{"id":1585,"date":"2023-05-25T16:27:34","date_gmt":"2023-05-25T15:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/londonrushes.co.uk\/ahst\/?page_id=1585"},"modified":"2024-01-23T11:56:39","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T11:56:39","slug":"1980-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/londonrushes.co.uk\/ahst\/index.php\/home\/reports\/1980-2\/","title":{"rendered":"1980"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Home<\/a><\/p>

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Hike report - 1980<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Stroud<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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4th \u2013 6th January\u00a0<\/strong>1980<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Graham Beevor, Peter Cox, Malcolm Duff, Alan (Curly) Durrant, Howard Hillier-Daines, Phil Knowles, Malcolm Rush and Geoff Wright<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Report<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\"\"In 1980 the hiking resumed and this new period became known as the \u2018Modern Era\u2019. Not only did previous hikers put their boots on again but there were also a number of new walkers. Malcolm Duff and Curly from the 22nd Finchley, Howard from the 1st Friern Barnet and Malcolm Rush from the 2nd Friern Barnet.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Furthermore, we embarked upon a regular pattern of having a planning meeting at the Finchley Bowls Club and a setting off location \u2013 Timothy White’s (now Robert Dyas) the hardware shop at Tally Ho.<\/p>

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Malcolm Duff had offered transport, so come the Friday night seven of us could be found loading our gear into the back of his van, which was affectionately known as \u2018Jennifer\u2019.<\/p>

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We set off for Beaconsfield where we picked up Phil, before heading in the direction of Stroud. About 90 miles later, \u2018Jennifer\u2019 spluttered to a halt on a deserted section of the B4070. We looked under the bonnet whilst Malcolm looked under \u2018Jennifer\u2019 but we could find no reason why we had ground to a halt. After having a quick game of football by the side of the road we piled back into the van and prayed for it to start \u2013 it did immediately.<\/p>

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Due to the delay, it was necessary to stop for liquid refreshment in Cirencester, but we could not find any of the hostelries detailed in Malcolm Rush\u2019s Real Ale Guide and had to make do with the Black Horse and its dartboard and \u2018Invader\u2019 machine.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

\"\"At closing time, after filling our water containers, we departed once again for Stroud where we parked next to the railway at about 11.30pm. Then we packed and via the station loo, proceeded to leave town \u2013 Geoff drew the short straw and carried the water. The first two miles of the hike can be described as an uphill grind, various insulting remarks being aimed at the route planners. Finally, at the top of the hill and out of town, we found a campsite in a small wood, pitched our tents and settled down for what was left of the night.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Next morning dawned bright and clear, and some time later we got up to breakfast of tea, scrambled eggs, bacon and baked beans, much to the delight of whoever was carrying those items. We were unable to have bread as Peter had left it at home.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

We first headed east towards where the sun had long risen, but instead of by-passing the village of Bisley were forced to go through it to buy bread for lunch \u2013 after crossing the first of three steep sided river valleys of the morning.\"\"<\/p>

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Soon after leaving Bisley we headed north-east across the second of these valleys, still thinking we were fit enough to stroll up the other side once the stream at the bottom had been leapt or forded. And, if that was not bad enough, by the time we were climbing out of the delightfully named third valley, Ashcombe Bottom, we were in agony.\u00a0 Nevertheless, once we has reached the top, the proximity of lunch egged us on \u2013 one more mile to the Carpenters Arms at Miserden, where we sat and recovered, minus eight pairs of muddy boots which were lined up outside.<\/p>

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Having lightened our rucksacks of cheese, apples, butter and nuts, we set off northwards across the valley of the River Frome where we where relieved to find a footbridge of two planks alongside the ford which was definitely too deep to wade through.<\/p>

From here on, we abandoned footpaths for the rest of the day, having had enough of ploughed fields. The mud had become a real problem, and as Malcolm R recalls:<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI particularly remember trudging across a very large, very muddy
field: the sort where mud builds up on the sole of your boot and you
end up a couple of inches taller than when you started.\u201d<\/p>

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Nevertheless, the climb out of the village of Caudle Green was still a good half-mile, but from that point we followed a ridge through to Birdlip where Peter and Phil persuaded an unsuspecting farmer to let us camp in his field.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

A new record for winter hikes was now set, the tents being pitched in daylight. The evening meal of beef curry followed by fruit pies and custard was cooked by the light of a convenient street lamp, with additional illumination from a torch strapped to Geoff\u2019s forehead. During cooking, one of the primi ran out. Malcolm D refused to return the leaked paraffin that now lined the bottom of his rucksack and we were reduced to three stoves for the rest of the weekend.<\/p>

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Eventually, we cleared up the debris from the meal and adjourned to the Stable Bar of the local for the evening. Once inside, we found it was actually hot and before long a chair in the corner had 8 hats, 8 pairs of gloves, 8 cagoules and about 16 jumpers piled on it. The next four and a half hours were spent playing darts or Howard\u2019s silly card games and replacing body fluid. Vacating the 9th chair was a major exercise at the end of the evening.<\/p>

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Several of us were woken in the morning by the rain, but despite it being about 7.30 and with Phil snoring, we managed to get back to sleep for a little longer. Malcolm R and Peter were eventually the first to rise with Graham and Phil soon after. However, it was another half hour before Geoff and Malcolm D could be dragged out of bed, leaving Curly and Howard to be last for the second day running.<\/p>

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A substantial breakfast of porridge, sausages, mushrooms and tomatoes was rapidly consumed and before long all was cleared up and we were ready to go. Having thanked the brave farmer we set off once more, now heading southwards towards Stroud with the going now downhill.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

\"\"About mid morning we were roundly castigated by a farmer for crossing his \u2018garden\u2019. This small field apparently had a footpath leading in at each end but ne\u2019er the twain shall meet. We apologised and carried on eventually climbing steeply down in to the village of Sheepscombe where we partook of luncheon outside the Butchers Arms. The less said about the cheese and onion pies the better, but the pork pies, chocolate, beer and nuts were most welcome.<\/p>

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The afternoon session, with rucksacks now divested of all food, was basically a route march. We made very good speed over the last five miles and were soon back at \u2018Jennifer\u2019 with a total of 21 miles covered.\"\"<\/p>

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The return journey was uneventful apart from a five mile detour (back towards Stroud) looking for petrol, and a stop at Phil\u2019s house where Sue provided us all with a nice cup of tea.<\/p>

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We sang all the way back to Barnet.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Home Reports Members Leagues Contact us Hike report – 1980 Place Stroud Dates 4th \u2013 6th January\u00a01980 Hikers Graham Beevor, Peter Cox, Malcolm Duff, Alan (Curly) Durrant, Howard Hillier-Daines, Phil Knowles, Malcolm Rush and Geoff Wright Report In 1980 the hiking resumed and this new period became known as the \u2018Modern Era\u2019. Not only did …<\/p>\n

1980<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":881,"menu_order":15,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_canvas","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"page-builder","ast-site-content-layout":"full-width-container","site-content-style":"unboxed","site-sidebar-style":"unboxed","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1585","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"http:\/\/londonrushes.co.uk\/ahst\/index.php\/author\/londonhunter\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Home Reports Members Leagues Contact us Hike report – 1980 Place Stroud Dates 4th \u2013 6th January\u00a01980 Hikers Graham Beevor, Peter Cox, Malcolm Duff, Alan (Curly) Durrant, Howard Hillier-Daines, Phil Knowles, Malcolm Rush and Geoff Wright Report In 1980 the hiking resumed and this new period became known as the \u2018Modern Era\u2019. Not only did…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/londonrushes.co.uk\/ahst\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/londonrushes.co.uk\/ahst\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/londonrushes.co.uk\/ahst\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/londonrushes.co.uk\/ahst\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/londonrushes.co.uk\/ahst\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1585"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/londonrushes.co.uk\/ahst\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2150,"href":"http:\/\/londonrushes.co.uk\/ahst\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1585\/revisions\/2150"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/londonrushes.co.uk\/ahst\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/londonrushes.co.uk\/ahst\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}