After the Four Inns tragedy of April 1964, the lack of trained Mountain Rescue Services in the Peak District was brought to light. A number of organizations in the Huddersfield and Barnsley area were able to field a Mountain Rescue Service. Records show the following Teams were registered in the early days of the Peak District Mountain Rescue Organization (PDMRO) and went on to form Woodhead MRT i
n 1974. Huddersfield Scouts MRT, Sheffield 29th Rover Scouts MRT, Stocksbridge Rover Scouts MRT and Barugh MRT. The name Woodhead reflected the operational area covered and was well known nationally as the name of the A628 being a road regularly blocked by snow in winter. From the early days, the team developed a strong relationship with South Yorkshire Ambulance Service (SYAS), which continues to this day with Yorkshire Ambulance service (YAS). In the mid 1980’s, the Team was provided with a fueled and maintained Land Rover ambulance by SYAS, which was crewed by the team allowing SYAS to rightly say they could reach a patient located anywhere in the county. Like most Mountain Rescue Teams, the majority of the call outs up until the 21st Century were predominantly searches for missing persons. The primary operational area for Woodhead being Bleaklow and Black Hill with support to South Yorkshire Police (SYP) across the whole of their operational area. Over the years the team has been involved in a number of searches which have been of national interest including Lockerbie and April Jones. Changes to operations have been noted over the years extending to flood response necessitating the team to have a specialist water section and equipment to respond. The advent of better equipment and technology has meant a significant reduction in missing person searches. This has been more than offset with an increase in calls to trauma associated callouts with slips, trips and falls in rural locations and to the increased number of mountain bikes using the tracks and trails locally. This has meant the team has regularly become first on scene attending to patients with significant injuries. As a mountain rescue team, we are associated with providing help and assistance to people who get into difficulties out on the hills. Because of the core skill the team has developed in order to support the primary role, our volunteers are often called upon to use these skills in a wide variety of different settings. The Team play an increasing part in providing assistance to the ambulance service, especially when they are dealing with casualties in a rural setting as they do not have the equipment and training to transport casualties over open, unstable or inaccessible ground. In winter, when roads become inaccessible, using our specialist vehicles, we are able to get to patients who would otherwise be cut-off and we can also provide medical care to these patients while we transport them to either an ambulance or hospital. Our team is often called upon to assist the police when searching for missing vulnerable persons. We have the training, expertise and command & control facilities that are required in order to perform a proper thorough search of any area of ground, whether it is in a rural or urban setting. Team members are trained to provide emergency medical care and we often deploy these skills in support of a number of events within the community. For example, mountain bike races and fell races. As well as providing the event organizers with safety cover, it also provides the team with good hands-on experience to keep medical skills refreshed and up to date. In addition to medical training, team members also focus on a number of other key skills to maintain membership. Core skills consist of Crag/Rope Rescue, Search, and Navigation. To maintain operations, the team requires a regular income of around £40,000 per year. As we are a non-profit organization, the team relies on donations and fundraising from members of the public. Should you require the assistance of the Mountain Rescue, please dial 999, ask for the Police, then ask for the Mountain Rescue.
