2020:21 APM Sywell Strollers Report

SYWELL STROLLERS REPORT November 2020 saw the tenth anniversary of the formation of the Sywell Strollers walking group. In September 2010, the then Chairman of Sywell Parish Council held an open meeting inviting members of the village community to put forward suggestions that might help to knit the village population more closely together. My wife, Barbara, and I put forward the idea of forming a walking group, and a few weeks later Barbara and I signed up for a leadership course organised by the County Council, following which we had to plan local walks. The training course emphasised the need to advertise our walks and to undertake risk assessments of the planned terrain to be covered, down to the trivia of kerb heights and crossing the road safely. The overarching organisation at the time was English Nature, later to be renamed Natural England. In 2010, the government changed from Red to a coalition between Blue and Yellow. Fortunately, there was a continuing emphasis on walking for health, backed with money to pay for county co-ordinators and data handlers, but not, I might emphasise, for walk leaders! We were doing it for the enjoyment of getting out into the open air on a regular basis and walking with others. The enterprise became known as Walking for England, but very soon the national organisation changed hands and MacMillan Nursing took over before a further change put Walking for England in the hands of The Ramblers. Wednesday 3 November 2010 was the date of the inaugural walk, which started from the Horseshoe pub. By prior arrangement we had arranged that walkers could leave their cars on the pub car park with the quid pro quo that we would return for refreshment after the walk. On that inaugural occasion eleven walkers turned out, including one lady who could walk only with difficulty having recently had a hip joint replaced. Within a very short time the word spread and the membership grew until we had 84 members from all walks of life, coming from Sywell, Overstone, Brixworth, Earls Barton, Irchester, Mears Ashby, Northampton and Wellingborough. Since Day 1 we have organised the walks on alternate Wednesdays and Fridays, giving members the opportunity to walk when it was convenient for them to do so, without restricting those who couldn’t walk on one of the chosen days. From the start there was a problem with having such a large number of members, although that number never turned out together in force. The largest turn-out occurred on Good Friday in 2011 when 34 of us gathered in Warkton to cover new ground that included the pastureland of Boughton House. Walking for England required us to complete a register for every walk together with a master list of every signed-up member showing when and where they had walked. The data generated was submitted to a walk co-ordinator based at County Hall and a data analyst based in Peterborough. As walk leaders we had a considerable amount of paperwork to do. Five years on, with Walking for England now in the hands of The Ramblers, new criteria were issued making the task of organising walks a burden rather than a pleasure. There was a strong emphasis on organising ancillary activities that would raise money, but not for Sywell Strollers. It was decided at that stage by our members to opt out and become independent of the national body. Despite several urgent pleas from The Ramblers to stay with them we have trodden our own path, literally, and turned Sywell Strollers into a manageable, very friendly, sociable group that raises money for local and national charities. There are no joining fees, no weekly subscriptions, only a voluntary contribution toward good causes that have raised approximately £600 annually for the past eight years. By signing a Gift Aid form that sum increases the collections to about £750. To date, we have supported, among others, The Air Ambulance, Animals in Need in Irchester, Paddington Children’s Ward at Northampton General Hospital, Riding for the Disabled at Mears Ashby, Sports Relief and The Oncology Department also at NGH, The enjoyment that we derive from organising the Sywell Strollers’ walks is to take our members to places within the surrounding locality that they were unaware existed or could not access. Regrettably, the current Covid-19 pandemic has impacted on our walking programme during the past twelve months. Normally, we have a core membership of 24, but with gatherings limited to six from different households, members have had to walk in small bubbles, making their own arrangements on a week-by-week basis. However, in uncertain times of difficulty, it is good to know that many of our members continue to walk. When, hopefully, the pandemic is over we will publish anew our monthly programme of walks for our members to follow. Ian Thompson .

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