Cave & Mountain Rescue

History

The Cave Rescue Organisation (CRO) was founded in 1935 in the caving country of the Yorkshire Dales and is recognised as the oldest cave rescue agency in the world. Operating from a depot in the village of Clapham at the foot of Ingleborough, its volunteers answer some 90-100 call-outs a year across the Three Peaks area and beyond - underground cave rescues, mountain and moorland searches, and no small number of stranded livestock - called out by the police as part of the emergency services chain, and funded entirely by donations.

CRO 2, registration PJ65 XCY, is a 2015/16 Land Rover Defender crew cab carrying a demountable-style box rescue body with top-hinged locker doors, a full roof rack with lighting bar and ladder stowage, a snorkel, front winch and LED grille lights. It wears the team's white livery with blue-and-hi-vis-yellow striping, 'CAVE & MOUNTAIN RESCUE' titles on the body and 'CAVE RESCUE' on the light bar, with the Mountain Rescue England and Wales badge on the flanks; a 'Lakeland Conversions' plate sits above the grille. The game's catalogue records it as a 130-inch chassis, matching the long crew-cab-plus-box configuration in photographs, though one fleet listing describes CRO 2 as a Defender 110.

It serves alongside sister Defenders CRO 1 (PF05 ZNZ, a 2005 Defender 130) and CRO 3 (PX11 BCZ), the fleet reflecting how the CRO's work has broadened from pure cave rescue to general Dales search and rescue since the Second World War.

Imagery

Registry record

Manufacturer

Land Rover

Manufactured

2015/16 registration (PJ65); in service since

Modifier / coachbuilder

Lakeland Conversions (body/equipment fit-out, per grille plate; unverified)

Current owner

Cave Rescue Organisation, Clapham ↗

Country of origin

United Kingdom

Status

in service

Catalogue data

Record kind

Named model

Model line

Defender

Wheels

4

Base catalogue fields are exported from the Difflocked game. In-game physics values are arcade tuning, not certified historical measurements, and are deliberately not shown as specifications here.

Sources & citations

Researched sources

• Cave Rescue Organisation (founded 1935; oldest cave rescue agency in the world; Yorkshire Dales operations) ↗ — Wikipedia (accessed 2026-09-10)
• The Cave Rescue Organisation - what we do (Clapham base, Three Peaks coverage, ~90-100 incidents a year, volunteer charity) ↗ — Cave Rescue Organisation (accessed 2026-09-10)
• Cave Rescue Organisation fleet listing (CRO 1 PF05 ZNZ 2005 Defender 130; CRO 2 PJ65 XCY 2015 Defender; CRO 3 PX11 BCZ) ↗ — Firefighting Wiki (Fandom) (accessed 2026-09-10)
• Cave Rescue - UK Emergency Vehicles (photographs of CRO 2, PJ65 XCY) ↗ — UK Emergency Vehicles (accessed 2026-09-10)

Catalogue references

• User references: https://www.ukemergency.co.uk/photo/p3030221t.jpg and https://www.ukemergency.co.uk/photo/p3030222t.jpg — CRO 2, P165 XCY.