Lancashire outdoor pioneers to be celebrated in Pennine Way’s 60th anniversary

Lancashire’s influence in creating the long-distance Pennine Way footpath will be highlighted this spring when the route’s 60th anniversary is celebrated along with key individuals who championed its creation.

The 268-mile Pennine Way is the oldest of England’s National Trails. Starting in the Peak District, it goes north up the ‘backbone of England’  and ends in the Scottish Borders. 

Tom Stephenson and the Rev Tom A Leonard were two Lancashire figures who promoted the concept and creation of the Pennine Way.  Both were active in outdoor leisure and public access to ‘mountains and moorlands’ during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Their lives are highlighted in a new three-part walk from Whalley to Colne in Lancashire connecting to the Pennine Way, called the Two Toms Trail. The route will be the focus of special events this April along with celebrations on the Pennine Way itself.

The Two Toms Trail is part of a wider network of east Lancashire walks, information and projects called Pendle Radicals. Various themed walks have been created around Pendle nd the Ribble Valley, with way-marker signs, information boards, printed guides and a website.

Volunteers from groups including Pendle Radicals, the Friends of Clarion House at Newchurch in Pendle and Mid-Pennine Arts are behind it and other projects around the Pendle Hill district. Financial support has come in recent years from various Lancashire councils and other sources.

Nick Burton, from Clitheroe, is among the volunteers. Others include Bob Sproule, Barbara Sanders and Nick Hunt. Alan Ward of Axis Graphic Design in Manchester has designed the new Two Toms print guides.

HISTORY OF OUTDOOR CAMPAIGNS

Nick said: “Tom Stephenson and Tom Leonard are part of a long history of outdoor campaigns, in which Lancashire has played a key role. People from Lancashire mill towns played prominent roles in highlighting the need for fresh air, outdoor recreation and countryside access.

“The wider history includes Victorian associations like the Peak & Northern Footpaths Society, which has ornate guide signs across the Pendle and Bowland areas. Also in the history are illegal mass trespasses at Winter Hill near Bolton and Kinder Scout in the Peak District. Then after the Second World War came the introduction of Britan’s  modern network of public paths and trails, national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty.

“Here in east Lancashire, we wanted to highlight Tom Stephenson and Tom  Leonard with a walk taking-in their home towns and locations important to them. So we created the Two Toms Trail.”

TOM STEPHENSON

Tom Stephenson was born in Chorley and then raised in Whalley in the Ribble Valley. He played a key role in creating the Pennine Way, which first opened in April 1965.

Nick said: “As a youngster, Tom Stephenson developed his love of the outdoors in Whalley. In 1906, he climbed Pendle Hill for the first time and was inspired by the views north including Ingleborough and Pen Y Ghent in the Yorkshire Dales. He was hooked.”

Stephenson began his working life in Whalley as 13-year-old in the calico printing industry.  Later he became a journalist for the Daily Herald, In 1935, he wrote an article called Wanted: A Long Green Trail. Later, he worked for the post-war Labour government and set about creating the Pennine Way and other government-related outdoor projects.

Over many decades, Tom Stephenson championed walkers’ rights to access privately-owned land including in the Forest of Bowland and Peak District.  He worked for the creation of official long distance paths and national parks. He helped found the Ramblers Association with  the Rev T A Leonard of Colne.

TOM LEONARD

Thomas Arthur Leonard was a churchman at the former Dockray Square Congregational Church in Colne. He pioneered outdoor holidays for textile mill workers.  This led to the formation of the Co-operative Holidays Association in the 1890s and then the Holiday Fellowship in 1912. The Holiday Fellowship, now known as HF,  still operates today and has Newfield Hall at Malham, which it has run since the 1930s.

T A Leonard also helped launch the Youth Hostel Association and was a founding member of the friends of the Lake District in the 1930s.  He became the first president of the Ramblers Association in 1935 and was a keen supporter of Tom Stephenson in creating the Pennine Way.

ALFRED WAINWRIGHT

Lancashire’s Alfred Wainwright, raised in  Blackburn, is perhaps best known for his illustrated Lakeland walk books. But he is also connected to Tom Stephenson and the Pennine Way.

Nick added: ” Wainwright wrote the ‘Pennine Way Companion’ book, which was first published in 1968. He knew about the Pennine Way because it had taken such a long time to create. It was published after his Lakeland pictorial guides but Wainwright’s Pennine Way Companion did a lot to popularise the Pennine Way.

“It came out before the official Pennine Way guide written by Tom Stephenson in 1969. The official guide was more stuffy in style, a bit like a government document.  Wainwright’s books were more quirky. But he named Tom Stephenson on the first page of the introduction.

“And because the Pennine Way was the first official long-distance footpath it  perhaps inspired Wainwright with his Coast To Coast Walk book. I think Tom Stephenson was the catalyst.”

Alfred Wainwright’s ‘A Coast to Coast Walk’ was first published in the 1970s. Separately, he wrote another Pennine book, ‘A Pennine Journey’,  in 1938. But it lay unpublished for decades.  It charts his journey from Settle to Hadrian’s Wall against  a tense backdrop of Europe heading towards the Second World War.

APRIL EVENTS

In April, various events in Lancashire and Yorkshire will celebrate the Two Toms Trail and the Pennine Way’s 60th anniversary.

Monday to Thursday, April 21 to 24, Clarion House and Pendle Radicals volunteers will walk from Whalley to Malham, a distance of 40 miles over three days. They will arrive at Malham on the exact date of the 60th anniversary of the Pennine Way’s official opening there in 1965. Their route will be from Whalley to Earby then the Pennine Way north to Malham. At Earby, they will stay at former YHA youth hostel which is now an independent hostel.

On Thursday, April 24,  a Pennine Way at 60 event will be held at Malham’s Yorkshire Dales National Park visitor centre. Clarion House and Pendle Radicals volunteers are organising this with guest speakers, possible including Mike Harding. They will walk into Malham along the Pennine Way from Airton, due to arrive at Malham around 10.30 am

On Sunday, April 27, a Two Toms Trail and Pennine Way anniversary event will be held at Clarion House, Newchurch in Pendle. That will include a Pennine Paths Preservation Society display. Some other surprises are planned too.