The RAMSOC Archive

Greetings from the RAMSOC Archivist!

I’m Joanna, former Publicity Sec, hater of walking and lover of RAMSOC, and I have a secret. For the past year, I’ve been storing top secret RAMSOC files in my bedroom. This started as a well-intentioned but poorly executed plan for former kit monkey Charlotte and I to sort out through up to thirty years of paperwork that had been left in RAMSOC storage, but in the past 24 hours has become a true labour of love, in which I’ve finally done the sorting and made lots of exciting discoveries. What prompted this passion? I told President Peter he could get rid of them, so he threw all the folders in the nearest skip, and I regretted it so much that I crept after him and rescued them all (this is not strictly true – I’ve realised I’ve lost quite a lot from the 1980s under some bricks. I’m a fool.)

Past committee members had painstakingly filed away every walk sheet and list of walkers from roughly 1999-2010, with the odd gap and a few pieces which were even older. Whilst I’ve thrown away a lot of these, I’ve kept enough to show the evolution of walk sheets in RAMSOC, as well as anything else that I’ve found especially interesting. As a result of my efforts, there is now one lever arch file which can serve as a sort of Museum of RAMSOC. (Peter is forbidden from throwing it away!)

But I also wanted to create a digital collection of my findings, because I think they would be interesting to a lot of members. Not only do they show how RAMSOC has changed over the years, but they also serve as a cultural history of Britain, of British students, and British walking. There are technological developments, from handwritten walk sheets, to typewritten, to word processed. Students enjoyed discos and even a RAMSOC barn dance in the Portland Ballroom in 1993. Certain threads run through RAMSOC – particularly pubs, hangovers, and an obsession with scrambles – but others seem to come and go – my personal favourite was the 1997 consistency in offering a Walk Zero every week!

The most affecting detail was on the 2001 Foot and Mouth outbreak, in which three walks were cancelled and ramblers hiked nearly 4500 fewer miles than the previous year. To me, it’s amazing how far the effects of such disasters ripple out, even to our little club.

I’m mostly going to write what I’ve found as I’ve written it in my notebook, but I’ll also add a concluding paragraph about what this all means at the end.

Adventures (if you only read one section, read this bit):

• -        Gareth Moore (2003) says that on a flooded Yorkshire Dales Weekend Away, several members had to be rescued by a tractor!
• -        I was very impressed by the 2003 lot. They gained 317 new members and took a coach and a minibus on their first walk of the year.
• -        2002/3 – after a Youth Hostel made a mistake, RAMSOC showed up at their weekend away to find they had nowhere to sleep! Members were farmed off to strangers’ houses or forced to camp.
• -        In 2001 an envelope was carried round in the event that a walk ‘was unachievable’ – it is still closed today!
• -        In 2001 three walks were cancelled because of the Foot and Mouth epidemic, but that was not the only bad luck this group had. Out of the 24 walks they did that year, only 6 were completely dry. As a result of these things, they collectively walked 4595 miles less than the following year.
• -        There was a successful Scotland weekend away that year – eleven climbed Ben Nevis!
• -        2000 – Poor committee! Their coach didn’t show up on their first walk, but people banded together to drive people up to the Peaks.

Traditions and Bucking the Trends:

• -        We think of the Dark Peak Challenge as a time-honoured tradition, but in 2001 they did the Yorkshire Three Peaks instead – one person noted that ‘It was nice to do an event people had actually heard of’
• -        The High Peak Marathon (as it was then known) was run 1995. 38 miles in 15 hours, with an option for 24. The fastest was 7 hrs 51 minutes by Nick Wollestein! This is faster than our previous records suggest!
• -        Whilst I haven’t found any record of the ‘Red Socks Award’, ramblesecs have often kept track of who has done the most miles. They also note the collective mileage – in 2002/3 that was equidistant to London to Sydney. One of my favourite ramblesecs also collected his fellow committee’s attendance on the sly – someone had attended 100% of all walks!
• -        Alcohol has been a consistent RAMSOC theme, although in the early 90s, they didn’t meet back at the pub but all went to different ones on their walks. Strange! Sunday walks on weekends away have always been planned with hangovers in mind, with the ramblesec in 1996 selling rehydration tablets for 50p to help struggling members out!

Walk Sheets:

• -        For a period of about ten years, walk feedback sheets were used to gauge the success of walks. My favourites were by ramblesec Dave Roberts whose were very methodical, including Group Size, Return Time, and comments. My favourite comment was after a particularly strenuous walk in 1997 - ‘yes, we did do it all, you sceptical bastards’
• -        Lots of Ramblesecs have their own slogans. ‘Don’t get lost, James’ ‘Enjoy your walk, Rob.’ One guy from 1996, Steve, wrote a Beatles quote on his every week. Another wrote Welsh translations for their Snowdonia weekend away.
• -        Even in the ‘70s most ramblesecs used a typewriter, but there are periods in the ‘90s where walk sheets were handwritten. Gradually, photos appear, until digital maps developed sufficiently to be included, like the ones today!
• -        Clearly Grade Two and Grade Three training haven’t always existed. For a while they simply asked ‘if you want to be a walk leader put an asterisk’ – imagine having a choice!

The Walks Themselves:

• -        The walks have been far more varied than today, and RAMSOC was not limited to the Peak District. Although lots of locations appear time and time again (The Roaches, Ladybower) there have been the odd surprise. Manifold Valley, Church Stretton, Langsett just outside Barnsley etc.
• -        Nowadays we are very strict with our five walks, but the number of walks varied wildly. There were often six, but even more on weekends away. The most surprising to me was that three were offered in Sherwood Forest.
• -        Lots of cute walk names! My favourite were The Roaches – ‘Three Rocky Things’ ‘Four Rocky Things’
• -        We used to do the Sherwood Forest walk in Robin Hood attire. Bring this back!
• -        Mystery walk! I think we may have even been doing these when I first joined. Ramblesec Jon Earl ran a Beatles themed walk (he also wrote the time of the sunset on each walk sheet – a sensible soul)
• -        I really love the regular inclusion of a Walk Zero, in places such as Buxton, Chatsworth, Bakewell and Hathersage. They often write suggestions of things to do. Of course, my favourite is the 2001 Keswick Weekend Away, in which they comment on the recent opening of the World’s Largest Pencil at the Pencil Museum!

The Coach (and other logistics):

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• -        The coach is often neglected in our discussions of RAMSOC, but we couldn’t run without it. One of my favourite details is the 2001 debate on whether they could actually get the coach to Edale. They managed, and it’s now one of our favourite walks!
• -        For a long time, RAMSOC had its own mobile phone. Before that, they had to use the coach phone. One can only guess how they managed before that. Morse code? Carrier pigeon?
• -        One of my favourite feedback sheets was one filled out by the coach driver on a 1999 weekend away, where they asked him how he found the drive. How considerate! I love ramblers.
• -        One bit of admin from 1996 is fascinating – Youth Hostels in the ‘90s were so cheap! Each one cost roughly £8 per person per night. I was born in the wrong era.

So what do we do with all this?

I think we love RAMSOC a little more. We come from a long line of anorak-wearing, pint-sipping nerds, who walked the same footsteps as us, and even lived in the same houses as us. There’s something beautiful about these strings of similarity that bind us together across generations – not just a love of walking, but of pubs and puns and silliness and adventure. I often find posting in the RAMSOC Facebook group daunting, as I’m sharing something to nearly 2000 people. But I’m so proud of that connection and the group that connects us. It’s our passion for RAMSOC and our funny little traditions that keeps RAMSOC going.

I also think we can learn from this little museum. These people ran mystery walks and left the Peak District. They went to little-known spots and tried new pubs. We do our fair share of this, but we can always do more.

There are some funny gaps in this RAMSOC history. I found very little on socials, except brief mentions of AGMs and Progressive Meals, and even a barn dance in the Portland Ballroom (do we assume the Great Hall?). Ram, and all sheep, are disappointingly lacking. Maybe all of this is our new legacy? Let’s live it.

Joanna van Zeller (Ramsoc, 2016-19)

I think there are still documents in stores that could be interesting, but my time is up (I’m graduating, not dying). Let me know if you’d like to continue this job, or want more info. I’m passing my folder on to the new committee. It contains a paper copy of this blog post, examples of walk sheets across the years, and a few more gems.