TEESDALE’S volunteer-run search and rescue team has paid a poignant tribute to the tragedy that led to its formation.
Last weekend saw the 50th anniversary of the events that led to the creation of what is now Teesdale and Weardale Search and Mountain Rescue Team.
A special service was held in St John’s Church, in Shildon, on Saturday for family and friends of the two young men who died, as well as members of the rescue team. It was followed by the unveiling of a plaque at the team’s Durham base.
Steve Owers, the team leader, has painstakingly researched the Maize Beck tragedy of 1968, searching through old newspaper cuttings, speaking to those who were there as well as digging out official reports.
On Saturday, March 23, 1968, 22 young people from St Johns Youth Club, in Shildon, set off to walk from Dufton, in Cumbria, to Middleton-in-Teesdale.
A party member described the conditions as “foul with fog, wind, rain and patches of snow up to three feet deep” .
Having passed High Cup Nick, the party was unable to cross Maize Beck.
They decided to cross the smaller tributary of Swarth Beck and later cross the River Tees at a bridge below High Force.
Mr Owers said: “As they reached Swarth Beck they found it to be running very fast from the heavy rain and melting snow. They decided to from a human chain in order to cross led by Kenneth Brown. After getting about a quarter of the way across Kenneth decided they needed to turn back.
“At this point four of the party were swept downstream. Two managed to clamber out almost immediately but Kenneth and another were swept towards Maize Beck.”
The third person in the water later explained: “I was carried 200 to 300 yards downstream and after about half a minute, which seemed like ages, I managed to scramble to the bank. I saw Ken further down the stream. He was travelling as fast as a man could run. I was okay apart from some bruises on my knee, but Ken could not swim and he had a big rucksack on his back.”
The remainder of the party abandoned the attempt to cross the swollen stream and turned back towards Dufton. It was decided that the fastest walkers should go on ahead to get help.
One recalled: “It was frightening, we knew we were three-and-a-half hours from the nearest house and many members were exhausted and very cold.
“We started the long walk back through the bog, fog and rain. I helped to carry one poor girl for one-and-a-half hours. We were all scared and honestly wondered if any of us would get back because we were all so cold and stiff and cramped and unsure of the way in the fog.”
Most of the party made it back to Bow Hill Farm but four remained unaccounted for. As the party made its way back to Dufton one member of the party, David Vaughan, 18, from Shildon, started to lag behind. Three other young men stopped with him and they all became detached from the main party.
“We started to carry David along because he could not walk by himself. He was soaked through and getting worse and worse,” one of them remembered.
The farmer at Bow Hall Farm rang the police and they in turn contacted the Outward Bound Mountain School, Ullswater, to ask for help with a search.
The four men still on the hill carried Mr Vaughan until they could go no further.
“Unable to find adequate shelter they laid a raincoat on the ground and put a rucksack round him and huddled together to try and keep him and themselves warm. Sometime that night the three young men could find no signs of life from David,” Mr Owers said.
“Unsure of a location for the four missing men two search teams from Outward Bound searched above and below High Cup Nick in appalling weather conditions. The teams returned to the farm just before midnight to rest.”
The search was to be restarted at first light with help from mountain rescue teams from Penrith, Patterdale, Langdale and Kendal, as well as RAF Leeming and the Army. They found three young men in a sheepfold suffering from hypothermia.
Squadron leader Davies said at the time: “It was amazing they were still alive.”
The bodies of David Vaughan and Kenneth Brown, 23, from Shildon were later found by the rescue teams.
Mr Owers said: “As a result of this incident a meeting was held at the High Force Hotel in June 1968 and the Upper Teesdale and Weardale Fell Rescue Association was formed. Since that time the team has attended hundreds of incidents and undoubtedly save many lives.”
It now has 40 members with all volunteers working from bases in Barnard Castle and Durham. Teesdale and Weardale Search and Mountain Rescue Team are needed more than ever before, explained Mr Owers.
“During the recent snow we had 40 calls in three-and-a-half days – we normally get that a year – and most were to assist the ambulance services getting people to hospital. During two days we were operating through the day and night,” he added.
