Development Plan and Supporters
A Development Plan has been sent to all the highway authorities seeking their approval for the route to be waymarked. Considerable support from a wide range of individuals, parish councils and other organisations has been obtained and a full list, and the Plan, can be viewed by clicking on the link above.
Waymarking
Discussions continued following the ‘in principle’ agreement of the highway authorities and agreement with all the highway authorities concerning the nature and frequency of waymarks along the route has now been reached. The waymarking will be of two kinds. The first will be an emblem, 30mm in size, which will be fixed to all signposts to be visible from the direction that walkers approach them along the route and big enough for walkers to spot without any difficulty. The guide book mentions all fingerposts along the route and indicates which ‘finger’, if there is more than one on the post, is to followed. This obviates the need to put any directional waymark on the fingerpost at all. The second will be a waymark, the design of which has been agreed by all the authorities, in which a smaller version of the emblem will fit in the space provided. This waymark will replace in time other standard waymarks along the route as and when such waymarks need replacing. They could be placed immediately the waymarking programme gets underway in those situations that are considered appropriate.
Ordnance Survey Maps
The Ordnance Survey have agreed, following the completion of the waymarking of the Pennine Journey route, to add “the alignment of the ‘Pennine Journey’ . . . .to OS Landranger and Explorer mapping.”
AW and Maps
On “The Future” page it mentions “Meeting the criteria of the Ordnance Survey for its inclusion on future editions of O.S.maps”. The route’s inclusion on OS maps (hopefully to be followed soon by the Coast to Coast Walk) is a tangible tribute to AW because he loved maps. This extract from the start of Chapter 3 of his Pennine Journey book establishes this beyond any doubt.
Route Monitoring
The Wainwright Society has been recognised by the relevant highway authorities as being the “Responsible Organisation” for the Pennine Journey long-distance footpath. One of their requirements before they agree to the route being waymarked is to establish some kind of monitoring/reporting arrangement and it seems that an annual monitoring of the route in early spring would meet that requirement. The reasoning behind this is that any problems that may result from winter weather could be spotted before later spring growth obscured them. Also it would give the authorities time to address any urgent issues.
Volunteers are now needed to monitor the route and a breakdown of the route is below. This has been broken down into stages that, on the face of it, may seem short but this is deliberate as it gives volunteers the option of a ‘there & back’ walk or in conjunction, say, with friends and two cars to undertake 2 stages combined. You will see that a lack of suitable parking has meant that are there are some ‘single’ stages - or very long there & back’ ones!!
Jill King has kindly agreed to organise the monitoring and volunteers are asked to contact Jill (e-mail: j.king112@ntlworld.com; tel. 01642 645789) - preferably, so as to make the administration simpler for her, with 2 ranked choices.
Some of the stages do lend themselves to the use of local transport but with the current squeeze on county council’s resources Jill and David Pitt will be looking at those that have survived nearer the time. The result of that enquiry will be put on both the Wainwright Society website and the Pennine Journey website prior to the start of the monitoring.
A “M” against a section in the table below indicates that a volunteer has already agreed to monitor it.
| Section | From/To | Distance (miles) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Settle to Horton in Ribblesdale | 7.50 | M |
| 2 | Horton in Ribblesdale to Halton Gill | 6.50 | M |
| 3 | Halton Gill to Buckden | 6.00 | M |
| 4 | Buckden to Stalling Busk | 6.25 | M |
| 5 | Stalling Busk to Askrigg | 5.25 | M |
| 6 | Askrigg to Gunnerside | 6.00 | M |
| 7 | Gunnerside to Keld | 5.25 | M |
| 8 | Keld to Sleightholme Farm | 8.25 | M |
| 9 | Sleightholme Farm to West Stoney Keld | 5.75 | M |
| 10 | West Stoney Keld to High Birk Hatt | 5.00 | M |
| 11 | High Birk Hatt to Middleton-in-Teesdale | 5.75 | M |
| 12 | Middleton-in-Teesdale to Forest-in-Teesdale | 8.75 | M |
| 13 | Forest-in-Teesdale to Westgate | 7.00 | M |
| 14 | Westgate to Rookhope | 4.75 | M |
| 15 | Rookhope to Blanchland | 6.00 | M |
| 16 | Blanchland to Pethfoot Bridge | 7.75 | M |
| 17 | Pethfoot Bridge to Planetrees | 7.75 | M |
| 18 | Planetrees to Coesike Turret | 9.50 | M |
| 19 | Coesike Turret to Peel Crags | 5.00 | M |
| 20 | Peel Crags to Greenhead | 7.00 | M |
| 21 | Greenhead to Lambley | 6.75 | M |
| 22 | Lambley to Harbut | 8.75 | M |
| 23 | Harbut to Garrigill | 5.50 | M |
| 24 | Garrigill to Kirkland | 10.25 | M |
| 25 | Kirkland to Dufton | 6.50 | M |
| 26 | Dufton to Great Ormside | 6.50 | M |
| 27 | Great Ormside to Church Brough | 8.00 | M |
| 28 | Church Brough to Kirkby Stephen | 5.75 | M |
| 29 | Kirkby Stephen to Thrang Bridge | 6.25 | M |
| 30 | Thrang Bridge to Garsdale | 5.75 | M |
| 31 | Garsdale to Murthwaite | 7.00 | M |
| 32 | Murthwaite to Sedbergh | 7.00 | M |
| 33 | Sedbergh to Mill Bridge | 6.75 | M |
| 34 | Mill Bridge to Ingleton | 11.00 | M |
| 35 | Ingleton to Clapham | 7.75 | M |
| 36 | Clapham to Settle | 6.50 | M |
