Shining a Light on another PNFS-Affiliated Group – Bradford CHA

Ray Wilkes, Bradford CHA and PNFS Member

This article is from Signpost 57, Summer 2018

Our walking group Bradford CHA, founded in 1903, welcomes people to come on our public transport and coach rambles. In many walking clubs, car ownership is essential but not in our club. We have coach rambles all over Northern England and we have club weekends even further afield.

We have public transport walks every Saturday and coach rambles every Sunday. Recently, we have had club weekends in North Wales, the Lake District, Hadrian’s Wall and the East Coast.

Every so often we have a ‘project’ where we complete a long distance path over a series of day trips, weekends and weeks. We have walked the Pennine Way, Cleveland Way, Yorkshire Wolds Way, Wainwright’s Coast to Coast and the Speyside Way in this manner.

To celebrate the Millennium we devised a walk from Bradford City Hall to the Millennium Dome and this was an extraordinary experience, taking us through miles of wonderful countryside which we would never have considered visiting. In 2003 it was our Centenary so we walked from City Hall to Edinburgh. This was a fine walk but was more familiar terrain so not quite so exciting.

In between these two events we had to endure the ‘Foot and Mouth’ outbreak, something which hit the finances of our weekly club coach very hard and we had a struggle to keep this aspect of our activities viable. Like many walking clubs and outdoor businesses, we are still not as strong now as we were before this now distant event.

We have a website http://www.bradfordwalking.org and we also have a Facebook page and Meet-up site so we are easy to access. Also, in January of this year, we were featured in the ‘Telegraph and Argus’ newspaper - http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/features/news_behind/15905530.Walking_can_improve_ health_and_lift_spirits

About two years ago, one of our long time members, Patrick Swithinbank, who had been a very active member and walk leader, sadly died. He left us a legacy and we decided to spend this on three PNFS footpath signs, one to commemorate past members and another two to publicise our club as well as PNFS.

Next: Our Thanks to Another Major Benefactor of the Society