Sad news, even when anticipated, comes as a bit of a blow and so it was yesterday when I learned of the demise of one of my erstwhile mine exploration companions, Peter Challis. Pete died yesterday afternoon (10/8/20) after a long illness. I believe he was about 77. Although his name will be unfamiliar to many outside the Peak District he was, during the 70s and 80s, continually active within the ranks of PDMHS. Indeed, Magpie cottage was his second home! Out most weekends, he could be found helping out at the society’s mining display at Crich Tramway museum during their working days and he was involved in the retrieval of the hydraulic engine from Wills Founder shaft in 1978. (I have a photo of him driving the winch).
He was, for a brief time only, the editor of the society’s newsletter, but for about only one or two editions, since there was a fall out about something which caused him to resign - in typical fashion.
From a personal point of view, we, along with others, explored many underground locations in the 70s and 80s, now many of them lost, and he features on numerous underground images of mine in black and white – pre digital – both to add scale and because he was my “slave carrier”. He got quite used to firing off large PF60 flash bulbs (acquired from my place of work) without burning his fingers. The only drawback in this was that his long white tonsure, which escaped from beneath his helmet, often caught the light, thus giving the impression of an ill-fitting halo! At surface, he was invariably attired in head to toe camo gear, replete with forage cap of the same ilk. Usually festooned with an array of photo gadgets. Many weekends we could be found dossing down in the back of my Austin Maxi on some lonely Mid Wales road or similar, thus saving the chore of setting up camping gear, whilst engaged in hiking to distant mining locations.
I last saw him in 2015 when, along with his brother, we revisited the Great Orme copper mines. Pete’s historic hero was Clement le Neve Foster who did much to help alleviate the suffering of the working miner in his position of Government Inspector of mines. So, following our Great Orme location, we headed for what is now the Myn-y-Don hotel, at the end of Church Walks. This building was the home of Foster for 25 years and Pete had previously organised, with the local authority, a plaque to the man (which I think he may have paid for himself) and which is sited on the wall next to the hotel entrance. I am glad I have a couple of pictures of Pete there, admiring his handiwork.
To his mining contemporaries he was always known as "The Gnome"!
'Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again' [Henri Cartier Bresson][i]