An appeal by the Pennine Journey Supporters Club


An appeal by the Pennine Journey Supporters Club
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The Irregulars LDWA

Please see below an appeal from the Pennine Journey Supprters Club. 

To whet the appetite of your members you might like to circulate the links to these blogs - plenty of good reading whilst they await the total lifting of lockdown.
 

 

At the end of February the Pennine Journey Supporters Club (PJSC) launched a campaign to have the status of the 'A Pennine Journey' long distance footpath designated as a National Trail by 25th September 2028 -  the 90th anniversary of when Alfred Wainwright set off from Settle at the start of his pioneering 1938 "Long Walk and I hope the regional publicity we got may have filtered to you and your members.

The walk, not surprisingly, is becoming well walked given that it traverses some of the wonderfully varied terrain that northern England offers to discerning walkers.  For one of my very rare talks recently I was delighted to unearth from AW’s narrative this quote “For this journey I had found it necessary to buy five maps of the Ordnance Survey.  These took in the whole backbone of the Pennines from Pendle to the Cheviot, and spread out together, as they could only be with the furniture pushed up against the walls, they made a picture which gave me many evenings of anticipation” 

 After the guide book’s publication in April 2010 the route was waymarked by September 2013 and then in December 2013 the Ordnance Survey agreed to add it to their database and  Explorer and Landranger maps were gradually released until by August 2016 the whole route had been covered.  The route’s waymarking and then its mapping required separate endorsements from all the highway agencies involved so I am confident that we will get their support for our campaign.

 Emails seeking support for the campaign were being sent out to a variety of potential supporters when the impact of Covid 19 hit home leading to the almost total cessation of all group activities and meetings and this led to the postponement of my writing to all the rambling/walking groups in northern England seeking their support.  However there is the possibility of light at the end of the tunnel as ways to minimise the effects of the lockdown are formulated which could mean a return to the resumption of walking clubs' activities and meetings and I am writing to ask if your group will support our campaign.  Before the effects of Covid 19 became widespread we had already had significant offers of support and this was enhanced two weeks ago with the endorsement of the Long Distance Walkers Association in a friendly email from your chairman, David Morgan who had earlier written to give us his personal support.  Hard on its heels was one from Strider editor Graham Smith who will be penning a feature for a forthcoming edition.

There is another, more immediate, aspect to our campaign that I would like to mention to you.  We obtained the support of the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) and plans had been made for a short promotional video to be made on the PJ route at High Force - only because  of Covid 19.  Soon afterwards I was made aware of the impact that the pandemic was having on their income (something affecting all charities).  Ever since the guide book to the walk was published just over 10 years ago the GNAAS became the PJSC's charity and they have been the recipient of 10% of all the guide's royalties.

So the Club decided to launch a fundraising appeal asking walkers to consider buying a copy of the guide book (with the opportunity of also buying a copy of the recently re-printed 1939 narrative by AW describing his walk) with the GNAAS to get virtually all the net sale proceeds.  We hope to raise £1000.  Details of the appeal can be seen on this link:- http://www.penninejourney.org.uk/  which also has information on the National Trail campaign.  Also available for a modest £2 is an updated E-leaflet describing the 9 mile circular walk used on the launch of the guide book.

Will your club support us please and would you circulate this to your members who could support us by becoming PJSC members - the annual cost, an idiosyncratic £2.47 and is based on 1p per mile for the 247 mile route - is less than the cost of a cup of Costa coffee!  Details of how to join are available on the same link.

Finally I thought you might like to see the emblem for the campaign which is attached.  It is a derivation of one done by Peter Burgess, who designed that wonderful Tubular Fells topological map and who was one of the Wainwright Society members who walked and test walked the ‘A Pennine Journey’ route prior to the publication of the guide book, as a completers certificate for those walkers who participated in the first North Pennines Walking Festival in 2015.  It encapsulates all those walks in northern England with which AW is so associated as well as Hadrian’s Wall – the objective of his ‘A Pennine Journey’.

Let's hope that soon we can all be out enjoying the wonderfully varied walking terrain that northern England offers.

Kind regards,

David Pitt,

Chairman,

Pennine Journey Supporters Club,

and also an LDWA member

The Irregulars LDWA - http://www.ldwa.org.uk/TheIrregulars