#ThrowbackThursday lands a whopper!

1000-miler Roger Brown posted this pic of his parents Edith and Walter one #ThrowbackThursday this month. When we asked for more info, he shared this treasure trove of pics of walking and scrambling in interwar Britain.

Says Roger: “The picture on the right was taken in North Wales in 1936. My father was born in 1907 and mother 1902. The fact that she was older than Dad was always a problem in those days, so nobody except my father knew how old she was until after her death. I was born two years later. Mum’s trousers she had specially made, because women wore skirts of course. Their leather boots were fully nailed for climbing and weighed a ton.

“They lived in Lancaster. My mother had a degree in maths from Leeds University in the early 1920s and became a maths teacher in Lancaster. My father worked in the District Bank, in Kendal. He would work his way up to be Chief General Manager (Admin.) in the NatWest Bank.

“They walked and climbed in the Lakes and North Wales at Easter or Whitsuntide, and in the Alps, Tyrol, and Pyrenees during the two weeks in summer father’s work allowed. Also in 1936, they sailed to the Picos de Europa, third class aboard a German ship (“Large pictures of Hitler keeping an eye on us from the walls of the dining room. Nobody seemed to take any notice.”).

“The climbing rope was finally retired in favour of mooring ropes when they bought a canal boat in 1952.”

In an account of one trip mum Edith wrote: “I do wish I could find words to express the grand and glorious feeling of being out in the weather with vast sloping snow-fields as far as the eye can see – no sign of human or habitation – no sign of our destination – just the sloping mountain side – and a good pair of legs beneath one and a good companion by one’s side.”