When students brought a taste of Norway to Reddish
How ski-mad pair built a jump where competitors landed in grass
SOMETIMES the best, and most unbelievable, ideas are dreamed up over a pint in the pub.
That’s certainly what happened to two homesick students after a night out back in the late 1950s. Eric Hoff and Lars Ele were Norwegians studying at Manchester University, but were nostalgic for their homeland – its regular deep snow and the winter sports opportunities it provided.
Together they cooked up what would appear to be a hare-brained scheme to build a ski-jump somewhere in Greater Manchester to help alleviate their homesickness.
And while not exactly the mountain ranges of Scandinavia, the pair thought the open spaces and slopes of Reddish Vale near Stockport were the perfect location, despite the lack of snow.
Building the ski-jump was the first challenge, a problem they solved by constructing a temporary ramp out of 40ft of scaffolding above a steep embankment near Brinnington Beach to form a natural landing slope.
The lack of snow was a little more tricky but that problem too was overcome.
Around 20 tonnes of snow was transported in sealed lorries from the ‘Devil’s Elbow’, part of a mountain pass in the Cairngorms, Scotland, and supplemented with another 10 tonnes of artificial snow from cold stores in Lancashire.
The Manchester University students were attempting to get the ski jump ready in time for an organised two-day event of jumping in March 1960.
‘Everyone wanted to watch, people were terribly excited and turned up in their droves. It was brilliant.’
However, the muddy hills of Reddish Vale posed their own problems as lorries carrying the snow became stuck in the narrow muddy lanes leading to the jump. Norwegian skiers flown over for the event, as well as policemen and spectators, struggled in the bright sunshine to push the lorries out of the mud.
Finally the lorries reached their destination and their cargo of snow, which had been treated with carbon and ammonium chloride to stop it melting, was spread across the slopes with the aid of volunteers.
Despite 30 tonnes not being quite enough, a large pile of grass was placed at the end of the landing.
Reddish Vale was then ready for its two-day skijump competition, beginning on March 5, 1960.
The event was covered by several local and national newspapers at the time including The Guardian.
Covering the event on Monday, March 7, The Guardian reported on the make-shift landing: “Several of the jumpers went head first into the grass and arose smiling seconds later, and so the snow was not missed.”
Adding: “In the first round, nobody jumped 100ft, though one or two of the Norwegians were very close.
Then in the second round Arve Johnsen swept forward and into the air with arms spread like wings, and came down with perfect balance knee-deep in the grass at the bottom. He had jumped exactly 100ft.”
The eventual winner was Ove Johnsen who leapt 106ft from the makeshift jump.
The Guardian went on to say that before the event a few local cynics “scoffed” when the skijump scaffolding first went up and the snow was still to arrive, adding: “But by the time the jumpers began to take off, the two young Norwegian students had at least shown that bad weather – or rather the wrong sort of weather for a skier – need not stop anybody.”
Among an estimated 15,000 people to watch was Pat Ruaune, 78, a member of the Tame Valley Defence Group that passionately protects Reddish Vale’s interests. Speaking to the Manchester Evening News in 2018, she said: “Everyone wanted to watch, people were terribly excited and turned up in their droves. It was brilliant, a really colourful event in the park’s history.”
Laura Dwyer, another who saw the event, said: “I saw the ski jumps as a girl of 15. It was amazing, there has never been anything like it around here. I have told people and my family about it, but was never believed.”
Money raised from selling tickets for the event were donated to charity while Greater Manchester’s first ever ski-jump was later dismantled.