Today the Team Leader of Bowland Pennine MRT, Phil O’Brien MBE, in the company of very long serving BPMRT member Phil Lund, visited us at our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ, researching the early history of Bowland Pennine MRT which formed in 1980, and its joint predecessor teams , Northern Rescue Organisation and South Ribble MRT.

Our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE has maintained over his time with the Bolton MRT a very extensive personal archive of the history of the Bolton MRT, from its formation in 1968 to the present day.

Included within this archive, aside from the obvious Incident Records, are also extensive training exercise records, plus the only known archive of the minutes of meetings of our regional organisation, the MPSRO (Mid Pennine Search and Rescue Organisation) and its predecessor the MPMAP (Mid Pennine Mountain Accident Panel)

Garry also has the only known archive / record of the MPMAP / MPSRO Annual Incident Reports, dating from 1975 onwards, and full details of all the MPMAP / MPSRO Regional Joint Annual Exercise reports.

It was to look primarily at these MPMAP / MPSRO records, (BPMRT is in the same Mountain Rescue region) that Phil O’Brien MBE and Phil Lund visited us today, to fill in the gaps in their history of their own team, Bowland Pennine MRT (and NRO / SRMRT)

At the end of their fruitful visit, and much use of our photocopier, Phil O’Brien MBE and Phil Lund both thanked our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE for allowing access to the Bolton MRT’s archives, both leaving with a few more details of their teams history filled in.