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No 215: JANUARY 1966 The Belfry Journal – Volume Twenty – Number One
Editors Note A Happy New Year to all members and readers. With this issue of the B.B., we enter the twentieth year of its publication and, as hinted earlier, it is intended to make a series of improvements (or, at any rate, changes) to mark the event. As you will have seen, a new cover starts with this issue. We had intended to have it on a light grey paper and to have the number and month printed on the cover but, owing to a misunderstanding with the printers, neither of these things came to pass. Thus the cover is somewhat less of an improvement than we had hoped, but at least the colours line up properly. Those few who attended the last A.G.M. had an opportunity to discuss cover designs and to protest against this one if thought to be necessary. A smaller change. Which will not be noticeable until next month, is that the pages are now to be numbered in volume order for ease of reference for those who collect B.B.’s and bind them into volumes. (we know of one member who does at any rate!). On the inside of each page will be found the B.B. and page numbers and the month – so everybody should be satisfied. The Editor would like to thank those who wrote or spoke to him praising the Christmas B.B. Much as he would like to take the credit, it must be pointed out that this mainly due to the good standard and large amount of articles submitted and also to the stalwarts who collated; stapled; folded; wrapped; addresses and posted them. Let us hope that we can keep as good a standard during 1966. “Alfie” _______________________________________________________________________________________
Comment When the Belfry was first opened in 1947, it was agreed that the basic charge would be a shilling per member per night. Since those far off days, prices have risen – until today that shilling is only worth something between fourpence and fivepence. Even so, the basic Belfry charge has never gone up. The charge has been increased temporarily on two occasions once, to pay for the Calor installation and once to pay for the installation of main water and electricity. In both cases, the extra charge was removed when the items were paid for. Most of the other facilities at the Belfry were paid for out of the Belfry profits and even today, this is just possible. It is quite a feat to be able to do this out of the 1947 value of less than fivepence per member per night. At the January meeting, the Committee, after some discussion, agreed to increase the Belfry charges to 1/6 per member and 3/- per guest. This is intended to be a permanent increase effective from the 1st of February 1966. Even at this price, the Belfry is still cheap compared with nearly every other caving and climbing hut in the country and, and in purchasing power, members are still getting more for their money than they did in 1947. The increased profit will be used to improve the Belfry facilities still further. After the flush toilets have been completed, showers are next on the programme and this will be followed by other improvements being planned by the Belfry Planning Committee. The decision to increase the Belfry rate may, of course, be rescinded at the next A.G.M., but the Committee feel that this increase is hardly enough to hurt members financially and it will enable the Belfry to continue its tradition of supplying value for money in these more expensive times.