Way walk.[15]
Neville & Anne Tandy organised two major UK challenge walks for over 40 years.
In the 1970s and 1980s WBMC members regularly participated in the Welsh 1000 m Peaks Race and the Long Mynd Hike. John Wagstaff set a race record of 8 hours 47 minutes for the latter in 1981 which stood until 2002 when the route changed.[18] On 17/18 June 1978 Wagstaff completed a triple crossing of the 14 Welsh 3000s (around 66 miles and 22,800 feet of ascent) in 22 hours 49 minutes, a feat which has so far not been repeated, [19][20] and he is still the only club member to complete the Bob Graham Round of 42 peaks in the Lake District, a feat he achieved in June 1979 supported by a number of club members.
Every mountaineering club has its share of mishaps as slips and falls can sometimes lead to sprains, broken bones or worse but WBMC has been fortunate in that it has only had a couple of serious accidents. On 23 July 1972 Len York reached the summit of the Matterhorn for the second time in 12 months but a fall on the descent led to a spinal injury which left him paraplegic. In spite of this York still manages to reach mountain summits and revisits Zermatt most years.[21][22] In August 1989 Malcolm Collins fell to his death while climbing solo on Sub Cneifon Arete in the Ogwen Valley when a rock spike gave way.[2] A trophy in his name is awarded at every annual general meeting to a club member in recognition of mountaineering achievement or services to the club. Recipients of the silver rosebowl have been 1990 Graham Sockett, 1991 Bob Lister, 1992 Ken Priest, 1993 Geoff Robinson, 1994 Mike Nicholls & John Wagstaff, 1995 Mike Smith, 1996 Peter Woodward, 1997 Iris Cooksey, 1998 Nev Tandy, 1999 Dot & John Wagstaff, 2000 Paul Cleary & Pete Goddard, 2001 John Mitchell, 2002 Hilary Jones, 2003 Nigel Kettle, 2004 Ann Tandy, 2005 John Mitchell, 2006 The "Elbrus Eight", 2007 John Edwards, 2008 John Eadon, 2009 Mike Thompson & Malcolm Vaughan, 2010 Bob Duncan.