FROM YOUR RAMBLERS AREA CHAIRMAN GRAHAM ROTHERY
In Staffordshire Area (which includes the Black Country Boroughs and the Unitary Authority area of Stoke on Trent) we have a unique opportunity within our Area borders to develop and support the very core parts of what the Ramblers is all about.
In Staffordshire there is a diverse and splendid countryside. With the Peak District National Park in the North, Cannock Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and much urban architecture old and new in the industrial heartlands to add to the charm of the Area. Whatever your walking, be it really adventurous back-packing and long day hikes in wild country, shorter more lower level day or half day walks or even shorter still walks to get you active, Staffordshire Ramblers are at the heart of it all.
You will find your Ramblers membership places you into Staffordshire Area, and then either the automatic selection of local Group based on your postcode, or the Group you have chosen. We have 13 local Groups and 2 Hike 20-30 Groups covering the whole Area. Hike Groups are specifically age related up to around 40 years whilst the other local Groups are for all ages and are based in defined locations.
Come and join us for a walk soon, either with your local Group or from any of the thousands of advertised walks local Groups have on offer. You are not restricted to just one Group’s walk programme. The flexibility and friendliness of Ramblers means anyone can walk with any Group regardless of where you live, who you are aligned to or how old you are! Our combined Area Walk programme will open the door to many an opportunity (from website or by post). That is the value of a national walking organisation!
Please find a report on the One Step Ramblers first 6 months
One Step Walkers – The First Six Months The Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire 40’s Waling Group
Having been set up and conceived as a new group during the spring and summer months of 2010 – a lot of hard work was done by the founding committee re setting up a website and an initial walks programme of two walks per month – a longer full day Saturday walk and a shorter half day Sunday afternoon walk, plus regular monthly pub meets alternating between Derby, Nottingham and Lichfield.
The founding committee and four others set off on the first walk on Saturday 13th November 2010 at Monsal Head, Derbyshire. Some two months later almost double this number attended a joint Boxing Day walk with Staffordshire Walkers 20’s and 30’s Group. After which the first few weekends away were then booked to locations such as Ludlow, Buttermere and Whitby – the plan being to alternate between B&B and YHA style weekends, something to suit all tastes and budgets.
Whilst the end of January saw over twenty walkers out on a One Step walk for the first time. Following on from these early successes a fuller walks programme covering the remainder of 2011 with weekly walks was then put together; with no shortage of volunteer walk leaders either!
Roll on a month to the end of March and the long Saturday walks have regularly been attracting twenty five plus walkers on a regular basis. Whilst the first two One Step weekends away to Whitby and Buttermere also sold out rather fast as well.
The committee has recently expanded to eight members, and monthly group meals starting in May have now been added to our social programme. Oh and whilst all this has been going on we expect to and the spring with around thirty members. Many of these being lapsed or first time Ramblers members, walks predominantly taking place in the Peak District have been attracting walkers from afar a field as Coventry, Lincoln and Sutton Coldfield.
As if this wasn’t enough to get us going we are now about to launch joint weekends away for later in the summer and autumn with the Hampshire and Sheffield 40’s Walking Groups. To give you a flavour of what the group is about we have sent you all a postcard from our first weekend away in Ludlow in early April. Full details of this new group can be found at www.onestepwalkers.co.uk
Andy Rogers
Chair, One Step Walkers
End of the Report