Date: January 2025
The 10th anniversary of Bedwyn Footpaths Group was celebrated by over 40 members at The Three Tuns. We enjoyed a delicious curry followed by a wonderful footpath ‘fingerpost’ shaped cake, kindly baked and iced by my daughters. Founder member, Tesher Fitzpatrick returned to Bedwyn to celebrate with us and to cut the cake, assisted by Elise Younger who was present on our first walk in January 2015.
We were joined for a celebratory drink by Susie Brew from Pewsey Community Area Partnership, Richard Charles, councillor Stuart Wheeler and Cllr JP Sheerin, all of whom have supported our group in one way or another over the years.
Tesher and I founded the group in January 2015 and since then the member’s list has grown considerably from a modest group of 15 residents to well over 100 members from the Bedwyns and surrounding area. We’ve held at least one group walk every month for the last 10 years, with the exception of during the pandemic when group walks were not permitted for some months. People join the group to come on our sociable monthly walks, others like to use our route suggestions to walk independently, and some like to just follow and support our activities. Very many thanks to all of you.
The group began from a chance encounter in the street between myself and Tesher (then parish clerk), a mutual grumble about the state of the paths, and an advert in Parish News to see if anyone else was interested in forming a footpaths group – luckily they were and it all grew from there!
When not walking, the volunteers are out checking routes, producing maps & leaflets, clearing and strimming paths, repairing and restoring waymarkers, handling the finance, applying for grants, maintaining the website, litter picking and more. Huge thanks to all the volunteers but a special mention to Jennie Collins, John Walley, Peter Angus, Rex Sandbach, Sylvia Wyatt, and Kevin McGowan (who comes all the way from Ludgershall to support us), and not forgetting, husband Dave. All of whom never (well, rarely!) refuse my requests for assistance with one thing or another.
I’d also like to thank everyone for the bouquets of flowers, which were so kindly presented to me at the celebration evening, with a card and framed photo of the group taken on our well attended anniversary walk.
I’ve many fond memories of having fun out and about with this lovely group. Amongst our achievements, and some of the highlights for me, would be clearing and reopening a holloway path that had been blocked for almost 30 years, replacing all the stiles in Great Bedwyn parish with gates, restoring old destination signs (in our own unique way!) and producing our set of 10 walk leaflets.
The health and happiness benefits of walking and volunteering are well documented so here’s to many more years of Bedwyn Footpaths Group, appreciating and caring for the peaceful paths that wend their way through the countryside. It costs nothing to join our group, just send an email to me, Judy Haynes, at bedwynfootpathsgroup@gmail.com or take a look through the pages of this website for our walk suggestions.