NEW and old members of Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association (UWFRA) met recently to celebrate the rescue group's 75th anniversary.

An event was held at Yorkshire Dales Sailing Club, at he club's Grimwith Reservoir HQ, where UWFRA membes were joined by guests from the Cave Rescue Organisation and Calder Valley Search & Rescue Team.

A spokesperson for UWFRA said: "Many things have changed over the last 75 years, the original equipment store, an old railway parcel van, has now become a modern purpose built base, the first of its kind for any rescue team. Calling out members used to involve a cascade of phone calls (including local pubs) but is now done using modern apps and websites, instantly requesting members to attend with links to maps of the location of the incident. Equipment is stronger, smaller and lighter, instead of reels of wire to rig telephones underground we have specialist communications which will penetrate 100s of metres of solid rock.

"Long searches on vague locations are now replaced by getting accurate locations from casualties' phones. The number and type of rescues have changed over the years, from less than a dozen call outs a year for many years we now can expect over seventy. Half our call outs used to be for caving incidents where now we only expect one every year or two.

"What hasn't changed very much are the reasons for call outs, the most recent we had was for a calf stuck in an old mine pit. Rescuing sheep from old mines in 1948 was what caused the team to be formed.

"Another thing that hasn't changed is the dedication of team members, who are not only happy to drop everything to go on a call out, but attend training and learn new skills. Many team members put in long hours in running the team and of course fundraising, which over the last three quarters of a century has become increasingly onerous."

Members and guests had a great evening catching up and sharing stories. Special thanks were given to Jason Mallinson who was guest speaker, newly back from an expedition in Spain, where over the last twenty plus years he has steadily increased the penetration in Pozo Azul 2023, a resurgence of water from a cave system, from 1,700m to over 12,000m most of which requires diving.

Thanks also went out to everyone who has supported the team over the last 75 years without whose donations and goodwill the team couldn't exist.