In 1922 the FRCC included a comprehensive guidebook to the climbs on Doe Crag (which we now know as Dow Crag) in its Journal. The following year the text was reprinted and bound into a pocket sized guidebook for general public sale; this book has a distinctive soft red leatherette cover. The guide included ‘photodiagrams’ and action shots, all very modern. Over the following four years new titles were published to give full coverage of the district in five volumes. Each was initially published in the Journal followed by printing as a pocket guidebook for sale to the public; all have the same red leatherette cover–hence the shorthand ‘The Red Guides’.
Guidebook anoraks may be interested to know that there must have been at least two bindings of the Doe guidebook as some covers bear the correct title (Doe Crag) while others show the title as Doe Grag. It is unclear which is the original, so both covers are included in the file.
Copies of the original five guidebooks can be viewed through the links shown below : these are quite large files so may take a moment to download. Please note that these files were created by extracting pages from professional scans of the relevant journals. Any additional pages needed (e.g. index, covers etc.) were scanned from original volumes using a home scanner; after a century the paper has discoloured, is very brittle, the binding is weak and the photos have deteriorated – please bear this in mind when reading the files. For an authentic experience why not take a digital copy (or even better, printed version) to the crag and use it; period clothing and equipment is optional!
Doe-Crag-1922-showing-both-front-covers