Cockermouth mountain rescue team celebrates 70th anniversary

Volunteers past and present came together to celebrate the team's 70th anniversary

A mountain rescue team formed in a café has celebrated its 70th anniversary.

The Cockermouth Mountain Rescue team has responded to more than 2,900 incidents since it was set up in 1953.

It has responded mainly to lost or stranded walkers but also dealt with flooding, downed aircraft, stuck sheep and a horse in a bog.

A sign has been unveiled commemorating the team's founding. Team leader Andrew McNeil said it had been a "lifetime of experiences and friendships".

The new sign was unveiled by patron Eric Robson

The team came in to being on a Monday evening at the Central Café on Cockermouth Main Street when Rusty Westmorland, George Fisher and Mike Nixon, from the the existing Keswick team, came to speak to interested mountaineers about the requirement for a new unit covering the western valleys of the Lake District.

The Cockermouth team became the third such mountain rescue outfit in the Lake District and was set up to cover the Lorton, Buttermere, Ennerdale, Wasdale and Eskdale valleys.

The team's new sign is carved from Honister slate

It has had about 250 volunteers, with its longest member serving for 63 years.

A spokesman said the majority of its rescues involved individuals who had "sustained injuries or become lost on the fells", but notable exceptions included responding to heavy flooding in 2009 and 2015 and assisting people in severe snowfalls.

The Cockermouth team moved into its current base in 2003

The new sign has been unveiled at the team's base, which opened in 2003, by patron Eric Robson.

Mr McNeil said: "Seventy years is a lifetime and that's exactly what you get from this team: a lifetime of call-outs, experiences, friendships, laughs and a feeling of being part of something you just don't want to leave."