Two Toms Walk

Lancashire

Developed by Pendle Radicals to celebrate two major campaigners for access to recreation in the British countryside - Tom Stephenson and T A Leonard - this linear trail traverses Pendle Hill and visits places where they lived and worked. Pendle Hill is in the Forest of Bowland AONB.

Tom Stephenson started work at thirteen in Whalley at a calico printing works in 1906 from where he first climbed Pendle Hill. He later became a journalist with the Daily Herald and worked for the Attlee Labour government. He inspired the creation of the first British 'national trail', the Pennine Way, and was a leading champion for access with national parks, long distance paths and the 'right to roam' campaigns over mountains and moorland. Stephenson was a pacifist and in the First World War, a conscientious objector.

Revd Thomas Arthur Leonard, 'T A ' Leonard, a social reformer and Quaker pacifist, worked as a pastor in Colne in the 1890s and pioneered cheap active holidays for working people. He helped set up the Co-operative Holidays Association (CHA), the Holiday Fellowship (now HF Holidays) and the Youth Hostel Association (YHA) and was the first President of the Ramblers. He supported Stephenson in the creation of the Pennine Way.

Together they helped form the Ramblers Association in 1935 and Stephenson was its Secretary from 1948 to 1969.

The walk is in three sections and PDF walk guides with biographical notes and outline mapping can be downloaded from the VisitPendle link below (visitpendle/things-to-do/two-toms-walk-p1038480). There is information about Pendle Radicals on its website below at pendleradicals.org.uk/resources/ and GPX downloads from the mapping app, outdooractive.com.

Source: Pendle Radicals

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Details:

Path Type:	Other Paths
Attributes:	Other Paths Challenging Agricultural land AONB Moorland
Start:	SD733364 - Whalley Vale Gardens, Whalley, Lancashire
Finish:	SD908468 - Earby Youth Hostel, Earby, Lancashire
Open Date:	2022
Web Sites:	Visit Pendle - Two Toms Walk Pendle Radicals

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