Ken Betteridge

It is with great sadness that I have to report the death of Ken Betteridge, at the age of nearly 83, a long-time friend and one of the four founder-members of the OMC.

It was Ken who, with the other three founder-members, found a dilapidated and disused cottage on a farm outside Pentrefoelas, in North Wales. A rent was agreed with the owner and work began to make it habitable, and suitable for a Club Hut to serve members of the OMC. Originally, there was only an outside toilet in a ramshackle shed near the cottage. Ken helped to repair the fireplaces and, a few years later, an indoor flushable toilet was installed in what became the `bathroom’.
 

Electricity was a later addition, giving electric lighting instead of the oil lamps, and bunk beds were erected for the OMC members and visitors to the cottage, which was named `Cefn Garw’, meaning `rough’ or `bitter’ ridge.

Ken was Hut Warden when he met Brenda, his future wife, in 1968 at an OMC meet. He introduced her to rock climbing, but they preferred to walk or scramble in the nearby mountains. They made a number of visits to Cefn Garw when Brenda helped Ken to carry out maintenance and decorating work. Ken was tireless and determined where it came to solving problems, as demonstrated when he bought a building plot outside Witney and built his own house, overlooking the Windrush river, for his family. With no mains water available, he took the gamble that a supply of water could be found by digging for it. Having no luck by 21 feet, he resorted to bringing a drilling rig on site to sink a bore hole.

Ken and Brenda had three daughters, two of whom moved, as adults, to Australia. On visits ‘down under’, Ken and Brenda reached the highest peak in Australia and explored the glaciers in the Mount Cook area of New Zealand. He loved the Pennines and the Lake District. Inspired by the late Alfred Wainwright, he and Brenda walked the 270 miles Pennine Way, taking 20 days, in 1970. Later, they took on the challenge of reaching all the summits in Wainwright’s guidebooks. Starting in 1984, over 13 visits, they completed them in 2005. In 1999, Ken was asked to lead walks around the Cotswolds area, which lead on to him forming his own group which he called Cotswold Lowland Country Walks. He organised many walking holidays for groups in coastal areas and the uplands around England. Serving on many committees and councils, he was well-known and well-loved by many people. At his funeral, the crematorium was packed and for those who could not attend the service was live-streamed.

There is much more that I could say about time spent with Ken but I will end by saying that, without Ken and his three fellow-founders, there would probably not be, today, a Cefn Garw or an OMC so, next time you go `up to Cefn’, please raise a glass to him – a great man who will be sadly missed!

Derek Peedell – OMC Member, 1964–1992.