A celebratory walk is planned to mark the club’s 30-year anniversary.
This is an advanced notice to help you plan your busy diary.
Details will be posted by a walk poster near the time.
We are celebrating
a very special milestone, the 30th anniversary of our walking club.
Over the years, our club has brought together people from all
walks of life, united by a simple pleasure: walking in the countryside. From peaceful paths and woodland
trails to challenging hills and action packed holidays,
we have explored many places together and created memories that will stay with
us for years to come.
But our club has always been about much more than just walking.
It is about friendship and community, the conversations along the way, the
laughter over a pint of beer or a cup of tea, and the welcome given to new members. Many friendships have been formed and in some cases blossomed into marriages through the
club. It is this wonderful sense of togetherness that has helped it
flourish for three decades.
As we celebrate
our 30th anniversary, we thank the club’s founding father, Nicholas Albery for
his ingenious idea, our webmaster Andrew and many walk posters for their dedication and hard work through the years. We also remember
with fondness those members who have been part of our journey over the years
and are no longer with us or have moved away.
This anniversary
is a chance to look back with pride at everything we have achieved, but also to
look forward with excitement to the years ahead. May the next chapter bring
many more enjoyable walks, new adventures, and lasting friendships.
Lastly, you are invited to share your stories and memories of the club by adding comments to this post.
Look forward to
seeing you at this event.
4 comments:
The very first edition of Book 1 - TimeOut Book of Country Walks was published on 1 May 1997 by Penguin Books. The very first walk was listed in the 7-14 May 1997 issue of the TimeOut Magazine for Saturday 10 May 1997. It was "Hever to Leigh - A Kent Castles Walk". (walk 19). Interestingly, the meeting place was in 'foremost carriage' of 10:24am train from Victoria, not in the middle carriage of the train as we know now. The TimeOut Magazine in the subsequent week (14-21 May 1997) listed the same walk again for 17 May 1997. There was no walk listed in the 21-28 May 1997 issue of TimeOut Magazine. The following week (28 May - 4 Jun 1997) the walk listing was back to the normal rota Haslemere via Marley Common and Black Down (walk 22).
If anyone still remember what happened to the very first walk, why the same walk was repeated in the second week, and the reason for no walk in the third week, and why and when the meeting place on the train was changed from the front to middle carriage , we would very much like to hear from you.
There was a train accident - either the Ladbroke Grove crash in October 1999 or the Hatfield one in October 2000, I would imagine. Both were massive national news. Nicholas got nervous about meeting/travelling in the front carriage, so we switched to the middle.
My first walk was 29 August 1998. Is there anyone out there who started earlier, or am I now the “father the house?”
The walk was Borough Green to Sevenoaks. I saw the listing in Time Out (pretty much how everyone found out about the walks in those days). I was worried everyone attending would be old and weird, so got to Victoria station early and got on the train as soon as it was given a platform. My idea was to get into the front carriage (it was “meet in the front carriage” in those days) before anyone else so I could check out who else turned up before committing myself. I had deliberately not dressed in walking gear.
I found the carriage empty and sat down. The next person to get on said “Are you on the Time Out walk?” To say no and then later join the walk round gave looked odd, so I had to say yes. Cover blown! But shortly afterwards Nichols Albery got on and he immediately pulled out a newspaper. (He did this on every walk: he would then leave the newspaper on the train). He read, no one else spoke. I thought “Thank God for that!”
Once at Borough Green there was a huge group. They did not look old or weird. In fact they were all my age. It was a lovely chatty walk. As far as I am aware, we all descended on the Snail pub in Stone Street and got served somehow. (I don’t remember anyone eating sandwiches in those days and pubs never asked if you had booked.)
At about 3.30pm we got to Knole House and had tea. Afterwards I said “What happens now?” I was horrified to discover that this was the end of the walk, that we would just walk down into Sevenoaks. This seemed a rather early finish for such a nice day, so I pulled out my Ordnance Survey map and decided to walk to Kemsing. Everyone was astonished at this - that I wanted a longer walk, that I could actually read a map.
(I didn’t buy the Time Out Book if Country Walks for about six months. This annoyed Nicholas who thought the book sales were not as good as he expected. But I thought if I was not with the group I would just pull out my map. Who does a walk from a book if they are not in a group?)
So I walked to Kemsing and got to the station at 6.25. The last train of the day was 6.30. I had not bothered to check if there were trains (and indeed had no real means of doing so). Oh, the insouciance of youth!
(This message has been posted by the Lucilla Socialite Super Pac)
That was 28 years ago. Come and think about it, there were a wave of walkers joining the club in their 30s back then, helped by the listing in the TimeOut Magazine which tended to attract younger cohort. As we celebrate our 30 years of anniversary, we should also think about how we can attract the next generation of walkers into the club. Any ideas?
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