MarchesGroup(LDWA)
Winter 2011-12
We are the Local Group of the National Long Distance Walkers Association(LDWA). Our members belong to the LDWA who live along the Welsh Marches and in the English Counties of Shropshire and Herefordshire.
Our group was founded in 1978 and we are proud of our history of having organised four "hundreds" that is the flagship event of the LDWA, these being the Marchesman of 1990, The Shropshire of 1995, the Cant Canolbarth of 2007 and the Housman in May of this year. For a report and photos click in the name.
We have regular social/business meetings in the Three Fishes Pub that is to be found by the side of the A49 in Bayston Hill about 3 miles South of Shrewsbury. We welcome anybody to come along to one of these as we need people to help us organise and oversee our activities.
We do not have social walks as we found these to be poorly attended and when we asked our membership why they replied that, living in Shropshire, they could go for a walk in fine countryside anytime they wanted. However they asked for more challenge walks to be organised as so we have directed our efforts to doing so. Though we have had up to 5 of these in a year we now concentrate our resources on three.
In February, The South Shropshire Circular(details & entry). In September, TheWistanstow Challenge and in December the seasonally themed event on the Saturday preceding Christmas the Marches Mistletoe Meander(MMM). For further details click on the name highlighted in blue. However please note the current information that follows below.
We can have entries exceeding 200 on any of these and therefore we may have to impose a cap to ensure that we do not annoy small rural communities with undue disturbance. Car parking is a particular problem so we encourage car sharing.
One person can handle the planning of an event, the organisation of the route and the receipt of entries but on the day we need bodies on the ground to register walkers, oversee car parking, staff checkpoints and provide a meal service at the Event Centre. If you like a good long challenge walk then seeing one from the vantage point of a marshal will add greatly to your enjoyment of the recreation. And you can still walk the walk by taking part in the Marshals Event held a few weeks before.
For further details of the Group click on email or go to chris1.dawes@virgin.net
Forthcoming Events
The Marches Mistletoe Meander. Mission accomplished. Job done. For the report click here
The AGM. Sunday, 5 February at 10am in the Scout hut of Church Stretton opposite the Church. We have serious business to discuss being no less than the re-structuring of the Group. We our proud of our past performance in organising a series of 4 national Hundreds with our own group 100, the Wenlock Olympian Walk now in a stage of advanced planning. Our reputation is such that for the Housman the entry limit of 500 was exceeded within 10 days of opening for business and the SSC is regularly over subscribed by the preceding November. The problem is that over the last 25 years it is generally the same core of activists who have the inspiration and then the perspiration to organise these events and we are not growing younger. We need new faces and new ideas to ensure the Group continues into what maybe a difficult future. If you hope to do the SSC of 2020 then come to this meeting.
The South Shropshire Circular. Entry for this is now closed and there is no chance of a late entry to fill places freed by cancellations as these have been taken into account in our allocation of places. However we welcome volunteers to staff the event centre and check points and to experience the Event as a marshal is just as interesting and often harder work than walking the Event.
The Wenlock Olympian Walk, 21-22 July. Celebrating the 126th Event of the Wenlock Olympian Games in the year of the Third London Games and the 40th anniversary of the LDWA. Certainly a summer to remember. This event will be staffed and organised entirely from the resources of the Marches Group and its friends. There will be a Marshals' Walk so that helpers will not miss the opportunity to walk the route so we ask everybody interested in this unique event to help us service the Event. For further details click here