For the historical context, and to set the record straight, Merseyside sandstone had provided a few problems up to V5 pre 1974, which were mainly the work of Rouse, Boyson, Potts, Pearce et al.

Alan Rouse began climbing at the age of 16 in 1968, the year of the foot and mouth epidemic. The Breck was close to his home in Wallasey and it was here that he developed his fierce finger strength and mastery of face climbing, a style at which he excelled. Clad in a pair of “Masters” acquired from Brigham’s in Liverpool, the following year saw Rouse concentrate on developing the bouldering at The Breck. Typically, he would often work away on a new problem in secret before demonstrating his new party piece. His school friend and climbing partner Nick Parry recalls two highly significant new problems done by Rouse in 1968/9:
“Over several months he managed to put together the girdle of Bluebell Wall, a continuous series of 5c moves, and made the first continuous traverse that summer."
That’s “Breck 5c” or 6a/b in real money, of course. Rouse’s application of the grading system was famously harsh. Probably V5, 6a/b when first climbed, the traverse has shed a few holds since Rouse first did it and now rates V7, 6b/c.
Parry again:
"Also that summer, I held the rope while Al completed a route up the centre of the overhanging wall at the back of the Breck. As far as I remember, it was during this spell that Alan first top roped Beatnik (6a) at Helsby, which he was later to solo in 1971.” Rouse also did the classic traverse of the back face of the Granny Rock, allegedly as training for Positron, and, in the company of Pete Minks, Brian Molyneux and others, added many of the now classic problems on Bluebell Wall and the Who Buttress (named Eagle Rock by the local youths).

Under the guise of "Breck 6a" (or Brit 6b, with isolated Brit 6c moves in real money!), V5/V6 problems were starting to appear at the Breck in the mid-to-late 70s, courtesy of Mark Whitfield (who abseiled down the Beatnik and made plasticene moulds of the crucial holds, which he then mounted on a board in his parent’s garage, before soloing the route!), Leigh Mc Ginley, Tim Carruthers, Tom Jones, Roger Hughes and - a short while later - Paul Bolger, Phil Davidson, Keith Jones and Mike Collins, or "Breck Mike" as he was known. Collins made several hard additions with the Super-Low Traverse of Bluebell Wall (feet below the bulge, hands on the original Bluebell Traverse footholds) V8, 6c most notable amongst them. Both Jerry Moffat and Stefan Glowacz visited and left suitably impressed.

Steve Haston also visited the Breck, in 1979, and upped the ante with a legendary dyno that is still reckoned to be at least Font 7c+/V10), or "harder than V10s at Hueco" according to Haston. The legendary dyno in question is not an eliminate. It starts to the right of the alcove ("fireplace") in the centre of the overhanging wall and moves up to two obvious flat holds in the diagonal break. Repeat ascentionists have flown direct from these to the obvious housebrick-shaped rectangular slot (V10), while Haston's original method used a "proto nick" for the right hand to assist take-off. This was first done as a top rope problem by Haston in 1980 in a single session and repeated shortly afterwards by Keith Jones. Mike Collins also made some progress on the problem using an intermediate hold for the left hand but it is not known if he ever completed it using this method. This very highball highball was top roped and then soloed (no mats!) by Alan ("Yag") Mc Sherry in the early 1990s and in 2008 by Mick Adams, who adopted a less heart-stopping and more modernist highball-with-pads approach.

In the mid 1980s the "old guard" moved on to pastures new and the torch was handed to Greg Griffiths and Alan "Yag" Mc Sherry, both of whom made V10 eliminate additions to the Breck, including Greg's super low traverse of the Granny Rock (V10) and a wickedly hard problem based around the vague "lightning cracks", which bisect the crux section of the Bluebell traverse and also weighs in at V9/10.

Brundlefly is another hard dyno dating from this period, this time on the Granny Rock. It starts with the right hand in the big pocket and left hand in the square chip as per the normal problem up the middle and goes straight to the good small ledge above the rising diagonal traverse line.

- Tim Carruthers