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3 unusual facts about Siegfried Herford


Siegfried Herford

Siegfried enrolled at the University of Manchester in 1909, in the School of Engineering, and dabbled at rock climbing for a year or so.

He and John Laycock and Stanley Jeffcoat initiated what is referred to as "gritstone climbing" in England, bouldering on large blocks at the base of the cliffs, and roping up to climb the edges and faces above.

(Herford was an advocate of downclimbing, and wrote an article—"The Doctrine of Descent"—published in the 1913 Fell & Rock Climbing Club Journal.)


John Laycock

Laycock grew up in Manchester, England, and was an influential figure in the early development of rock climbing on the gritstone edges of the Peak District of Derbyshire along with his close friends Siegfried Herford, also of Manchester, and Stanley Jeffcoat of Buxton.


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