On May 4th a party of fourth years and a few sixth years went on a field visit to the Tame Valley. The coach arrived at about 9 a.m. and after a few minutes we were off. The coach stopped at Hyde; we left it and began our journey along the river. We joined the river at the Gee Cross Mill, an old cotton mil1 used in the textile boom.

Every physical feature we came across we marked on a little map that was provided by Mr. Johnson. Sketches were also made of the more important features. After a few minutes it began to pour down with rain, so we ran and sheltered under some trees. While we were there we took the opportunity to get a bite to eat and a hot drink. After our little snack we continued our journey, and between showers we made our way down river. On our journey, we passed a sewage works and the smell that came from it was sickening.

From here we went to Reddish Vale, a flat, low flood plain of the Tame. The lower areas were saturated with water and it was impossible to cross so we took to the hills, where it was slightly, but not much better as there were several bogs to be negotiated. The first few bogs were crossed with some success, although Ann Wilcock did put her foot into the mud once or twice.

The "Piece de Resistance" came when Shirley Flynn tried to cross the last one. The rest of us had crossed it and she was bringing up the rear. Mr. Johnson and Mrs. Cheetham were helping her cross, suddenly she slipped and "splosh", she sat in the dirty muddy bog. When the laughing had died down she was helped out and most of the mud removed. We then continued our journey with an air of jollity to Houldsworth Square where we boarded buses for home.

JOHN R. DAVIES (6L).

At just after 9 a.m. on Monday the 3rd of May a group of fourth years led by Mr. Johnson and Mrs. Chetham and accompanied by the four members of the Advanced Geography group set off on the first of two field trips one to the River Goyt and one to the River Tame and it was to the former that we were going that day. There was an entirely original atmosphere about this particular trip because the fourth year are to be the first people to take the C.S.E. examination which awards up to 25 per cent of the marks for field studies and so they were all, or nearly all, feverishly writing down information fed to them by Mr. Johnson as the coach threaded its way through the early morning traffic to Whaley Bridge. It was just outside Whaley Bridge that we made our first stop and we all climbed out and tramped across a field to have a good look at a metal cylinder set within a stone circle and surrounded by railings. It was in fact a rain gauge but that is far from what some people suggested it was. After walking a little further on to see an old wagon track we returned to the coach to travel to the starting point for our main walk. The coach stopped in the car park of the Cat and Fiddle Inn and after a quick drink we set off once more to the head of the Goyt Valley. During the walk along the valley everyone was again making notes and the fourth year were busy filling plastic bags with pieces of muddy plants and crumbling shale and we were all getting drowned by heavy but luckily short showers of rain. After a short rest for lunch under an overhang of rock where we were all enter-tained watching drops of rain fall off the rock, roll off Mr. Johnson's head and dilute his coffee, we set off on the final stage of our trip. We walked to Goyt Bridge where we crossed the river and ascended a muddy roadway to the construction camp of the company building the new dam in the valley. Amid little yellow dumping trucks and "danger-blasting!" signs we made our way over heaps of mud and pools of water past the foundations of the new dam and past the tunnel they are building to resume the footpath on the other side of the camp.

Here John Fell, Angela Holmes and myself found ourselves some hundred yards in front of the main party and caught in a torrential hailstorm and so we decided the best thing to do, as sheltering from such a shower was useless, was to cut across~the fields to where we believed the coach to be with the rest right behind us. Needless to say they were not and needless to say the coach was not there. However we found the coach and some 20 minutes later so did the rather more weary main group who had apparently sheltered from the shower, the very occurence of which was denied by Mr. Johnson, possibly because he had been forecasting fine weather all afternoon, and they had afterwards resumed the trip along the river. The coach then travelled back to Manchester.

D. BOARDMAN (6u).

A party of Fifth and Sixth Formers, headed by Mr. Johnson and Mrs. Dawson, started from school along the Chester Road at some unearthly hour. We went through Nantwich where red soils were prominent and Winsford where salt is mined. Several drumlins (glacial mounds) and "flashes" or meres were also seen and we made a lightning tour of central Chester including the race course and a section of the wall.

In Wales itself we passed through Llangollen, Corwen, Bettws-y-Coed and Capel Curig before reaching our destination, Beddgelert, whence we started up Snowdon, having recovered from the initial shock that the sight of the mountain had given us. The track passed through a farm where Mr. Johnson haggled with the farmer for permission to use the path further up. After passing worked-out slate quarries and travelling through a mile or so of boggy land, Mrs. Dawson and Angela Holmes turned back.

One of those continuing up Snowdon was Jennifer Hawkins who has a great affinity for mud. On a previous trip she lost her shoe in a bog and, running true to form, she attempted to jump a four-inch wide stream and succeeded in landing in the middle of it! Some mountain goats in the party, namely John Fell, Brian Carter, John Shaw and Appleby (who were miles ahead of the rest), with David Boardman, John Davies, Valerie Fielden and Kay Richardson, fairly romped, leaving the feebler members such as Mr. Johnson (our guide) at the back. Just 500 feet below the summit the leaders met two climbers on their way down, who told them to turn back because of the mist.

Having descended to Rhyd Ddu (four miles further away from the coach than when they set off!) Mr. Johnson 'phoned to the hotel where the driver, his friend, and Mrs. Dawson were waiting for them and started back, past Beddgelert to Rhyd Ddu. From there we returned via Caernarvon, Conway and Colwyn Bay to Manchester, arriving at about nine o'clock.

D. FELL (6u).

One of the most interesting experiences of our visit to the Lake District was the climb up Helvellyn.The fourth year Non French Geography group, and three members of the sixth year Geography and Geology group, left the coach and started up a steep footpath. A sign stated that it was three miles to the summit of Helvellyn. We passed through a glade of coniferous trees and climbing all the time reached an area of National Trust Moorland. Up and up the steep stony path twisted and stretched up the side of the mountain like a great yellow snake, and here the party began to fan out. When we were about half way up you could see that the party was arranged in distinct little groups. In the second of these groups to reach the top were Mr. Johnson and Mrs. Cheetham, but the latter turned out to be the first to reach the summit, for in the thick blanket of the white rolling mist we had missed the top.

J. Hitchen, D. Lawton, P. Minsull, E. Batchelor

E. BATCHELOR (4s).