A likely link between Pinnacle Point and George Mallory, Eastbourne

Image: © Andrew Diack Taken: 29 Apr 2024

The photo shows Pinnacle Point, Holywell, otherwise known as the Sugar Loaf and Gibraltar, as seen from the beach below. From the age of nine, George Mallory, the world-famous mountaineer of the early 1920’s, was a boarder at Glencourse Preparatory School on Chesterfield Road in Eastbourne for four years, and I think that it is likely that he would have at least considered climbing Pinnacle Point or would have attempted to do so. Pinnacle Point was only some 800 meters distant from Glencourse School, as the crow flies, and for an adventurous boy like Mallory, who liked exploring, he is sure to have visited it. As a youngster, Mallory was an audacious climber, and at the age of seven, he climbed the roof of his father’s church, St. Wilfred's, at Mobberley in Cheshire. His sister, Avie, recalled that “he climbed everything that it was at all possible to climb,” including such things as the drainpipes of the Mallory home, Hobcroft House, and even the walls between the farmer’s fields.

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