Thursday, July 23, 1970

THE headlines told of 26 East Lancashire folk injured when a coach from Blackburn crashed on Shap Fell, in Westmorland.

A fleet of ambulances rushed the injured to hospitals in Carlisle and Kendal. The coach, owned by Ribblesdale Coachways in Blackburn, was taking 30 trippers to Edinburgh, when it was in collision with a lorry in strong wind and rain.

The front of the bus sheered off and the vehicle stopped crossways in the road wedged against an embankment.

Some of the passengers were thrown out of the vehicle in the impact. Passing lorry drivers and motorists stopped to help free the two drivers and trapped passengers.

Our picture story showed seven Bacup teenagers who were trapped underground for 12 hours in caves in old quarry workings at Britannia. Their expedition turned into a nightmare when they could not find their way out. For 12 hours they wandered round the passageways, twice badly shaken by rock falls.

Then at last, they crawled out into daylight, miles away from where they had gone in. The seven were Peter Gledhill, 16, of Higher Stack Farm, Stuart Howorth, 15, of Nelson Street, Stephen Austin, 15, of William Street and Martin Earnshaw, 16, of Deansgreave Terrace, all Britannia and Stephen Lumsden, 16, Bryan Johnson, 16 and Richard Wright, 15, all of New Line, Bacup, who vowed never to go inside again.

An eighth friend, 15-year-old Graham Sanderson, of New Line, turned back and raised the alarm. Police and ambulancemen, aided by Rossendale Fell Search Unit were combing the area when the boys appeared back at the surface.