Oldham Caving Club or Oldham District Speleological Society

M

moletta

Member
Does anyone have any knowledge of the above clubs -or any similar Oldham based group? I've come across a mention of an Oldham club but can't find any further information.

Thanks :)
 
Pitlamp

Pitlamp

Well-known member
Where were they more active - in the Peak District or the Dales? (That'd narrow it down a fair bit.)
 
Pitlamp

Pitlamp

Well-known member
Oh - and do you know between what dates the club was active (to narrow it down further)?
 
J

Jenny P

Active member
I just checked and we don't hold anything from them in the British Caving Library. 

I'd be interested to acquire any publications for BCL, if they ever did any - even photocopies would be worth having.

 
M

moletta

Member
I've just seen the name, and am trying to find out if they were a club or a group of friends from Oldham. Possibly around in the 30's, but the Oldham District Speleological Society are listed in Cullingford's 1953 Caving.

 
Pitlamp

Pitlamp

Well-known member
So still around post war then. A lot of new clubs formed immediately after the war, when all the young fit folk came home and wanted an outlet for their energies. Not all clubs survived of course; if they failed then often some former members would move to other more mainstream clubs. Two possibilities there might be the Lancashire Caving & Climbing Club (which had a few members from that area on the list in the 1970s at least) or the Derbyshire Caving Club (which is, I think, essentially Stockport / Manchester based, so not far away).

If you really want to look into this seriously, archived newspapers from the early 1950s from that area might throw up something useful?

I'll keep pondering on it because I have a vague recollection of having read something about this group, a long time ago.

 
J

Jenny P

Active member
I just checked the BCL online bibliography and catalogue under "oldham" and the very last entry in the long list is a reference to an audio archive recording by Sid Perou of Geoff Workman on the day after his 80th. birthday in 2009.  You can get direct to the recording from the online catalogue and Geoff is reminiscing about his early caving days and there is a mention of the Oldham Speleological Society.

Go to caving-library.org.uk; click on online catalogue; enter oldham as your simple search; go right to the last item on the list, which says Held by BCL; click on the icon and you'll hear the recording.

Don't know if that will help but it is a clue.


 
J

Jenny P

Active member
And I just remembered: Geoff Workman was a Derbyshire Caver because he was the Editor of the very first DCA Newsletters way back in the 1960's.

 
M

moletta

Member
Thanks for the link to the audio archive.
Geoff talks about joining the Oldham District Speleological Society in 1951. He started caving in 1945.

The 'Oldham' references I saw could have been Lancashire Caving & Climbing Club, I suppose. They started in 1936, but I don't think they were Oldham based. Incidentally they are now Lancashire Climbing & Caving Club, which reflects their current interests more accurately
 
J

Jenny P

Active member
Pitlamp said:
So still around post war then. A lot of new clubs formed immediately after the war, when all the young fit folk came home and wanted an outlet for their energies. Not all clubs survived of course; if they failed then often some former members would move to other more mainstream clubs. Two possibilities there might be the Lancashire Caving & Climbing Club (which had a few members from that area on the list in the 1970s at least) or the Derbyshire Caving Club (which is, I think, essentially Stockport / Manchester based, so not far away).

If you really want to look into this seriously, archived newspapers from the early 1950s from that area might throw up something useful?

I'll keep pondering on it because I have a vague recollection of having read something about this group, a long time ago.
Click to expand...

Not Derbyshire Caving Club I think because they were formed around the late 1950's and were originally the "Northern Branch" of Orpheus C. C. but then became a separate club altogether.
 
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