Outlook Runner turns


IMAGINE you’re a top class fell runner at peak form, looking forward to a gruelling race in Swit­ z e r la n d , when a c a r sma sh s h a t te r s y o u r


cially when some doctors doubt you’ll never run com­ petitively again. Do you give up? Or do you fight back like East Lancashire man P e te r H a r tley did . . . against the odds, with self-help, family help and much medical back-up; bat- t l in g b a c k to n e a r ly top-form.


knee. What do you do? Espe­


distance becomes a strain. Just running for a bus leads to agony. Standing for any length of time means ache with a capital ‘A’.


strain. Or is it? X-rays show worse than bad news. A second opinion confirms it. Arthritis in the hip. Eventually walking any


niggling injuries, you’re still running strongly and, at the same time managing to take stunning action photographs of runners and scenery that are regularly published. Then you develop a groin


Eight years later, despite


MARGARET WRIGHT meets an athlete who has overcome injury to rise to the top in a very different field


based Peter, who’s 42, has got himself a mountain bike so that he and his cameras (two Nikons and a Minox) can get to the parts that fell runners reach. . . and can continue finding those beau­ tiful shots of runners set among some of the most incredible and dramatic sce­ nery in the world. And who knows whether the mountain bike will find


for a hobby at ground level. Or fight back like Maths teacher Peter Hartley has done. And turn you hobbies r o u n d to s u i L y o u r circumstances. Because Worsthorne-


th a t secondary hobby of taking photographs which bring alive scenery and a sport that few of us see.? Do you give up? And look


and end-all sport that’s also a way of life — comes to a full stop after 18 years. And what will happen to


Fell running — that be-all


future, the bike made of lightweight alloy — has widened horizons that Peter thought had closed in. “I t ’s like having a new


i ts w a y — with P e te r aboard — into competitive riding? Because, whatever its


pair of legs, I feel as though I have got a new lease of l ife ,” said P e te r , who’s taught at Moorhead High School, Accrington, for 11 years. The bike is taking the


p l a c e o f t r a i n i n g


runs .. though not quite yet the 70-80 miles weekly tra in in g th a t P e te r was clocking up as a fell run­ ner. But car rides are now bike rides, usually going the long way round. Son Michael, 10, or


daughter Claire, 13, can ride off with him if they want. And Peter can race up those fells to get camera angles he’s weighed up in


crutches after the car acci­ dent, I used to feel a bit embarrassed when I had to keep phoning the hospital for replacement rubber bungs for the bottom of the crutches.. Pete kept wear­ ing them out when he set off on long walks,” laughed Val. The accident in June 1981


te en ag e r , rockclimbing, mountaineering — climbing the Matterhorn in the year before his 1973 marriage, scaling within 1,500 ft of the summit of Mont Blanc in 1982, the year after the car smash. And of course the fascinating sp o r t of fell running. “ W h e n h e w a s on


just a baby; Peter was half­ way through an Open Uni­ versity Maths course; he was in top running form. He


couldn’t have come at a worse time; Michael was


A Christmas Tragedy


FEW items of local news attract as much attention as say a murder or a local tragedy. What springs to mind is the Hapton Val­ ley pit disaster in 1962, or the Spanish air disas­ te r in 1970. In such cases, the commu­


to trying to find and save


JACK NADIN recalls a terrible disaster which touched the hearts of East Lanca­ shire a century ago.


Kath Drake on the steep climb out of Colne in the Hendon Brook Half Marathon.


100 years ago, when five people, all related, lost their lives while trying to save two y o u n g s te rs from a flooded and abandoned quarry. The time — December, 1887. The place — an old


nity feels the grief of the families involved, yet there is always the nagging ques­ tion: Could it have been avoided? Such was the case over


quarry at the rear of the Tim Bobbin pub, at Ighten- hill, Burnley. This old stone quarry was


with a keen frost, and as the day p ro g re s sed the old quarry took upon its surface a sheet of ice. Soon the youngsters of the area were skating and sliding on its surface, blissfully unaware of the danger of what could, and in this case did, happen. Two of these boys had


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began to slide and skate. Then suddenly the ice gave way and he fell into the icy waters. His younger companion


been skating along on the ice all morning, and had r e tu rn e d ag a in to Lhe apparently safe surface. The eldest boy, aged 14,


put out a helping hand to try and save his friend and he too fell into the water. A b y s tander gave the


alarm, al a nearby house on Park Lane, where Lhe occu­ pants were enjoying a pre- Christmas party. Quick! y , t w o y o u n g brothers, Ezra Tattcrsali.


last worked some ten years prior to the tragedy, and wtts owned by the Shuttle- worth family of Gawthorpe Hall. The location of this quarry is recalled in the name of nearby Quarry Bank Street. The fateful day dawned


aged 19, and Joseph, aged 17, were on the scene, and were soon followed by two more brothers, Joseph and John Barrett, and young ArLhur Barrett, who was Joseph’s son. The two boys in the water


the T a t te r s a l ls and the Barretts. Sad to say, this was not


the case, and it was not until 10.30 p.m. that the last of the bodies was brought out.


rescuers to go onto the ice was Joseph Barrett, who rushed forward, taking no notice of the advice of his nephew, Ezra Tattersall, that he should go first, for he was much lighter built. Joseph’s only thought was to get to the two young­ s t e r s , and in ru s h in g forward th e in e v i ta b le occurred. The ice broke, taking both Joseph and


Barrett and Joseph Tatter­ sall, who were all on the steep embankment of the old quarry, rushed to their aid, and in doing so they too broke the ice and plunged to the depths. Meanwhile, the two lads


Ezra into the murkv water. ArLhur B a r re t t , John


who unintentionally, had caused th e i r would-be rescuers to fall in had by now been pulled ashore. Every effort was now put


had managed to stay above the icy waters by resting their arms on the surface of the ice, though they were now feeling the effects of the cold. The first of the would-be


hailed as heroes. For with no thoughts of their own safety, Joseph Barrett and Ezra Tattcrsali went to the young boys’ aid and, when they became immersed, Arthur Barrett, John Bar­ rett and Joseph Tattersall went to help them. Sadly, they were all to lose their lives in what became known locally as “The Tim Bobbin Tragedy”.


Of course, they were


the roads from the Tim Bobbin and along Accring­ ton Road all the way up to the cemetery were packed with mourners paying their last respects, and a fund was set up for the bereaved families.


On the day of the funeral, It is easy to say, in retro­


spect, that no lives should have been lost that fateful day. For if less speed and more thought went into the rescue, then all would have been well.


the drowning lads were saved. I~~1


rescued by someone with more forethought, a Mr M. Proctor, who on hearing of Lhe d r o w ni n g b o y s ’ dilemma, secured himself with some washing line, and it was by this means that


Certainly, the lads were


always backed Rossendale Harrier Peter in the very single minded and often solitary sport of fell running and cheerfully admits he couln’t cope with being still. He’s been potholing as a


the years lie’s been fell running. Wife Val, also 42, has


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