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Village Web Site Forum
Robin Longbottom
Oakworth
Monday, December 18, 2017 07:07 |
Baptist Church Sponsored Walk 1966/7?
Yesterday my elder sister and I were recalling a sponsored walk that we did for the Baptist Church in Sutton, around 1966/7? It was a gruelling 30 miles. We set off from the church and went through Cononley, Bradley, Addingham and Silsden, but that doesn't seem far enough. Does anyone know the route that was taken? For some reason we took our Airedale dog with us, when we got home whilst we soaked our aching, blistered, feet in surgical spirit the dog lay under a piece of furniture, whimpered and licked his paws. Back in those days you had to suffer for your sponsor money. A year or so later I did a twenty miler, a few months ago I saw an advertisement for a five mile sponsored walk hmmm! |
Howard Barrett
Silsden
Monday, December 18, 2017 10:45 |
Hello Robin,
I organised that walk and also the one following, which you mention. It wasn't until I saw your post that I realised it is 50 or so years ago. You mention bathing your feet but I covered more than 200 miles that day going back and forth around the route on my Honda 50, so you can imagine where my blisters were!
The two walks covered a bit of common ground so the early parts of each walk are a bit vague. One of them certainly went to Lothersdale because the school was a watering hole. If I?m not mistaken the 30 mile one went to Carleton, then along Cononley Woodside to Cononley, Farnhill, Bradley. Then over the moorland road that heads towards the top of Cringles, but turning off before that towards Draughton, then Addingham, which was the major watering point and the place where many either gave up because of blisters, or simply ran out of time. Remember that many people worked Saturday mornings, so we set a second batch of people off in the early afternoon. The route then left Addingham via the road over the moorland road to Silsden, then on the canal bank to Kildwick, then Sutton. Does that concur with your recollection of the event? I recall that more than ?2,000 was raised. I don?t know the equivalent value in today's terms but it was a lot of money then. Perhaps more important, it seemed like most of Sutton were involved. If they weren't walking they were marshalling, transporting the retiring walkers back to base, manning the watering holes en route and even providing hot snacks for returning walkers. Even the St John's Ambulance service turned up without asking and covered the route for the day. Almost every walker had a camera but I don't recall seeing many photos. It would be interesting if this thread unearths a few, which could perhaps find their way into the gallery. The weather was perfect and it became a 'Grand Day Out'. |
Robin Longbottom
Oakworth
Thursday, December 21, 2017 10:01 |
Thanks for your reply Howard. I remember someone tending to my blisters along the way and having a change of socks. We didn't take a camera, so we haven't any photos. It would be interesting to see some if anyone can turn some up. I'm amazed that the walk raised ?2,000, a considerable amount of money in those days - I should think ?25 a week would have been a working mans wage about that time. Happy days. |
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