National Trails eNewsletter

Newsletter May 2010 enews April 2010

Coldrum, North Downs Way. Mike Williams © Natural England

In this issue:

Hello,

Spring is in the air, along with pollen and volcanic dust from Iceland! After the airport closures I am even more convinced that holidaying in the UK is the best option. Hopefully receiving this email will inspire you to spend some time discovering more of our beautiful countryside and tackling a National Trail.

Completing my first National Trail (Offa’s Dyke Path) many years ago is still one of the highlights of my life.  I remember buying a bottle of champagne in Prestatyn then nipping into Woollies to buy some disposable glasses, before casting boots aside and paddling in the waves with a glass of bubbly in my hand. Magic!

I can also still remember many of the wonderful bed and breakfast places along the way, where we were made to feel special and were given the most delicious home cooked and locally sourced produce. The marmalade made with vodka in Knighton, the fresh eggs with the yellowest yolks I had ever seen and those Welsh Black steaks in the pubs, mmmmm. I expected to lose a bit of weight after walking nearly 180 miles but the food was so good I managed to put some weight on!

I enjoyed meeting some of you at the Outdoors Show at the NEC in Birmingham back in March. I always like meeting the people who use the Trails, getting feedback and advising on the next trip. It is even more rewarding if I think I have managed to inspire someone to walk a National Trail for the first time.

This year we joined ranks with the Scottish National Trails (or Long Distance Routes, as they are officially known) and we think it worked well and made more sense to the public. The Trail Officers certainly enjoyed spending time together and sharing ideas. We hope to work on our cross border relationship in the future, after all it has been working well between England and Wales for many years and one end of the Pennine Way is actually in Scotland!

National Trail Officers Julie, Tim amd Jos- here to help!

Some of you have been asking when the newly revised versions of the Official National Trail Guide Books, published by our partners Aurum Press, will be available. I am pleased to announce that the Cotswold Way, Peddars Way and Norfolk Coast Path, Hadrian's Wall Path and Cleveland Way are now in the shops and a further seven are due soon. These are: South West Coast Path ( Falmouth to Exmouth), Offa's Dyke Path, Pembrokeshire Coast Path, South Downs Way, North Downs Way, Thames Path and Pennine Way North.  The entire set of twenty books should be updated within the next year.

As you can see, they look quite different with their striking new covers, each in a different colour. We have tried to include a bit more information about the flora and fauna that you may see along the Trails and of course there are  updated Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 maps showing route alignments.

I expect you all saw Hadrian's Wall lit up in March. Wasn't it spectacular! Dave McGlade manages Hadrian's Wall Path and he was heavily involved in the organisation. He will testify to the amount of hard work that went in to the event, managing the crowds, the health and safety, while trying to protect the archaeology. The idea took the world by storm, with visitors arriving from all over the world to see the spectacle and get involved in lighting the beacons. Well done to all concerned.

BBC Countryfile featured the Cotswold Way on 25 April and I was amazed to see the number of visitors to the National Trails website jump from the normal 300 people per day to about 2,000 on that day. I can only guess that most of these were between 7pm and midnight, after the programme finished. Visitor numbers are still almost double the normal amount so I can only apologise if the website is a bit slow at the moment.

Plans are afoot to update the National Trails website to make it even better for the users. We want to hear your ideas for new features, we want to know if you have any frustrations with the present site and which parts you find most useful. Please complete the survey, it will only take a few minutes to complete.

A link to this survey is also shown in a pop-up whenmyou first enter the National Trails website. Thank you if you have already completed it.

I will finish there and hand you over to Tim Lidstone-Scott who is the National Trail Officer for the Peddars Way and Norfolk Coast Path.

Enjoy the spring and summer,

Sheila Talbot, National Trails coordinator 

Newsletter May 2010

Hi I am Tim Lidstone-Scott and I head up the small team that manages the Peddars Way and Norfolk Coast Path National Trail.  Two Trails in one really!

We have had a really exciting couple of years with a pretty impressive increase in the number of people using the route over the past 12 months. Volunteers have completed two major boardwalk replacements, we have launched new web pages, new Companion Guides, run education projects, completed an innovative signing project in partnership with businesses and joined Facebook!

So where to start?

Patrick Saunders our Works Coordinator runs the successful volunteer scheme which not only ensures that the whole route is inspected every two months but carries out practical maintenance. This last year, after six seasons they completed the replacement of over 600 metres of timber boardwalk through the sand dune of Holme National Nature reserve. We also completed 110 metres of boardwalk through the dunes of the Holkham National Nature Reserve at Burnham Overy Staithe.  So, no more excuses to visit the sea side then Pat!

Part of the Peddars Way can legally be accessed by motor vehicles. Since 1986 when the route was opened by HRH Prince of Wales there has been a steady increase in its use by 4 x 4s.  With a certain amount of serendipity and good partnership working, notably with the Sandringham Royal Estate and a couple of neighbouring landowners just about all of the damaged route has or is in the process of being completely re-profiled and reseeded.  The completed sections are now a joy to walk and cycle on.  We must acknowledge the influence of HRH Prince of Wales; without his input we would certainly not have progressed so quickly.  Thank you Sir!

 

 

 

 

Before and after photographs

Have you ever gone for a walk and wondered just how far the local pub is from the path or wanted to pop into a local village for lunch but not known whether the shop is open?  Well now on this Trail we have provided the answer.  Working with 20 businesses along the route we have signed pubs, shops and cafes from the path along with distance and a telephone number to check they are open, to book a table or to get the first pint in!
Feedback from both users and businesses has been great. In one case even leading to one pub, the Dabbling Duck at Great Massingham starting to provide backpacker camping with a free breakfast thrown in.  Now that is a good deal because their food is excellent.

Alongside this signing we have also worked with the Coasthopper bus service to sign the bus stops from the route and at the same time have created a new distance chart for the Norfolk Coast Path that gives the distance along the path between bus stops.

To make it easier to plan your walk we have added new pages to the web site that not only helps the planning of bus and trains to the route but also new downloadable pdfs that guide you along the trail.  This route is for shorter local routes as well as the pack carrying distance yomper.

Helen Timson our Projects Assistant has also been busy producing the Companion Guide, a pocket size publication stuffed full of accommodation, public transport information and detail of the services to be found in villages close to the route

With a local high school Patrick and Helen have worked on a stats project involving 60 students in an analysis of our user survey and counter data. In addition to this a further 40 students utilised the data to enhance their learning of statistics. The Head teacher thanked the National Trail for getting involved and commented “All too often work in classrooms can feel alien to the real world. The chance for our students to process data for a real audience was enormously motivating.”

Finally our Facebook site!  Now setting that up was an experience!  I should say that I am a 50 something bloke who’s closest brush with any form of social media was when one of my adult kids mentioned it in conversation.

It has taken some weeks for me to establish the site. I initially set it up in my own name and was completely freaked out when Facebook immediately replied with a list people who I might like to make my friends, most of whom I actually knew. Now how did that happen?
Anyway I have finally settled on a site under the Trail name and it is already proving popular.

Give it a look.

Have a good summers walking, cycling or riding.

Tim

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