Alan's challenge to complete Dad's York Press country walks

Alan doesn't think his dad ever did the walks - but Alan decided he would have a go.

This is his story...

AT least 76 country walks were published in the then, York Evening Press.

I know this because my father cut out and indexed a 76-page ring binder. Does anyone else remember these articles?

But my story starts in 1964 when dad was posted to Imphal Barracks with REME Records, having been long service army since 1938.

I’m the youngest son - my brothers were all born in different locations.

Mum and dad - Alice and Ted Marsden - had always lived in married quarters but decided to buy a house while quartered in Broadway Grove, Fulford. They found a place in Poppleton for the last two years of his posting.

Alan with his mum and dad in 1978

Previously, they had lived in Liverpool (where they grew up), Germany, Surrey, Malta, Leicester and then York, which they liked so much that they made an unplanned decision for dad to leave the army. So instead of two years in the house, Mum was there until the end - 52 years later.

Dad passed away in 2002. All this is relevant because without that decision in 1967 there would be no folder of country walks.

Dad left school when he was 16 but the years in the Army and his natural artistic talent meant he had developed beautiful handwriting along with an organisational attention to detail. This meant that when little projects came along, they were done to perfection.

I have no idea of the timeframe or frequency over which the Evening Press published these walks. I left home in 1980 and only remember seeing the walks in the binder in later years.

Dad also reordered the binder to alphabetic at some point from whatever the original order would have been, who knows.

Ted's binder with the country walks in alphabetical order

When my brothers and I had that horrid task of clearing the family home in 2018 we were pretty brutal, but I said I’d like to keep the walks binder, probably because it had Dad’s stamp all over it. My wife Wendy and I were living in Oxfordshire at the time but in 2021 we moved to York, where we had a ready-made set of walks to complete (any graffiti on them is by us as we have started to use them).

To the walks themselves. All but one (Scout Scar is near Kendal) are in Yorkshire and are typically three to five miles, have good directions (although the OS App has come in very handy), provide some local information but no detail on points of interest and I think all say: “The complete walk is suitable for those of average fitness”!

READ MORE: Country Walk to Hole of Horcum near Pickering

Most are black and white with some in colour, they suggest footwear, mention loos/cafes/pubs but not by name, and some rights of way might have changed.

There are cliff walks, fairly level river and reservoir/lake walks and some are good cardio workouts in sections (my wife grew up in flat Suffolk, so these have been good training!). They suggest checking the weather via “Weathercall” on an 0891 number which shows their age! Out of the 34 we have done so far, a few have a little too much along busy/fast roads and only a couple we have marked as “Don’t do again”.

Pateley Bridge #51, May 2021, was a lovely one rising steeply out of the town (not helped on the day by soft ground) and alongside a “disused tramway” which we didn’t understand what that would be when planning the walk, but it turned out to be part of the old quarry facility.

This in turn provided an interesting backdrop and terrain for some fabulous views of the town and the hills and valleys to the west.

Despite low, grey cloud the visibility was great. After the heart pounding ascent there was a long, gentle run down a lane to Wath, finishing with a nice stroll along the Nidd to well-deserved fish, chips and mushy peas.

We chose to live in York because it is easy striking distance of the coast and has fabulous countryside in every direction as well as being able to walk into a great city.

Some walks are naturally in clusters as you might expect so we decided to book a cottage in Leyburn in April to tackle seven.

East Witton #19 was a favourite with bluebells and even orchids down by the river. After lunch, we did Middleham #46 which overlapped with the morning walk so did it in reverse to see the River Coverdale from a different angle. Filey (best beach in the world), Levisham, Market Weighton and others have all been in the “lovely” category.

One of the walks to Pateley Bridge from the old Press

Unfortunately, the Runswick Bay walk is missing. We will keep knocking them off and more recently I have been plotting them on the OS App starting with “Dad #” so maybe you can use them.

The irony is that I don’t think Dad ever did any of the walks even though he was fairly fit and they both liked the countryside. Mum though, would have never done them! Whatever the original motivation, I am glad we kept them.

We always say: “Thanks Ted” at the end of a walk and just have a quiet and nice feeling deep down.

Don't miss The Press every Saturday for our weekly country walk