Falling 60ft down a cliff face on to rocks at Hartland Quay,

when out for a midnight walk on Friday with a friend, a geology student had a remarkable escape from serious injury. 

Mr Paul Day, aged 22, who lives at Willenhall, Staffordshire, one of a party of students from Leeds University staying at Hartland Quay Hotel, escaped with a fractured elbow and scalp wounds.

With him on the walk was Mr Graham Wilkinson, aged 24, who ran back to the hotel after the accident to raise the alarm. 

Hartland Coastguards and Hartland Cliff Rescue Team were alerted and made their way to the bottom of the cliff. They placed Mr Day in a stretcher and hoisted him to the top of the cliff where he was put into a waiting ambulance and taken to the North Devon Infirmary.

He was able to leave hospital on Sunday to return to his university. 

Gazette article published 9 February 1973