My BMC equity symposium

Getting to Brontë country was easy enough, a quick hop on the train to Leeds, onwards to Keighley and a bus to Haworth. The Brontë Parsonage museum is a perfectly sized museum where an afternoon well spent will give a pretty good idea of the lives and times of the Brontës and Haworth during the 19th century.

“It is more than climbing when I travel somewhere to go climbing”, said Rehan Siddique, ex vice-president of the British Mountaineering Council (BMC) speaking at the first plenary session of the BMC Equity Symposium.

Absolutely! It is an opportunity to understand local culture and heritage, as I was able to do at Haworth where I spent afternoons climbing and the rest of the time getting acquainted with local history, meeting people working in the outdoors and for the outdoors. Day one at Haworth was a literary approach to the outdoors – both Emily and Charlotte Brontë ‘s novels incorporate the moors and mingle them with life, an absorbing account of it is found at the Brontë parsonage museum where members of Brontë society have lovingly put together exhibits at what was formerly the family home of the Brontës. Quite why we’d need a booklet (to be returned at the end of the self-guided tour) when every small room in the museum has two interpretation boards is not clear, unless it is prone to be getting very crowded at any given point in time and there are many people in the room (quite a few American visitors around when I was at the Parsonage!). The life and work of the Brontës had a significant impact on Haworth. Patrick Brontë, the sisters’ dad was instrumental in bringing the appalling unsanitary conditions in Haworth to the notice of the health ministry in London. Open drains, poor working conditions in mills affected life expectancy of people in Haworth which was significantly lower than most parts of the country. The life of the mill owners was a far cry from that of their workers.

The church path leading up to the Parsonage

Bronte Parsonage lawn

There is an interesting story about the flat grave stones in the church yard

Bronte Parsonage

The famous sign

It is in the house of one such mill owner (whose previous generations were known to the Brontës) that we had the BMC symposium on the outdoors focussing on ethnic minority use and enjoyment of the outdoors. Formerly Longlands Hall, currently YHA Haworth, it was built in late 1884.

“Longlands Hall was built for Edwin Robbinson Merral Worsted manufacturer, second son of Michael Merral of Law House. He moved to Longlands Hall with his wife and seven children from Cliffe Cottage. The House was built with the stain glass windows still visible today depicting citrus fruits, carved stair case, balustrade and moulded ceilings. Each room retains its original and unique marble fireplace.”

 

Longlands Hall/ Haworth YHA

Nick from BMC, Mahroof from BMC/Mosaic National Network (MNN) and Mohamed MNN

Mosaic Champions Mahroof, Chamu and Mohammed and currently officers of Mosaic National Network

This is an impressive hostel with warm and comfortable accommodation and meeting rooms. We had the symposium indoor sessions in various areas of the YHA – the study, dining area, ballroom and lounge. Telephone signal was good, but absolutely no connection to 4g on my phone (walls here are very thick, said the manager!), wifi can be purchased. Day two saw me do a workshop on our project called ‘ Anglo-Indian perspectives on the outdoors’ – quite a general title but the discussion did go broader than our actual project and into themes like heritage enquiry and curiosity, participation potential of outdoor/heritage projects, barriers etc. My audience was small, but a good mix of those who work in the outdoors and those who were new to the outdoors. I duly informed them of our BBC radio 4 Open Country episode, and I wonder how many listened to the show, and what they made of it. As I write this blog piece, a week after the symposium, I have just heard that our project is on ‘Pick of the Week’ on radio 4! So, obviously, someone liked the programme enough to make it one of the highlights of the programmes on radio 4 this week!

That evening we wanted to go on the Haworth ghost walk, but the walk leader was otherwise engaged and couldn’t take us out, which we made up for by going on an after-dinner stroll in search of a windmill which might have been all but a ghost! I was struck by how much people enjoy strolling after dark. But night walks aren’t as popular or done, perhaps a unique ranger-guided night walk is in the making here!

Day three was a pleasant bright day and we were looking forward to our outdoor climbing session in the afternoon, after day two’s indoor climbing sessions, which we very much enjoyed. The Mixenden wall at Halifax was fun even to some experienced climbers in the group. Our outdoors climbing involved a crag session at Woodhouse scar.

But first, day three had some great sessions in store for the morning. Diversity in the Dales was something I was looking forward to, a chance to hear what another northern National Park was doing. Mohamed Midhal and Catherine Kemp from the Authority were there, and we had some brief discussions on some work we wanted to do together, but at that session, a particular project was presented – ‘People and the Dales’. PaD was a £197,000 award from Natural England as part of its Access to Nature programme which was funded from the Big Lottery Fund’s Changing Space programme. The partnership that delivered it comprised of Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust, Natural England, the Field Studies Council at Malham Tarn, Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and Bradford Metropolitan District Council. The presenters did a great job at the workshop, which was again attended by a small but interesting group of people from outdoor centres, universities, and BMC members. They circulated a PaD handbook which was mine for a donation, and I took it! The handbook is attractive and has a number of waterproof sheets on many aspects of exploring the Yorkshire Dales National Park, including one of flowers that were commonly seen, and many many maps with routes! Good work.

The last plenary talk of the symposium was titled ‘Spirituality and the outdoors’. Early on in the lecture, the speaker alluded to Hinduism and the once-common practice of vanaprastha and Sanyasa – which relied on a life understanding nature, during the Vedic period. Just the presence of such a session in an event such as this in itself is as symbolic as the content of the talk. There are many types of adventures to be had in the outdoors, signalling the importance of the yet-to-be-discovered (perhaps rediscovered in some traditions) adventures of the outdoors to modern world societies.

The final session of the symposium was a workshop I had arranged. I had invited Mike Pupius, Peak District volunteer ranger to do a session on Mindfulness and the Outdoors. Mike gave this succinct, interesting and thought provoking talk on an emerging area of interest. It was a well-attended session, and had a small outdoor component to it. This session was programmed very well to follow what was a broad setting in the plenary talk of expanding one’s horizons inwardly through the outdoors.

So, this was my BMC symposium, interpreted through the sessions I had been at, having made choices from the programme, some happily, others grudgingly!

I now sign off as Frieda (of Slumdog millionaire!), a name I was given at the symposium by one of its bubbly participants! According to another participant at my workshop, I had gained minor celebrity status! Well, all I hope for in the near future is to have a secretary to do some of my stuff. Celebrity or not, I will be content 🙂

Sheffield fountain in yellow to mark the countdown to Tour de France!

CK