Mountain rescue services in England and Wales operate under the association of Mountain Rescue England and Wales (MREW), formerly called Mountain Rescue Council of England & Wales. The association has a number of regional

mountain rescue Mountain rescue refers to search and rescue activities that occur in a mountainous environment, although the term is sometimes also used to apply to search and rescue in other wilderness environments. This tends to include mountains with tech ...

teams, each of which is an independent charity. The team members are highly trained volunteers who are called out by the

police The police are a Law enforcement organization, constituted body of Law enforcement officer, persons empowered by a State (polity), state, with the aim to law enforcement, enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citize ...

. MREW is a member of the International Commission for Mountain Rescue (german: Internationale Kommission für Alpines Rettungswesen / IKAR-CISA).

Overview

Voluntary mountain rescue teams in England and Wales are independent charities whose members are highly trained volunteers who are called out by the

. The police are legally responsible for land based search and rescue but generally lack the resources to discharge this function effectively. Individual teams are normally known as an MRT (mountain rescue team) but some use the term SRT (search and rescue team) or MS&RT (mountain search and rescue team). Individual teams are members both of the MREW and of their regional association (which is also represented at MREW). Neither MREW nor the regional associations have authority over the individual teams but provide an opportunity to discuss and agree standards, training and equipment. MREW does provide some equipment funding for MRTs both from its own funds and via a small government grant, but teams have to finance their own running costs through charity fund-raising or sponsorship. MRTs in England and Wales receive no direct government funding. The government provides access by teams to

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...

mapping. The

Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service The Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service (RAFMRS) provides the UK military's only all-weather search and rescue asset for the United Kingdom. Royal Air Force mountain rescue teams (MRTs) were first organised during World War II to rescue airc ...

has three teams – one in Scotland, one in England and one in Wales – and as part of the military is wholly government funded. They have primary responsibility for

aircraft crash An aviation accident is defined by the Convention on International Civil Aviation Annex 13 as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft, which takes place from the time any person boards the aircraft with the ''intention of fl ...

es on high ground, but also respond to civilian calls for assistance from hikers and climbers. Although the primary focus of mountain rescue is to locate and evacuate injured and/or lost persons in upland environments, teams also undertake a wide range of roles which may differ from team to team: * missing person searches in lowland areas where access or terrain is difficult; * support to

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

ambulance An ambulance is a medically equipped vehicle which transports patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport. Ambulances are used to respond to med ...

services for difficult casualty evacuation; * support to government agencies/emergency services in flood and heavy snowfall; * support to government agencies/emergency services at major incidents; * swift water rescue; * animal rescue. Urban search and rescue is currently undertaken by the

fire and rescue A fire department (American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and fire suppression se ...

services as part of their statutory enablement, but at least one mountain rescue team has chosen to train in this field. Each team has its own primary area of responsibility but frequently deploy outside these areas in support of other teams.

Cave rescue Cave rescue is a highly specialized field of wilderness rescue in which injured, trapped or lost cave explorers are medically treated and extracted from various cave environments. Cave rescue borrows elements from firefighting, confined space ...

has its own umbrella organisation, the

British Cave Rescue Council Recreational caving in the United Kingdom dates back to the mid-19th century. The four major caving areas of the United Kingdom are North Yorkshire, South Wales, Derbyshire, and the Mendips. Minor areas include Devon, North Wales, and the Scottish ...

, but some teams operate as both cave rescue teams and mountain rescue teams. There are also regional organisations dedicated to the training of search dogs and their handlers. England has two associations, Mountain Rescue Search Dogs England (MRSDE) and the Lake District Mountain Rescue Search Dog Association (LDMRSD). Wales also has two associations the Search and Rescue Dog Association Wales (SARDA Wales) responding to incidents in North Wales and the Search and Rescue Dog Association South Wales (SARDA South Wales). Handlers must be full team members of a mountain rescue team and, once graded, will operate alongside that team, but can also be deployed in support of other teams.

Organisation

The association has 49 regional mountain rescue teams, each of which is an independent charity:

Wales

South

The co-ordinating body for

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

is covered by the ''South Wales Search and Rescue Association'': * Brecon MRT * Central Beacons MRT * Longtown MRT * South & Mid Wales Cave Rescue Team (SMWCRT) * Western Beacons Mountain SART * SARDA South Wales (Mountain Rescue Search Dogs)

North

The co-ordinating body for

North Wales North Wales ( cy, Gogledd Cymru) is a regions of Wales, region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders Mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, ...

is the North Wales Mountain Rescue Association: * Aberglaslyn MRT (

Porthmadog Porthmadog (; ), originally Portmadoc until 1974 and locally as "Port", is a Welsh coastal town and community in the Eifionydd area of Gwynedd and the historic county of Caernarfonshire. It lies east of Criccieth, south-west of Blaenau F ...

) * Aberdyfi Search and Rescue Team *

HM Coastguard His Majesty's Coastguard (HMCG) is a section of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency responsible, through the Secretary of State for Transport to Parliament, for the initiation and co-ordination of all maritime search and rescue (SAR) within the ...

MRT 83 (

Holyhead Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and i ...

) * Llanberis MRT * North East Wales Search & Rescue (NEWSAR) * North Wales Cave Rescue Organisation (NWCRO) * Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation * South Snowdonia Search & Rescue * SARDA Wales (Mountain Rescue Search Dogs) *

England

Lake District

Mountain Rescue Post, Mickledore - geograph

The co-ordinating body for Mountain & Mine Search and Rescue Teams in the

Lake District The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or '' fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...

is the ''Lake District Search & Mountain Rescue Association'': *

Cockermouth Cockermouth is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England, so named because it is at the confluence of the River Cocker as it flows into the River Derwent. The mid-2010 census estimates state that Cocke ...

MRT * Coniston MRT * COMRU (Cumbria Ore Mines Rescue Unit) * Duddon and

Furness Furness ( ) is a peninsula and region of Cumbria in northwestern England. Together with the Cartmel Peninsula it forms North Lonsdale, historically an exclave of Lancashire. The Furness Peninsula, also known as Low Furness, is an area of vill ...

Mountain Rescue Team *

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, south-east of Windermere and north of Lancaster. Historically in Westmorland, it lies within the dale of t ...

MRT * Keswick MRT * Kirkby Stephen MRT *

Langdale Great Langdale is a valley in the Lake District National Park in North West England, the epithet Great distinguishing it from the neighbouring valley of Little Langdale. Langdale is also the name of a valley in the Howgill Fells, elsewhere ...

Ambleside Ambleside is a town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Lakes, in Cumbria, in North West England. Historically in Westmorland, it marks the head (and sits on the east side of the northern headwater) of Windermere, England's lar ...

MRT *

Patterdale Patterdale (Saint Patrick's Dale) is a small village and civil parish in the eastern part of the English Lake District in the Eden District of Cumbria, in the traditional county of Westmorland, and the long valley in which they are found, also ...

MRT * Penrith MRT * Lake District Mountain Rescue Search Dogs *

Wasdale Wasdale () is a valley and civil parish in the western part of the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. The River Irt flows through the valley to its estuary at Ravenglass. A large part of the main valley floor is occupied by Wastw ...

MRT *

Pennines

The co-ordinating body for Search & Rescue in

caves A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

moors The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinc ...

and

hills A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit. Terminology The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally considered to be not as ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancas ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

and the

Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of uplands running between three regions of Northern England: North West England on the west, North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber on the east. Common ...

is the ''Mid Pennine Search & Rescue Organisation'': * Mid Pennine Search & Rescue Organisation *

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish weavers settled in the area in the 14th ...

MRT * Bowland Pennine MRT * Calder Valley SRT * Cave Rescue Organisation (CRO) * Holme Valley MRT * Rossendale and Pendle MRT * SARDA England (Mountain Rescue Search Dogs)

North East

The co-ordinating body for North East is the ''North East Search & Rescue Association'': * Cleveland MRT * North of

Tyne Tyne may refer to: __NOTOC__ Geography *River Tyne, England *Port of Tyne, the commercial docks in and around the River Tyne in Tyne and Wear, England *River Tyne, Scotland *River Tyne, a tributary of the South Esk River, Tasmania, Australia People ...

MRT * Northumberland National Park MRT *

Swaledale Mountain Rescue Team The Swaledale Mountain Rescue Team (SMRT), is a voluntary organisation that undertakes search and rescue primarily in the Swaledale and Wensleydale area of the Pennines in North Yorkshire, England. Like other mountain rescue teams, SMRT does not ...

(

Catterick Garrison Catterick Garrison is a major garrison and military town south of Richmond, North Yorkshire, England. It is the largest British Army garrison in the world, with a population of around 13,000 in 2017 and covering over 2,400 acres (about 10 ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by national parks, including most of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It is one of four co ...

) *

Teesdale Teesdale is a dale, or valley, in Northern England. The dale is in the River Tees’s drainage basin, most water flows stem from or converge into said river, including the Skerne and Leven. Upper Teesdale, more commonly just Teesdale, falls b ...

Weardale Weardale is a dale, or valley, on the east side of the Pennines in County Durham, England. Large parts of Weardale fall within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) – the second-largest AONB in England and Wales. Th ...

SMRT * SARDA England (Mountain Rescue Search Dogs)

Peak District

The co-ordinating body for the

Peak District The Peak District is an Highland, upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, whe ...

is the ''Peak District Mountain Rescue Organisation'' which was formed in 1964: *

Buxton Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level.Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

Cave Rescue Organisation (DCRO) *

Edale Edale is a village and civil parish in the Peak District, Derbyshire, England, whose population was 353 at the 2011 Census. Edale, with an area of , is in the Borough of High Peak. Edale is best known to walkers as the start, or southern end ...

MRT *

Glossop Glossop is a market town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is located east of Manchester, north-west of Sheffield and north of the county town, Matlock. Glossop lies near Derbyshire's borders with Cheshire, Greater Manche ...

MRT *

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, w ...

MRT * Woodhead MRT * SARDA England (Search And Rescue Dog Association)

West Country and the South West

The

West Country The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Glouc ...

of England is covered by the ''South West England Rescue Association'': * Gloucestershire Cave Rescue Group * Mendip Cave Rescue Organisation *

Severn Area Rescue Association Severn Area Rescue Association (SARA) or Severn Rescue is an independent, marine and land based, search and rescue organisation covering the Severn Estuary and upper reaches of the River Severn. SARA is the largest independent lifeboat service ...

The South West of England is covered by the "Peninsula Mountain and Cave Rescue Association": * Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team Ashburton * Dartmoor Search & Rescue Team Plymouth * Dartmoor Search & Rescue Team Tavistock * Devon Cave Rescue * East Cornwall Search & Rescue Team * Exmoor Search & Rescue Team * North Dartmoor Search & Rescue Team * West Cornwall Search & Rescue Team Not currently affiliated to a region: * Avon and Somerset Search & Rescue

Yorkshire Dales

The

Yorkshire Dales The Yorkshire Dales is an upland area of the Pennines in the historic county of Yorkshire, England, most of it in the Yorkshire Dales National Park created in 1954. The Dales comprise river valleys and the hills rising from the Vale of York w ...

are covered by the ''Yorkshire Dales Rescue Panel'': *

Cave Rescue Organisation The Cave Rescue Organisation (CRO) is a voluntary body based in the caving area of the Yorkshire Dales in northern England. Founded in 1935, it is the first cave rescue agency in the world. Although it is staffed by volunteers and funded by dona ...

(CRO) * Scarborough and Ryedale mountain rescue team *

Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association The Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association is based in Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales of northern England, and provides help to people and animals in difficulty in the caves and on the fells around Wharfedale, Nidderdale, Littondale and Aire ...

(UWFRA)

Notes

External links

* *
map of MREW locations
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mountain Rescue In England And Wales Fire and rescue in England Fire and rescue services of Wales Volunteer search and rescue in the United Kingdom Mountain rescue

Overview

Organisation

Wales

South

North

England

Lake District

Pennines

North East

Peak District

West Country and the South West

Yorkshire Dales

See also

Notes

External links