5th August 2006

The Bob Graham Round recently inspired route choices for a few days walking with my daughter at Langdale. The “Little Green Book” *, known to all you Bob Grahamers and a copy of which I’d just procured in Keswick, shows a picture of Joss Naylor awarding the Fell Record Trophy to Alan Heaton in January 1965 to commemorate 60 peaks in under 24 hours. It was originally left on display in the Old Dungeon Ghyll hotel in Langdale, where many of the early rounds started and finished, although the current hotel staff knew nothing of this association and had retained no memorabilia.

The Trophy was later moved to the Lake District Visitor Centre at Brockhole. Armed with this information we expected to find the trophy on prominent display at Brockhole but were surprised to learn that after hanging on a nondescript corridor wall it crashed to the ground one day. While the centre Boss knew nothing of the Trophy, one member of staff recalled that it lay tucked behind a back office desk with a broken frame. We were fascinated to examine this at close quarters and to check out all the famous names. One difference between the current picture and that in the Green Book is that Mark Hartell, the current record holder with 77 tops, now features in the inset. Our suggestion that the trophy was perhaps the most interesting exhibit at Brockhole and deserved pride of place was met with some surprise but, we think, with an intention to resurrect it.

Brockhole staff, Nicky (left) and Lucy (right) keeping together the frame of this historic trophy.

* 42 Peaks: The story of the Bob Graham Round. Paddy Buckley & Roger Smith. Hayloft Publishing Ltd, Kirkby Stephen, 2005

Paul Hainsworth