John Hawkridge (1948-2020) was a disabled mountaineer who is well-known for his ambitious walks and climbs despite his condition - Cerebral Palsy. He was born in West Yorkshire and lived in the area most of his life. He has featured in documentaries and interviews, in addition to writing books about his experiences (including Uphill all the Way and Sticks and Stones: an Autobiography). He chose his journeys based on what would give the best views and satisfactory scenery, so it is no surprise...

John Hawkridge (1948-2020) was a disabled mountaineer who is well-known for his ambitious walks and climbs despite his condition - Cerebral Palsy. He was born in West Yorkshire and lived in the area most of his life. He has featured in documentaries and interviews, in addition to writing books about his experiences (including Uphill all the Way and Sticks and Stones: an Autobiography). He chose his journeys based on what would give the best views and satisfactory scenery, so it is no surprise that he also liked to document these journeys on film so that they could be remembered. He has done many hikes, ranging from recommended local footpaths, to challenging expeditions at international mountains such as Mount Everest in 1988.

John was born on the 19th August 1948, and was one of the first pupils to attend Larchfield School in Harrogate, a Leeds Education Authority residential school for disabled children. During his stay at Larchfield, he was fitted with metal callipers (a type of leg brace) to aid his walking. John later moved to Potternewton Mansion School in Leeds as a day student. He received two bouts of experimental surgery in 1959 to attempt to straighten his legs, though this resulted in him ending up in a wheelchair and having to learn to walk again with the aid of crutches.

In his autobiography, Sticks and Stones (1987), John describes how his interest in hiking and mountaineering began. Despite his admission that he had previously ‘detested’ walking, in September 1968 he attempted to climb the summit of Skiddaw: a mountain in the Lake District just outside of Keswick in Cumbria, which at the height of 3,054 feet tall is the sixth-highest peak in England. Though he describes this expedition as a failure, he returned the next year with better equipment and a few friends to further his hiking pursuits.

In an interview with Richard Smith for the British Library’s oral history project - Speaking for ourselves: an oral history of people with cerebral palsy – John discussed how he first began filming his hiking adventures. In the mid-1970s, John bought a good-quality Super8 cinecamera, which was a popular tool for amateur home-movie makers at the time. He would take it with him to film himself on hikes and rock climbs, and then would make the footage into little cine-films to show people whenever he was ‘entertaining’.

By the late 1970s, John’s films had reached the notice of Yorkshire TV, who sent someone to look into making a film with him. In the above interview, John described how the director was really impressed with the content of the films, but said he was unable to show them or make a film out of them. As the director claimed, the public “wouldn’t be able to take it”, as John doing all of this walking without any help was not what people had come to expect regarding disabled people and their abilities. Despite the fact that John had already written several articles about his hiking for local magazines such as The Dalesman, and was well known around Yorkshire, it was apparent that the TV people were “frightened” of the image of disabled people he portrayed. (John Hawkridge Interviewed by Richard Smith, 09:03:24-09:06:19).

As John needed both of his hands on his sticks when walking, he often brought friends along with him to do the filming. Most commonly he was accompanied by Graham Thackwray or Philip Finch, or sometimes both on different days of the same long hike. Besides the Three Peaks of Yorkshire, films of John’s hikes in the YFA collection include The Dales Way: YFA 6777 https://www.yfanefa.com/record/_peFMbACdgZiPFyFxFMFpW, and The Three Peaks of Yorkshire: YFA 6779 https://www.yfanefa.com/record/_peFMYpsOFPFyFxFMFpW.

Scafell Pike is the tallest mountain in England, standing at 978 m (3,209 ft) above sea level. It is situated in the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, and at its foot is Wastwater, the deepest lake in England. Along with Ben Nevis in Scotland (1345m) and Yr Wyddfa (called Snowdon in English) in Wales (1085m), Scafell Pike forms part of the National Three Peaks challenge, in which hikers endeavour to climb all three mountains across the UK, usually within 24 hours.

When he first ascended it in September 1969, Scafell Pike was the second mountain John had climbed. After not quite reaching the top of Skiddaw, John had returned to Keswick around Easter 1969 with his new hiking boots. He decided to attempt to reach the summit of Great Gable, which is in the Lake District near Wasdale and stands at 2,949 feet high. This expedition was also not a success, but John describes in Uphill all the Way how the fantastic scenery around the mountain more than made up for the disappointment of not reaching the summit.

After Great Gable, John returned again in July 1969 with his brother Robert, his cousin, Stephen Turner, and three of his friends: Kevin Maynard and Paul and Roy Goodbeer. Four of the party, including John, attempted Great Gable again but decided against the climb due to the rain, as they wanted to wait for the perfect weather. A few days later, when the weather had improved, John decided that they would instead attempt to climb Helvellyn, England’s third-highest peak at 3,118 feet high, which is also in the Lake District. The climb was a success, although the descent was a little rough as John slipped part of the way down and had to be tackled to a stop by Kevin. He describes the takeaway from this experience in Uphill all the Way: “There was a lesson to be learned from this near disaster. I must always descend by the same route as that by which I had ascended, or by a route I knew to be safe.”

With this lesson in mind, John and his brother Robert returned to Keswick in September 1969 to climb Skiddaw again. After a successful summit, they set themselves the challenge of climbing Scafell Pike as part of a ten-mile walk. They reached the summit successfully in six hours but had to hurry down as the weather was turning and the light was falling. It was this hike that gave John the idea of perhaps climbing Ben Nevis someday, which he eventually summitted 23 June 1974.

John’s ascent of Scafell Pike on 31 May 1975, as depicted in the film, was took a total of 10 hours up and down and was filmed by John’s friend Graham Thackwray. This hike stands out from his other ascents of Scafell and other mountains, as it was a sponsored climb to raise money for a new hydrotherapy pool at Larchfield School, which John himself had attended from 1953-1957. In Uphill all the Way, John states that he did not usually undertake sponsored walks, as they didn’t sit right with him morally and also took away a great deal of the enjoyment due to the pressure to finish, but that on this occasion he was willing to proceed for the cause. John continued to work with Larchfield in the years following this climb from 1975 until 1978 when the school was being closed down. He served as one of the School Governors, and also visited once a week to take some of the children at the school out for adventures.


Sources:
John Hawkridge, Sticks and Stones: An Autobiography, Leeds: JH Productions; Bradford: Harvestime, 1987.
John Hawkridge, Uphill all the Way, London: Penguin Books, 1991.
“John Hawkridge interviewed by Richard Smith,” audio recording, British Library, Speaking for ourselves: an oral history of people with cerebral palsy, Recording date: 2005-02-15, 2005-03-01, 2005-03-21, 2005-05-16, 2005-06-09, 2005-06-27, 2005-07-27, 2005-08-30, 2005-09-05, 2005-11-04
https://www.scafellpike.org.uk/