Dad’s dramatic cliff rescue
Published: May 7, 2007
A dad turned Spiderman to rescue his two-year-old son after the tot tumbled half way down a 60ft cliff.
Hobby rock climber Ian Gillespie had to improvise when little Daniel toppled over the edge during a Bank Holiday weekend at a north Norfolk caravan park.
Grabbing old electricity cables dangling from the eroded cliff face, he scrambled down to help his little boy - and take him to safety on the beach below.
Professional rescuers urge people not to do DIY missions, for fear of increasing the number of potential casualties.
And even though factory manager Mr Gillespie’s head was telling him the same thing - his heart said something else.
“I know I should not have done it - but when you see your two year old wandering about half way down a cliff, I just had to get down there quickly,” he explained.
Daniel escaped with just cuts and bruises and a sore foot after his ordeal - and the family cut short their break and headed back home to Harrogate in Yorkshire where he could be nursed better.
He was “lucky” enough to fall over a bite into the clifftop which has suffered landslips, meaning it drops to the beach in sloping stages - whereas either side the 60ft-plus drops are sheer.
The drama unfolded on Saturday teatime as Daniel and his mum Corrie were walking near her parents’ clifftop caravan at the Beeston Regis campsite just to the east of Sheringham, in the shadow of the landmark Beeston Bump.
“He suddenly just tripped and I watched him roll head over heads over and down the cliff - it was awful,” she explained.
“I thought he would not get up, but he did, so I screamed for my husband who was inside watching TV with our other son Toby.”
Mr Gillespie checked the old cables hanging out of the cliff-face were secure and let himself down about 25ft to the ledge where Daniel was standing.
“I had to get him in case he tried to get down further, and fell again,” he added.
Once the pair was safely on the beach they were taken to the waiting ambulance by a local firecrew, and coastguards - who were scrambled to the scene, but not needed due to Mr Gillespie’s “Spiderdad” efforts which coincide with the release of the latest Spiderman film.
Coastguard cliff rescue team member Jerry Woodley said it was not advisable for people to clamber on cliffs to try rescues and better to wait for expert teams to arrive, but he could understand why the father did it.
He added: “The lad was a very lucky boy - because the cliffs either side are sheer.”
Mrs Gllesipie said that when they arrived they saw the sloping cliff and she had prophetically remarked “if one of the boys fell down it would not be right to the bottom.”
The family, who have been using the caravan for several years, had not been put off visiting the site by the drama, and wowed to come back in the summer.
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