Gift Aid SchemeWe had some difficulty in setting up an account with our chosen bank CAF BANK – a bank specifically for charitable organisations – because they required the Club to be registered by Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs for Gift Aid purposes which will enable us to reclaim Gift Aid on subscriptions and donations from UK taxpayers. The delay was due to us setting the object of the Club in too simple a format and it had to be revised from:“to promote and support the Pennine Journey long distance footpath” to:“to support and promote the Pennine Journey long distance footpath for the benefit of walkers and residents of the area through which the walk passes. In doing so it will provide healthy recreation and other leisure time activities in the interests of social welfare and assist urban and rural regeneration by an added boost to the local economy as well as other purposes that are charitable.”

Underpinning this object is the desire to have the route waymarked as soon as possible so that the Pennine Journey becomes a tribute to Alfred Wainwright by it being marked on Ordnance Survey maps given his love of maps.

Donate-a-GateThroughout the Pennine Journey project a relationship gradually developed with the North Pennine Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty organisation as a result of discussions about the impact of the Journey on the environment - 110 miles of the 247 mile route is within its area.

This has now been enhanced by a partnership between the Club and the Friends of the North Pennines AONB to promote a Donate-a-Gate scheme which both the Club and the Friends had independently been considering.

The object of the scheme, which operates satisfactorily in the Chilterns AONB, is to improve access to stretches of footpaths that are denied to less-physically abled people because of their inability to negotiate stiles – particularly ladder stiles.

As suitable sites are identified and agreed with the highway authorities and the landowners, kissing gates can be installed as memorials to friends and relations. The first of these is expected to be in place on the Pennine Journey route in the Langdon Beck area next spring in memory of Bob Pendlebury OBE, who was the first chairman of the NPAONB Partnership.

PJSC Newsletter No. 1 This is the first of what will be a series of occasional newsletters to update members on recent happenings and to tell them of what is in the pipeline. Many of the happenings will already have featured on the project’s website but we recognise that not everyone looks at websites on a regular basis.

MembershipOne consequence of this was to slow down the momentum of recruiting members as we were unable to set up standing orders or direct bank payments for subscriptions. However it did not stop word getting around and we now have 155 members including Brough Parish Council and Kirkby Stephen Town Council. At a recent committee meeting it was decided to have the membership year ending on 30th June, the financial year ending on 31st July with the annual general meeting to take place in early October. In the next few weeks all members will receive a lifetime membership card (to avoid the expense of annual ones) and a standing order to forward to your bank for the payment of subscriptions for the year 2013/4 and onwards.

North Pennines Walking FestivalArising from the relationship with the NPAONB and its Friends is a North Pennines Walking Festival to be held from 28th September to 6th October with Friends of the North Pennines taking the lead. Support will be sought from Visit County Durham and its equivalents in Cumbria and Northumberland, from the AONB itself and the three Highway Authorities. There will be a significant

Wainwright theme to the festival with provisional planning aiming to incorporate, within the walks programme, sections of the Pennine Journey from Tan Hill through to Appleby as part of the charity fundraising marathon mentioned above. Incorporated within the Festival will be walks and events associated with the 25th anniversary of the designation of the North Pennines AONB and the 10th anniversary of it getting European Geopark status.

Festival TalksDuring the North Pennines Walking Festival there will also be talks - one to be given by our president, Ron Scholes, who will be speaking of his love of the North Pennines as well as his friendship with Alfred Wainwright; John Burland, our Publicity Officer, will also give a talk on Alfred Wainwright that he has given at many venues throughout Northern England in recent years.

Replacement seat on the River SwaleWe are in the final stages of agreeing to replace a dilapidated seat by East Gill Force on the River Swale with the cooperation of Muker Parish Council.

The spot has great resonance for walkers on the long distance footpaths associated with Alfred Wainwright as it is the meeting place of his Coast to Coast Walk, the Pennine Way (for which he wrote in 1968 his Pennine Way Companion regarded by many as the definitive guide book for the walk) and, now, the Pennine Journey.

As 2013 is the 40th anniversary of the publication of his Coast to Coast Walk pictorial guide, the 45th anniversary of the publication of his Pennine Way Companion and the 75th anniversary of him walking his Pennine Journey the committee felt that the opportunity to mark this year should not be missed.

Community WalksIn line with our wish to develop interest in the Pennine Journey at a local level, a series of walks are planned – possibly rising to 20 over time – to be called “A Walk from the Pennine Journey”.

Starting from communities along the route they will be varied in distance and terrain but each will contain a section of the guide book. In response to a request from the NPAONB there will also be a link from Baldersdale to Brough that will give walkers the alternative of doing their journey in two loops – northern and southern.

Route Monitoring - Finally, we will be seeking route monitors for next year’s monitoring to be done in late spring. Like last year a schedule of sections will be put onto the website and volunteers will be asked to contact Jill King to reserve their choice. An e-mail giving further details will be sent out next March. Last year we had the cooperation of some walking organisations and hope to get their support again if needed but this is a club responsibility and we hope that members will want to play their full part.

Guide Reprint - Finally, finally we have heard from Frances Lincoln that sales of the guide book are doing so well that another reprint is likely early in 2013 at which point the opportunity will be taken to correct the few basic errors that have come to light as well as one major route variation which will be flagged up on the website.

PJ-in-a-Day - We are planning a major publicity event to mark the completion of the waymarking and the 75th anniversary. It will take the form of a charity fundraising marathon in which eighteen charities, national and regional, will be asked to participate in what will be called “PJ-in-a-Day” by getting their supporters to walk a stage of the Pennine Journey on 28th September 2013 to raise funds by sponsorship for their own charities. At this early stage there is already strong interest.

WaymarkingThe first of the annual route monitoring exercises, to which we are committed as part of the Club becoming the Responsible Organisation, was completed by early summer and the problems that were reported were passed on to the relevant highway authority.

Subsequently further discussions took place about the route’s waymarking, prior agreements confirmed and the waymarks and emblems ordered.

They are now with the authorities and it is expected that the route will be completely waymarked by summer 2013 in time for the 75th anniversary of when Alfred Wainwright left Settle on his Pennine Journey on 25th September 1938.

In addition, the Ordnance Survey has agreed, once the route has been waymarked, to include it on future Landranger and Explorer OS maps.

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