Climbing breeches - clothes we don't wear any more - a new series

Over the years we accumulate clothes that become obsolescent. I thought I'd start a series to look at a few of these. The first is a pair of traditional pair of climbing breeches - Clarke's Craghoppers, made in England from very robust, heavy tweed in a beautiful grey-mossy colour.

They have two large buttoned map pockets at the back and a reinforced seat for sitting on abrasive rock. It's impossible to look at these without recalling rain swept days scrambling among the crags of The Lake District, ravens croaking and tumbling overhead, or a sparkling day crunching through the frosted peat hags of Kinder Scout in the Pennines.

Grey Fox sports his tweed climbing breeches

Modern fabrics have taken over from tweed and trousers are preferred to breeches for climbing and hillwalking - despite the fact that breeches give you a  better view of your feet and don't have hazardous flapping trouser ends. Breeches have  been revived by cyclists - so I might get a chance to wear these on a Tweed Run one day.

Clark's Craghopper climbing breeches - Grey Fox