Being the account of the doings of a group of renegades from the British Speleological Association, who, being tired of speleologising, did feloniously plot together to form a band of insurgents to go potholing instead.

In the beginning was the B.S.A. and the B.S.A. was life, and what a life!

Now it came to pass that certain serfs and bondsmen of B.S.A. did meet together in the ghettoes and hostelries and did say to one another, "Let us break our bonds and runagate into the wilderness of Craven, the stony place, and there let us live in comfort and idleness, with none to say to us, "Do thou this", or "Go thou thither"", and so it came to pass that the NORTHERN PENNINE CLUB was formed.

And it was formed on a Saturday night in the B.S.A. Hostel upon the twenty-second day of June in the year of Grace One Thousand Nine Hundred and Forty Six, and the founders thereof were:

And they did appoint unto themselves Officers, and their names were thus:-
PRESIDENT, By unanimous vote and consent, Mr. Percy Pearson of Sheffield
TREASURER, Ken Sheard
SECRETARY, Alf Wilkinson
RECORDER, Bert Bradshaw
SURVEYOR, Jim Leach
TACKLE MASTER, Budge Burgess
LOG KEEPER, Dick Hylton

And afterwards there came a certain John Clough of Keighly, an R.A.F. type, stationed at Doncaster, and a mighty man with a camera, and he did say unto them, "Frithee brethren, whither thou goest?", and they answered him saying "Unto the wilderness of Craven, the stony place, to live and dwell and have our being." Then did he reply, saying, "Frithee brethren that I come too", and they answered the young man kindly, and smiled upon him and said "Brother Clough, thou art a good type and a mighty man with a camera withal, and if thou wilt come with us and join us, thou shalt be the club photographer, and shall take photographs and likenesses of us showing our muscles that we may show them to the damsels of Craven and they will make much of us and love us." Then said brother John, "So be it then, I will come too."