Club History Part 2

Now we needed to find people to help defray the cost of the rent and to help do a very simple conversion to make the hut habitable! With a rent of £50 per year already agreed with Gwylim we decided a fee of £5 was not unreasonable. Thus the club was formed with 13 members, Gwilym could be paid and we had a reserve to get started.

But the club would never have come into being without two absolutely key people and one special venue, Bills mum and dad and their home Rackery Hall, plus Bills Land Rover. Their welcome and support, the tea and cakes, the supplies of wood, water, piping and lights, tools, slates etc. Many things that allowed the hut to be converted into something habitable and form the basis of the ongoing development of X-ABA MC.

A huge amount of work was undertaken. One can well remember Jim Shattock (a surveyor) taking out his penknife and jabbing the main beam in the hut and pronouncing it safe for using as a mezzanine support. Planks and mattresses completed the job and were used as such until the last weekend at the old hut.

On the second weekend we awoke to wet sleeping bags, the roof was leaking!, but the solution was instant, the old quarry on the side of Moel Siabod was liberated of a load of slates. Reroofing above the sleeping area was completed. The core of committed members from those early days have continued to play their part in keeping the club growing and developing through to what it is today.

Recent History