Welcome to Ramblers Yorkshire
Welcome to the website of the West Riding Area of the Ramblers' Association. The West Riding Area takes its name from the days when Yorkshire was divided into three “ridings” a West Riding, North Riding and East Riding. The territory which the West Riding Area looks after on behalf of its members and the walking community is centred on Leeds and Bradford, and extends from Ingleton to Pontefract, and from Holmfirth to Wensleydale.
The landscape of the West Riding Area is attractive and varied. There are the high Pennine hills and moors, and these are incised by attractive steep-sided and well-wooded valleys. On lower ground there is a well-cultivated undulating landscape, much of which is surprisingly enjoyable when explored on foot. A great bonus of being in West Yorkshire is that there is attractive scenery on the doorstep of all the large towns, so there is no need to travel far for a good country walk. There are also many major scenic attractions, and these include The Three Peaks, Malham Cove, Fountains Abbey (a world heritage site), the Bronte Moors, and Hardcastle Crags near Hebden Bridge.
There is an extensive programme of walks exploring this attractive countryside, with distances to suit all capabilities. On Saturdays and Sundays several walks are organised, and there are also walks on weekdays. Monthly coach rambles often visit places further afield. The popular Take A Hike Group organises walks and social events for members in their 20s and 30s.
Latest news
WANTED: SOMEONE TO ORGANISE BURLEY BRIDGE HIKE
For many years the Burley Bridge Hike has raised valuable funds in the region of £1000 a year for the Burley Bridge Association in its campaign (strongly supported by the RA) for a bridge over the River Wharfe. Jonn Sparshatt who organised for many years has stood down, and this year as an alternative fund-raising event, the association is arranging a brass band concert! However, the Burley Bridge Association would like the hike to continue in future years, and needs someone (or a small team) to organise it. The hike starts and finishes at Burley in Wharfedale, and is about 20 miles in length. It has always taken place in November, but this is not mandatory, and a new organiser may wish to put it on at a different time of the year. Plenty of support and advice will be available for anyone interested in organising this valuable event. Further details without obligation from Peter Young at 01943 466858 petermasonyoung@hotmail.co.uk Offers please!
North Kirklees Group Treasure Hunt
The Group will be holding its Annual Treasure Hunt on Wednesday 11th August starting 7pm at the Old Colonial Club, Dunbottle Lane, Mirfield. The Hunt involves a leisurely four mile walk when those taking part will be seeking answers to the enigmatic clues set by the organisers. Entrance fee £4 which includes buffet supper. All members of North Kirklees Group and West Riding Area very welcome. This year’s hunt is in aid of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance Service.
75 GLORIOUS YEARS OF RAMBLERS’ ACHIEVEMENT
A network of rights of way, all legally protected
The Ramblers’ Association celebrates its 75th Anniversary in 2010. There is much to celebrate and shout to the hill tops, but in particular three major pieces of legislation, both of which resulted from sustained campaigning and lobbying by the Ramblers’ Association.
A major triumph was the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act of 1949. This Act which resulted from sustained lobbying and campaigning by the RA provides the legal basis for the Rights of Way network in England and Wales. The act required that "all rights of way should be surveyed and recorded on maps". It took a number of years for it to happen, as parish councils provided the information to county councils to enable draft maps to be drawn up, and all the information had to be checked before the final county definitive maps were completed.
RA members did a great deal of the gathering and checking of the information. England and Wales now has a footpath network that is probably the best in the world, lots and lots of paths twisting and turning their way through the countryside and town and all of them legally protected. There is much work yet to do: some parishes seem to have a network of paths that is sparse to say the least, and in many places there are paths that are difficult to use. Nonetheless, the framework is in place, and it owes much to the RA. The 1949 Act also gave the blessing to National Parks, and gave local authorities the powers to make access orders (though few did).
The Countryside and Rights of Way (CROW) Act of 2000 was another major triumph, and several of the rallies in the long and eventually successful right to roam campaign were held in West Riding Area. As a result of the CROW Act walkers can now roam freely for nearly all of the year on mountain, moorland, heath, down and common land. Whether or not everyone wants to wander freely over every bit of bog, bracken and heather, the legal right to do so now exists, and this is very important for walkers. And the legislation has enabled walkers to visit exciting new heights in the Yorkshire Dales such as Sharp Haw, Flasby Fell, Meugher, Rye Loaf Hill, Horse Head, Old Cote Moor, and, in the South Pennines, Crow Hill, Alcomden Stones, and Great Wolf Stones. Marvellous valleys have now become accessible such as Gate Up Gill near Grimwith, Ramsden Clough (featured in the last WRR), and Blayshaw Gill in Nidderdale. Many more access points are needed, but the basic Access framework is now in place, and many ramblers are enjoying the benefits.
The successful campaign for the CROW Act also provided the powers for coastal access to be implemented, and this has come to fruition in the Marina and Coastal Access Act of November 2009, another triumph for our association. As a result of the work of the RA, there will soon be a continuous path along the coast of England and Wales, a marvellous national asset for anyone who loves walking by the sea, and a world first.
All three of these triumphs were enacted in the legislative programmes of the same political party when in government; it shall be nameless, but it deserves our gratitude as RA campaigning alone, effective as it was, would not have secured a successful outcome.
These are of course the major events. But all the time Ramblers’ Association members have been doing such things as reporting path obstructions, commenting on diversions (opposing them where they are not in walkers’ best interests), commenting on planning applications, discovering lost ways, campaigning for more local authority resources for Rights of Way, monitoring threats to the countryside, leading walks so that members and potential members can enjoy the countryside, and, immediately after the CROW Act recording all unimproved open land. We have therefore much to celebrate: both the big successes and the endless pieces of useful work at local level that have all helped to make walking enjoyable. There is still much to do (40% of paths in North Yorkshire are difficult to use), but there is much to be proud of and celebrate.
The weekend 22nd and 23rd May has been agreed for the major 75th Anniversary celebrations in West Riding Area. Area Committees and Groups are asked to organise walks that draw attention to our best achievements, and walks that show some of the work still to do, or just to celebrate the enjoyment of walking. Please decide on appropriate walks by early February, and make sure they are included in the Area and Group walks programmes. The 75th Anniversary is also an excellent opportunity for good publicity in the local and regional media.
A "Baton Walk" to celebrate the anniversary starts with a national launch in the South West of England in February. The baton reaches Yorkshire in July, and offers the opportunity for further celebrations.
In 1931, a National Council of Ramblers Federations was set up; there were eleven federations, but the Liverpool, Manchester, and Sheffield federations had taken the initiative. It decided that from the 1st January 1935 it should become the Ramblers’ Association (hence the 75th Anniversary Celebrations!). Footpath Societies much pre-date this, and the earliest known is the Association for the Protection of Ancient Footpaths in the Vicinity of York, founded in 1824. Rambling clubs started in the 1880s, and both the Cooperative Holiday Association (CHA) and the Holiday Fellowship (HF) were formed before 1900.
