By Ross Brewster

Published at 11:44, Thursday, 07 August 2008

A COUPLE from Rosgill near Penrith plan to follow in the footsteps of a Lake District legend next month to mark a significant anniversary.

Legend: Alfred Wainwright

September 24 is an important date for Wainwright devotees and David and Heather Pitt plan to mark it in true AW fashion – by going for a walk.

It will be 70 years to the day since Alfred Wainwright, as a young man in his early 30s, left Blackburn and headed to Settle for a two-week walking holiday he had devised. His intention was to walk up the eastern side of the northern Pennines as far as the Roman Wall at Hexham, follow the wall westwards for about 40 miles and then return down the western side of the Pennines to Settle.

When he got back to Blackburn he wrote his recollections of the walk, then put it away in a drawer where it lay untouched for nearly 50 years. That is until the man who was to become the Lake District’s most celebrated guide book writer, was reminded of this while working on the Pennine Way book for Michael Joseph in the mid 1980s. Wainwright Society spokesman John Burland said: “He showed this to Jenny Dereham, the editor at Michael Joseph, who then decided to publish.”

On Wednesday September 24, David and Heather Pitt, two Wainwright Society members, will be walking the first part of the ‘Pennine Journey’ from Settle to Horton in Ribblesdale to celebrate the actual 70th anniversary.

Anyone wishing to join them on this walk should contact David at Latrigg, Rosgill, Penrith CA10 2QX, email pathfinders@onetel.com or call 01931 716861.

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk