National Trails eNewsletter

Newsletter February 2008 enews January 2011

Hasty Bank, Cleveland Way. Mike Kipling © Natural England

Hello

Is it too late for me to wish you a Happy New Year?  It doesn't seem possible that its February already and that the main Trails season is just around the corner.  Its been a wet winter - here in Cheltenham at least - so I hope your boots/tyres/hooves haven't been too muddy.  Sometimes a gorgeous sunny, clear day really lists the spirits no matter how claggy it is underfoot.

I was out over the weekend - in the "warmish" sunshine - clocking the catkins, the crocii (hope that's right) and listening to a noisy blackbird trying to tell us that we weren't welcome!

Last time I wrote I was moaning about becoming a member of a 1-woman team but since then I've been joined by Sheila.  Although she's new to the team she is no stranger to National Trails, having walked every step of Offa's Dyke Path and several hundred miles of other National Trails including the Cotswold Way which passes within half a mile of her home.  She is passionate about access to the countryside and the natural world and is really looking forward to this new challenge.  (She told me that 2 months ago, on day one, and I'm too scared to ask her again!)

Here is Sheila (far right) with husband and friends at one of her favourite sections of Offa's Dyke Path, overlooking Dinas Bran, near Llangollen 

 

This month's featured Trail is the Pennine Way, one of the most famous long-distance paths in the world and the first of the National Trails to be opened - hope that you find the article interesting reading.

Happy trailing and see you in the Spring!

The Pennine Way National Trail

 

High Cup Nick on the Pennine Way National Trail

 

Steve Westwood, Pennine Way National Trail Officer writes:

"It seems naive with hindsight, but when Tom Stephenson first called for the Pennine Way in his 1935 article ‘Wanted: a long green line’ he envisaged the Pennine Way as a simple grass trod weaving its way up the backbone of England.

Unfortunately the popularity of the Way resulted in the thin green line turning into a 70 metre wide eroded quagmire in places and what followed was a huge effort to repair the damage and provide a sustainable path for walkers to walk along the Way.

Today much of the repair work is complete, but still a lot of effort goes into managing the Pennine Way. I’m currently preparing to carry out the 2008 Condition Survey. This involves walking the entire 268 miles of the route, whilst recording work that needs doing on a hand held survey computer linked to a GPS system, to record the location.

This will be my 6th walk along the Way – and my fourth for work. It takes around 25 days to survey the entire route. The Way passes through 14 Highway Authority areas – and a member of staff from the relevant authority accompanies me on each of the sections.

For this and the previous survey the main emphasis is on making the Way available to as wide and diverse a range of walkers as possible. In terms of the ground management this equates to two main changes:

Firstly, we are re-signing the entire route to modern standards. When the Pennine Way was first opened it was only signposted from south to north – which made walking north to south a bit more challenging!

Secondly, where reasonable, we are replacing stiles with kissing gates so that a range of users from backpackers with large rucksacks, dog walkers and the less able don’t have to climb over stiles to enjoy the walk.

I have worked on the Pennine Way for 8 years now, and I often get people saying what a fantastic job I have – I have to agree, the Pennines are an addictive place and they have certainly got under my skin – everyone should do the Pennine Way once in their lifetime!"

Surveys

We were out and about on the Trails last year and the results of our User Survey will be published on this site by the end of March 2008.  This analysis includes both the results of face-to-face interviews and the responses from our web version -  by the way,  the 2008 version is on our home page.

You can also see the results of our annual monitoring of National Trails against our Quality Standards.  Standards are still high and we are working to keep improving the results - you can see them here

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