Area News South Yorkshire and North-East Derbyshire Ramblers Winter 2016/17

SYNED AGM The Annual General Meeting for 2017 will be held on 28th January and hosted by Sheffield 40’s Walking Group. The venue is Bradfield Village Hall, The Sands, Low Bradfield, Sheffield S6 6LB. There is free parking nearby and the TM Travel numbers 61 and 62 buses both go to Low Bradfield.

The hall is open from 10 am with toilets etc for people to use. The morning walk starts at 10.30am and will last for about 2 ½ hours. This is a 5 - 6 mile walk .

Refreshments are available from 1pm and the meeting will start at 2pm prompt.

“Please come along and find out what we are up to in our Area of Ramblers. Roly Smith our President will give his address, including a report on the fascinating Clarion Ramblers Project.

We will also have an update from someone from Central Office, and elect the new Area Council, and our Area delegates to the national Ramblers General Council. We look forward to seeing you there” Sheffield 40’s Walking Group

Chair and Secretary

Allen Pestell, Chair and David Gadd, Secretary

The last year has flown by, with significant changes at Ramblers central office with the departure of Benedict Southworth and the appointment of his replacement Vanessa Griffiths. We wait to see what a difference she will bring to the organisation. At the last General Council members voted decisively to reject the proposed changes to governance put forward by central office.

The 2016 SYNED AGM was hosted by the Doncaster Group and Mike Rhodes from the Peak District National Park, and Alex Mannings (Ramblers Central Office) were the guest speakers. During the meeting members unanimously agreed to accept the conclusions of Area Council regarding the role of Area Council. It was agreed to accept that it is a fundamental principle that Groups should do as much as possible themselves and that the role of Area is to support the Groups within the Area in the following ways: 1. Promote the charitable aims of Ramblers, including by supporting the various Ramblers initiatives and campaigns. 2. Promote closer links between the Groups. 3. Distribute money from Central Office to the Groups according to their needs and to maintain an oversight of each Group’s financial matters. 4. Have an oversight of the well-being of the Groups and, when appropriate, assist in the establishment of new Groups. 5. Support, if necessary, Groups over issues such as rights of way disputes, access issues, etc., in their area. 6. Arrange an annual AGM, where the Area Council is elected and delegates are chosen to attend the Ramblers General Council. General Council is where overall policy is set, and the Ramblers trustees are elected. 7. Promote and organise, as necessary, training for Group members in such things as navigation, walk leading, rights of way issues, first aid and publicity. 8. Maintain contact with Ramblers members who choose not to belong to a Group. 9. Maintain contact with walking groups in their Area who are affiliated to Ramblers. 10. Endeavour to settle any disputes within Groups, if such disputes cannot be settled internally. 11. To co-operate with other Areas, as necessary, in the furtherance of Ramblers’ aims. 12. Help the Groups in any suitable way to achieve the above functions.

Following the clarification of the role of Area Council last year we have started to address the issue about how Area Council and our Groups could be more effective. A major problem is never-ending one of the relatively few members who want to accept any positions of responsibility, with the same minority performing most of the roles. A common and important issue is communication, and it is recognised that many members are only interested in walking. The success of the CNED Newsflashes might be a way for other Groups to make contact with their wider membership, or of course emails. It was suggested that the way to involve more members was to ask for help with very specific issues. We have decided to set up a sub-committee to look at this crucially important issue.

Area Council has agreed to fund the production of a book based on early 1900s Clarion Ramblers photographic slides. The photos show the birth of the Clarion Ramblers, with wonderful photos of, for example, ladies in big skirts and hats at Kinder Downfall, GBH Ward ‘skinny dipping’, and generally what Kinder has meant to Sheffield and to Ramblers. The plan is to produce a book of photos, with articles on the formation of the Clarion Ramblers, how Ramblers grew from them, etc.

Area Council has also agreed to purchase a digital projector, a screen and a laptop for use by our Groups, as well as by Area Council itself. David Gadd and Jez Kenyon recently attended a national seminar on Lost Ways, organised by central office. It was a very useful day and information about progress being made across the country was exchanged. One important issue to come out of the seminar was the need to share information, to reduce the chances of time-consuming research being duplicated. A connected issue was the digital storage of the potentially huge amount of information found with, ideally, access to this information by people researching Lost Ways. Of course, researching Lost Ways is not restricted to Ramblers, with the British Horse Society heavily involved as well as a number of individuals. There is much work to be done before the 2026 deadline.

We are delighted to report on the removal of pylons from the Dunford Bridge area. This project will take a couple of years to complete, but it is hoped that it will give a lead to the removal of many more pylons in national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty. Plans are being put forward for a motorway service area at junction 35 of the M1. This will ruin Smithy Wood, an ancient woodland, which has already been cut into to provide the A616 exit from the M1 and an industrial estate. Planning should and must return to conserving our national heritage.

Membership

David Gadd Membership figures for Ramblers overall continue their steady decline, with the national figure dropping below 106,000 in August this year, from a high of about 140,000 at the turn of the century. This decline in membership is not a feature unique to Ramblers, with many voluntary organisations, including sports clubs, experiencing decline.

October 2016 2014 2015 2016 Barnsley and Penistone 195 186 175 Chesterfield & N E Derbyshire 515 476 441 Chesterfield 20s 29 36 26 Dearne Valley 103 104 107 Doncaster 230 232 227 Rotherham 266 272 268 Sheffield 657 616 605 Sheffield 20s 220 231 261 Sheffield 40s 215 230 231 NATIONAL 107584 107368 105990

Within SYNED, the greatest decline is mostly in the old-established Groups, while some of the younger Groups continue to grow, albeit slowly. The greatest area of the loss of members is from new members, with a very high percentage of new members failing to renew at the end of their first year. Could we do anything more to encourage these people to stay with Ramblers? Or do few of them actually join us for walks, having been given membership as a present that they really don’t want? It is known that few people become members because of our campaigning work, footpath monitoring or footpath maintenance work, although some (us!) obviously do come to see the need for such work. Many, many people enjoy walking with groups other than Ramblers groups, which is great, but they take it for granted that Ramblers will do the voluntary work increasingly necessary to maintain our footpath network. Is there any way we could persuade these people to support the work that Ramblers do, financially or otherwise?

Area Access Les Seaman both authorities are trying their very There are not many issues that best to maintain their statutory confront users of open access land duties to both footpaths and open and more challenging than the access. With the commitment to change of land ownership. The Access For All the provision of more moors west of Sheffield namely bridleways for horses and cycle Hallam, Moscar, Bamford and users has been progressed, a Derwent which were known as the number of new routes have been Moscar Estates have been sold on to implemented across the local moors. the Haddon Estates. As these moors With the expansion of these facilities are open access and therefore comes the added problem of some covered by the Crow Act and we but not all mountain bikers straying have our freedom to roam. We shall onto the adjacent moorland (which have to see if the moors is illegal). Education of the users is management closures will be the required to keep within the law. same as previous owners, and The Sheffield Moors Partnership is access by footpaths to the edges at well aware of these potential Stanage and Derwent will continue problems and all ramblers using during any closure regime. open access land should report any The Sheffield Public Rights of Way incidents of this nature to either the unit covering both footpaths and Sheffield or Peak authorities. access to the Sheffield moors and We must continue to use the open the Peak District National Park access land and give our support to Authority are under budget both Sheffield and the Peak District constraints (nothing changes), but authorities and at any opportunity lobby our local Members of that these moors are essential for Parliament to get central both health and recreational government to increase funding to benefits. the National Parks, and also show Good roaming.

Barnsley 20s 40s Walking Group

Rachel Barton The 20s 40s arm of Barnsley and to Whitby this year but will be Penistone group has continued to looking for the annual camping trip offer a programme of weekend and to make a return to the 2017 evening walks, social events and calendar at the behest of group weekends away. The volume of members. Social events have events has been slightly down on included pub quizzes, comedy nights previous years mainly due to family and meals out, as well as several or work commitments of some of birthday celebrations. The annual our more seasoned walk leaders. Christmas party will be held in late However, it has been great to see November at the Glasshouse in some of our newer members take Barnsley. up the reins and support the walking Whilst attendance at our events has programme. As in previous years, we been good, we have happily seen a have aimed to provide a good mix of further number of marriages and both short and long walks to births in the group this year, which accommodate all tastes. We have has given some of our members very tended to stay closer to home this different (if wonderfully joyous) year but as ever, have had a handful priorities. of outings further afield to the Peak District and also this year to Finally, after two years as Marsden in West Yorkshire and Chairperson of the group, Rachel Goole, in East Yorkshire to name a Barton is standing down from the couple of examples. role due to work commitments. Helen McDowall will run for election Our weekend away this year was in to the position at the Barnsley & February to Leyburn. We did not Penistone Ramblers AGM in hold the annual camping pilgrimage November.

Barnsley & Penistone Group

Christine Holland (secretary)

The group provides a varied programme of long and shorter walks on Saturdays and Sundays. The average number of walkers each week is between 15/20 members. Our membership numbers at present are around 168.

We have recently had some new leaflets printed advertising our group and highlighting our varied and interesting walks. We are at the moment in the process of distributing these leaflets to local libraries, community groups and other local centres to hopefully inspire new walkers.

We have an active social programme for members and partners on Saturday nights which this year have included a games evening, an evening at the dogs, ten pin bowling and a ceilidh with a pea and pie supper.

We also have open meetings every 2/3 months where we have had some varied and really interesting speakers for the group to enjoy.

A number of group members completed the Yorkshire Wolds Way earlier this year. They fortunately had good weather and were able to enjoy the beautiful scenery. We also had a couple of coach trips to North Yorkshire where the group enjoyed walks around Helmsley and Pickering.

Our thanks go to all walk leaders who provide such interesting and varied walks. Thanks also to all members for their help with our social activities and to our committee members who give their time and energy liaising with Area and the local council and working to put our programme together.

Chesterfield and North-East Derbyshire Group

John Graham

Group membership continues to decline with membership currently standing at 441. This includes a number of new members to whom we have given a warm welcome. The group again offered a wide variety of walks, but unfortunately this year we were unable to support two categories from previous programmes. ‘Sunday Short Car Walks and Winter Wednesday Short Bus Rambles’ have been withdrawn and our number of published walks has dropped accordingly but still well over 300. The Chesterfield Walking Festival remains popular and we are still able to support this, leading a number of the festival walks including the Round Chesterfield Walk. As with the membership numbers the number of walk leaders also is difficult to maintain but it is hoped that we will again be able to offer our usual full programme for the coming year. It is a concern that we have had four injuries on our walks this year, which have meant that people have had to have medical treatment. Two of these have necessitated paramedic and mountain rescue teams attending the scene as well as in one instance including the air ambulance. We will continue to support these rescue services by raising funds through donations during the walking festival week.

The Footpath Maintenance Team continue to carry out sterling work with 1451 man hours being recorded this year clearing 21.75 kilometres of footpaths and installing as many gates as Derbyshire County Council will provide. Our thanks are given to the volunteers for their lobbying of the County Council to have major remedial works carried out. One success recently has been Slatepit Dale, which has been a boggy problem for a number of years. Their efforts have been widely recognised and they have been able to build a good rapport with the County Council‘s Ranger Service to help maintain the footpath network in the area.

Preparations are taking place to celebrate the groups 50th Anniversary. These will in part take the form of a Ceilidh and the walking of two new routes devised by one of our members running North to South and West to East across North East Derbyshire. It is hoped that members of adjacent groups will help us in our celebrations.

Chesterfield Walking Group 20s – 40s

Jon Hendy (Chair)

This year, the Chesterfield 20s - 40s group or Chesterfield Young Ramblers kept the same committee as last year, apart from the election of a new treasurer, and a new social secretary. The group's advertised walks have helped to attract a number of keen and enthusiastic new members, and walk

attendances are gradually increasing. The group has found new walk leaders this year, but more are always welcome.

The group operates a very flexible walk programme, aimed primarily at walks inbetween 4 and 10 miles at locations around Chesterfield and the Peak District. Walks are arranged one or two months in advance, but there is scope to swap, chop and change to fit in with our busy lives.

For those weekends when we need to rest our walking boots, and enjoy the scenery at a faster pace - we go on a bike ride instead. The group organises bike rides, which provide an extra dimension to what the group can offer.

The group also organises an ever-expanding array of social events, and will investigate more weekends away over the coming year.

For new members wanting to join this fun and friendly group why not email [email protected] and ask to be added to our mailing list.

Dearne Valley Ramblers

Nigel Hebden (Chairman) and Sue Haywood (Secretary)

Once again we are delighted to report good turnouts for all our walks and also excellent support for our range of social activities. Our members come from an ever-increasing geographical area, and we also continue to enjoy the regular company of Ramblers’ members from other local groups. All are most welcome.

Our focus throughout 2016 has been the celebration of 20 years since the Group’s inception. Events have included the re-walking of the Group’s first ever walk, led by Paul Smeaton who led the original, a special birthday meeting at which we had a very interesting address from Cath MacKay, a Celebration Dinner and a Summer BBQ. We also produced a commemorative calendar and a book of members’ recipes, both of which were very well

received. Thanks go to all our hardworking volunteers who helped to make all of the above a terrific success.

Thorne – the start of the 98 mile South Yorkshire Way

Also as part of the celebrations, a major achievement has been the walking of the entire 98 miles of the Inner Route of the new long distance trail, The South Yorkshire Way. The route starts in Thorne and ends at Dore, going through the centres of Doncaster, Barnsley, Rotherham and Sheffield along the way. We walked this in stages throughout the summer and our thanks go to the section leaders and all who have helped in any way. After years of walking in circles, our leaders have now become very skilled at overcoming the logistics challenges of linear walks! As this report goes to press we are planning our November meeting where those members who took part in this epic walk will receive certificates acknowledging their achievement. The photographs show the group at the start of the first stage at Thorne on Easter Saturday and enjoying a celebratory glass of champagne on completion of the final stage at Dore on 8 September. We are considering scheduling the sections again next year, so that those who were unable to complete the whole route might have an opportunity to fill in any gaps.

Aside from the celebrations, a big event was when two of our members John and Angela Karck joined members from Sheffield and Rotherham to visit a

walking festival in Bochum, Germany. They reported an excellent experience and gave a very interesting talk and slide show about the trip to the rest of the group.

As if all that excitement wasn’t enough, we were very pleased when Roseanna Burton of the Dearne Valley Landscape Partnership offered to lead an autumn ‘Bat Walk’ for us at 8pm on a darkish September evening. Roseanna provided a great deal of knowledge and the bat detectors, while we provided 38 walkers who had a very interesting and enjoyable evening. After such a busy 2016, we might have been expecting a slightly quieter time next year. However, in late summer we were delighted to have been approached by Rotherham Metro Ramblers to plan a joint walking festival.. Although the planning is at an early stage, we have agreed that the festival will take place from 11 to 15 October 2017 and all the walks will showcase our Groups’ areas – Rotherham and the Dearne Valley. Further details will appear on our websites and other publicity material as we progress through the first half of next year. Members of other groups will, of course, be very welcome to come along and enjoy the walks with us. So, in addition to our ‘normal’ programme of walks and social activities we are looking ahead to 2017 as yet another ‘special’ year.

Dore and a Reward at the end of the South Yorkshire Way!

Doncaster Ramblers

David Gadd - Chairman

Membership currently stands at 227, a slight drop from three years ago when we had 234 members. The reasons for the overall decline in the membership of Ramblers have been discussed many times. The most likely reason is that there are so many other walking groups and other activities for people to do.

The pity is that other walking groups don’t at least affiliate to Ramblers, and thus support us in the Rights of Way work that we do - keeping footpaths open with maintenance work and taking legal action when necessary. It is an irony that many Groups, including Doncaster, have never been more successful in producing a full walks programme and supporting the local council with regard to rights of way work in monitoring and maintaining the network, yet suffer a decline in numbers.

The Group’s walking programme this year has been excellent, with the normal Saturday and Tuesday walks throughout the year being supported by the Wednesday evening summer walks and the Thursday public transport walks. In the summer programme we experimented with a longer moderate/strenuous walk every third Tuesday of the month being followed by a shorter walk on the Thursday. The committee has reviewed this addition to the walks programme and decided to continue with it in the summer programme for 2017.

Christmas lunches in 2015 were well supported and organised, with many members enjoying a walk and then Christmas lunch at the New Inn, Stainforth, for the Tuesday walks, and at Marr Lodge for the Saturday walks.

We have again supported DMBC in its Get Doncaster Walking programme with five walks in their last programme.

We had a very successful coach trip to Otley in June, with three walks provided. The ‘B’ walk was the most popular, but all groups returned to the town for about 4.30, time for a drink and even fish and chips.

During 2016 the committee discussed first aid issues and decided to provide a foil blanket for all regular walkers, as well as a first aid checklist. We also provided CPR training, although it clashed with England playing Iceland in a crucial World Cup game and this event was not well supported. Members have also been provided with an emergency contact card, with the hope that they will carry it with them, and that it is easily accessible, on all walks.

The Lost Ways committee has made some progress this year in identifying possible lost ways in DMBC. Members of this committee have been on a Ramblers training day on the subject and spent time at the Doncaster Archives. We recognise that identifying lost ways is relatively easy, but fear that getting evidence is likely to be more difficult.

By early December 2015 we were able to report that we had walked all walkable paths, of the total of 590, in DMBC, within the year. We hope that 100% success can be achieved in 2016 as well. There has been a huge amount of maintenance work done on the problems found by the square walkers. The maintenance volunteers have been out every month since March with new stiles being erected, finger posts being replaced or repaired, flights of steps repaired with handrails fitted in some places, and cutting back or clearing being fitted in with other work. We have had praise from the Local Authority and pleasing comments from walkers about the good state of our paths. We have also devised a new Roundel, which is attached to completed work to show what is being done to protect our local path network, and to advertise the Ramblers

Finally, thanks are offered to everyone who contributes to helping the Group to function effectively. That is all walk leaders who plan, recce and then lead their walks - the walks programme is the heart of the Group. The walks programme needs organisers too, to compile the Tuesday, Wednesday,

Thursday and Saturday walks and to put them in the programme and arrange for its printing and subsequent distribution. The Group’s contributions to Get Doncaster Walking needs a liaison person. The Rights of way Committee responds to requests for diversions or modifications, to monitor the footpaths for the DMBC Rights of Way Department, and to play significant part in maintaining DMBC’s RoW. Various members contribute towards organising things like the Christmas lunches and the coach trip and the Lost Ways committee spend some of their time studying old maps in an attempt to save lost footpaths. Members who serve on the committee may not always welcome spending a Monday evening sitting and discussing Group activities, finance, problems or future plans! I thank ALL members who play a part, no matter how small, in making the Group the success that it is.

Rotherham Metro

Frank Faries - Publicity Officer

Another enjoyable year highlighted by our extensive and varied walks programme. On most Saturdays we have offered short and long walks with on average 20 walkers. The short walks continue to be popular and new walk leaders have come forth to maintain this programme. The usual Wednesday format has been continued with alternate short and long walks. A big thank you to all the walk leaders who led the walks.

Our membership has decreased marginally with around 264 members but with a trickle of new and younger walkers replacing those who leave. The group has also enjoyed a coach ramble in July to Bolton Abbey involving both a long and a short walk and a walking weekend is organised in Hartington during October.

Work has commenced to review the Rotherham Ring Route. This is a 50 mile circular walk around the boundary of the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham and is currently split into 10 linear sections. One of our members is managing the project with other members checking the routes and wherever possible identifying an option for shorter circular sections. The aim

is to publicise the routes early next year including detailed descriptions and photographs.

The Social Programme continues to attract good support covering a varied range of walk related topics and other interests as well as a dinner and buffet. However after 10 years, our Social Secretary, Josie Hunt, is stepping down and we have not been able to find a direct replacement. Fortunately, by splitting the activities, we have managed to recruit 3 members to maintain these social activities so that the programme will not be in anyway diminished. For the third year running, the group has operated without a Chair and Footpath secretary. However, led by our hard working secretary and other committee members, the group has continued to function normally.

The footpath volunteer programme involving our partnership with RMBC Rangers and Rotherham Rambling Club in clearing and improving pathways has continued successfully. This monthly programme is well supported by on average 10/12 people working each day from a pool of about 30. Work has been focused in two of the Country Parks as well as footpaths throughout the Rotherham area. Paths have recently been cleared on the former Treeton Tip, which offers a recreational space for residents of the local housing estates, and three new footpaths are to be dedicated which in turn will be added to the Treeton Definitive map. The group even had time to construct a new bird hide in Ulley Country Park.

During the Big Pathwatch, 70% of the footpaths in the Rotherham area were surveyed. Most of the negative reports were to do with signage and vegetation blocking paths. New signs are on order and many of the vegetation issues are covered in a revised annual cutting programme.

Looking forward to 2017, we have a 5 day walking holiday organised based in Llandudno in April, and during October we are to organise a more ambitious Walking Festival in conjunction with our neighbouring Dearne Valley Group. It’s nearly 10 years since the last local authority organised Festival in the Rotherham area, as this successful event was discontinued due to local government cutbacks. Our Festival will take place over 5 days and both groups are starting to make the links to ensure that the event is well publicised and organised.

Sheffield Ramblers

Terry Howard Chairman

Sheffield Group maintains its profile within the City as an organisation which contributes to the life of the City. Our varied walks programme can boast that we offer walking opportunities for all people who want a walk which suits them.

There are the shorter Tuesday or longer Wednesday walks or the varied Sunday walks. Occasionally there are Thursday or Saturday walks along with

the “Walking Out” walks, which cater for new walkers, those from the City’s Health Walks or for those who just want a short “amble”.

Access and footpath work continues to address those matters which affect our countryside and footpath issues. Of note is our objection to the motorway service station on the M1 at Smithy Wood along with the closing of the railway crossing onto Wharncliffe.

We have two “working” teams, one involved in footpath repairs, the “Fix It” team, and the “Lost Ways” team, working on restoring lost rights of way. Both vital for the future of our rights of way network.

Members have been involved in organising and running Sheffield’s Walking Festival via the Walking Forum. It is reasonable to say that without our members’ involvement in both these initiatives they wouldn’t happen. Similarly, we support “Sheffield, The Outdoor City” initiative. We also encourage members to be involved in the work of the two Local Access Forums which cover our area.

On what appears to be a negative matter, membership of the Group looks less than encouraging, but taken with the increase in membership of our two younger Sheffield Groups does look much better. We are starting to work closer with these two Groups but still much has to be done. Through Area’s involvement in “Governance” it should help and enable closer working links between us all.

We now have a regular online newsletter as well as our walks programme being on line. The online programme has addressed many of the problems associated with organising walks, but we must be considerate of those not online.

It is impossible to list all the contributions made by individuals to the work of the Group and making the walks programme “work” but thanks must be made to them all. Without them what would you have? So sincere thanks to all.

Sheffield 40s Walking Group

Emma Myers – Secretary

Current membership stands at 231, around the same as last year, meaning retention is high. It also means we have healthy numbers on walks and at socials. Communications within the group are effective, all members have been added to the new Gmail account and the website is functioning well. Facebook members continue to grow.

45 different leaders led about 150 walks in the last year. The group is committed to providing a varied and extensive walks programme and we have introduced a Walk Mentoring Programme within the group to encourage more members to lead walks. We have extended our walks archive into a database of walks, to make it easier for new walk leaders. We supported the September Walking Festival with a full programme of walks throughout and continue to support the Ramblers Pathwatch initiative. During the summer months we were able to offer evening walks, which proved very enjoyable and we would love to offer