Now Get Out Of This.

In the early eighties I started to spend a lot of time up on Ashurst Beacon with my CB radio and I got involved with the park ranger service with two friends, Fred and John. They both came from Liverpool and volunteered with myself to help around the park. We did forestry work clearing out the thick undergrowth in the woods up on the hillside. Ponds had to be dredged and cleared to encourage the wild life. This was hard laborious work but it was really rewarding when you saw how the access to the park was improved. We also had to look after Abbey Lakes, this is a lake on the border with Wigan and had been a lovely spot for families in the past but had fallen into disrepair and was over grown,  the lake was almost sludged up. The head ranger got funding and it was dredged and restocked with course fish. We built angling platforms all around the banks and it was reopened to the local angling clubs. It can still be used to this day and there is plenty of access for wheel chair anglers too.

West Lancashire council organised a competition called “ Now Get Out of This” based loosely on the format of the TV show of a very similar name. The rangers were asked to work out various thing for the teams to do like an assault course around the Tawd Park and the Beacon Park in Skelmersdale. There were various teams of four from all over the borough such as council employees, the police, scouts, guides and of course the park rangers.

We suggested that maybe we should get some form of uniform for the team of four rangers to wear. Fred worked in Walton Prison and he managed to get four sets of prison denims for us to wear. We looked a right sight running through the woods just like escaped convicts.

Many of the tasks were physical such as building a rope bridge across a stream, getting all the team over without getting wet and then taking the rope over with you. On one task we were given empty plastic drums, planks and a length of rope with which we had to build a raft and sail it across Abbey lake with at least two of the team on board, I think we were the only team that managed the raft task.

Other tasks involved getting keys out of special places to open boxes to gain rewards much like the do on “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here.”

In another task we had to carry a weight around a course without putting it down on the floor.

It took place one Saturday in September and a great time was had by all. Lunch was provided in the Beacon Golf club and what a sight it was with everybody covered in all sorts of mud and detritus. The smell was not very good either, definitely a country smell. At about four o’clock we all went back to the golf club for a scoring and to present the medals to all who took part. You should have seen the bar staff’s faces when we all walked in, it was like the pub scene in Shaun of the dead. Every one clamouring at the bar, covered in seven kinds of shite, trying to reach for a pint. It was hilarious looking back on it now.

The locker rooms came in very handy when it came to cleaning up the contestants.

A buffet of pies, pickles and sandwiches was provided which was quickly demolished. After all the deliberations and sorting out the team of escaped convicts were declared the winners and we even got our pictures in the local papers the next week.

It was used to promote the parks around Skelmersdale for leisure activities for quite some time.