Champions of Lancashire writer Alfred Wainwright celebrate new walk's special status

The Wainwright Society has campaigned to get the Coast to Coast Walk classed as a National Trail, to get a higher profile and more cash to maintain it. After years of work led by Natural England and £5.5million in investment, the route’s new status has been celebrated in recent days.

Born in 1907, Ribble Valley’s Alfred Wainwright spent his first 34 years in Blackburn. He worked at Blackburn Town Hall from 1920 and 1941 and co-founded the Blackburn Rovers Supporters Club. East Lancashire shaped his life in many ways, including its mill towns and surrounding hills. But after moving to Kendal, Wainwright later found fame with his Lakeland ‘pictorial guides’, which he described as ‘love-letters to the fells’.

Today, Clitheroe based Nick Burton is a leading member of The Wainwright Society and edits its magazine, Footsteps. He also leads an annual walk around Wainwright’s Blackburn to celebrate the author’s birthday every January. He is also active in other Lancashire walk projects including Pendle Radicals and the Two Toms Trail.

Speaking about the Coast to Coast Path’s new status, Nick said: “Wainwright created this popular route more than half a century ago, in his classic 1973 guidebook, A Coast to Coast Walk. The 190-mile trail crosses northern England, from St Bees on the Irish Sea coast to Robin Hood’s Bay on the North Sea coast, passing through three national parks of the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors.

“The Wainwright Society has long had the ambition to see the walk designated as a National Trail. The suggestion was first mooted in 2006 and then officially proposed in 2007, the centenary of Wainwright’s birth. In 2013, members walked individual sections to survey it and raised money for signs along the route. In 2016, they supported MP Rishi Sunak’s campaign to have it classed as a National Trail, which gained government approval in 2022.

“Since then, the society has taken part in a three-year upgrade, led by Natural England, with the path now being the UK’s newest National Trail. It will receive annual funding to keep it excellent condition for generations to come.”

Nick added: “Wainwright was clearly proud of creating this route. And as an avid reader of maps, he would be delighted that his Coast to Coast Walk will now be marked on maps of the Ordnance Survey, an organisation he admired.”

Society members have attended three celebrations in each national park crossed by the route – at Ennerdale, Reeth and Robin Hood’s Bay. In Reeth, society member Derek Cockell was presented with a Coast to Coast National Trail signpost by former prime minister Rishi Sunak, who is the local MP.

The Wainwright Society was founded in 2002 to keep alive the fell-walking traditions promoted by Alfred Wainwright’s books and to keep faith with his vision of introducing a wider audience to fell-walking and caring for the hills.