NORTH WEST KENT GROUP OF THE RAMBLERS NEWSLETTER AND WALK PROGRAMME NO. 168

February - May 2019 Website: www.nwkramblers.btck.co.uk

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Map and Compass Course Our annual Map & Compass course will take place on Saturday, 27th April from 9:45 am. This will be held at the Grasshopper on the Green in picturesque Westerham Village. The afternoon includes a walk of 3.5 miles on which those attending will be able to practice what they have learned during the morning. The course has taken place annually since 2011 and over 100 people have attended. So do come along and do bear in mind that all walking clubs need members who have the skills necessary to lead walks. All those coming discover that it's not rocket science, and actually tremendous fun. Interested? Then contact Chris Baker to get your name on the list! (tel: 01322 341722 or email chrisw.baker@ntlworld.com). There is a small charge of £3 to cover costs. Joint walk with Sevenoaks Group Following the very successful joint walk with Sevenoaks led recently by Carole Flowerday we are looking forward to another joint walk on 29th May led, this time, led by Terry Coen from the Sevenoaks Group. See the programme for more details. Kent Ramblers AGM The Tunbridge Wells Group will be hosting Kent Area’s AGM on Saturday, 2nd February, 2019 in St Andrews Church Hall, Maidstone Road, Paddock Wood, Tonbridge TN12 6DZ. The AGM starts at 10.30 with tea and coffee served from 10 a.m. Lunch will be provided at 12.30 followed by an optional walk of 4.5 miles which will finish at 15.30. It would be nice to have a good representation from North West Kent. PICNIC 2019 – This year’s picnic will be held at Cudham Shaws on Wednesday 5 June. Please put the date in your diary. More details in the next newsletter and programme. G

Dear friends, May I wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year during which you can look forward to many more lovely walks in our spring programme. If you have not joined one of our group walks before why not give it a try? If you are not sure what will suit you, why not start with a short walk and see how it goes? Or give the leader a ring. Walking with a group involves no planning or preparation on your part: just turn up and enjoy the outdoors with friendly, like-minded men and women. The leader will do the rest! The pub lunch is

optional. Some people prefer to bring sandwiches. Whatever your preference, you will be very welcome indeed. May I also thank our leaders for the 146 walks you led over the past year. You have done a great job leading a total of 1462 walkers a distance of 12,625 miles. Quite an achievement! And what pleasure you have given us. Thank you. It is my pleasure to welcome the following new members to the Group: Annmarie Park, Janet Price and Sarah Fisk Stuart

Annual General Meeting At the AGM, the following were elected to the committee: Chairman Stuart Booth Vice Chairman Jack Yan Secretary Janet Springall Membership Secretary Richard Wilkes Treasurer Mike Hickie Committee members: Chris Baker, Maureen Carroll, Carole Flowerday, Bob Tolson, Paul Watson Reg Emsden was reappointed honorary auditor. The talk Petra Cox, Crossness Engine Trust’s Education and Outreach Officer, gave a fascinating presentation on the Crossness Pumping station past, present and future. Crossness, was opened in 1865 in, what was then, rural Erith. It was a magnificent feat of engineering that enabled the effluent from London’s vast network of sewers to be

discharged into the Thames on the ebb tide well away from Londoners’ noses. The station is believed to house the largest cross beam engine in the world and is Grade 1 listed. No longer in use, it is currently undergoing asbestos removal and will re-open to the public in March. Paul Watson (Tel 020 8857 7656) is one of the volunteers assisting with the renovation work. Paul would be happy to speak to anyone wishing to join him. We hope to arrange a visit to the station in our summer programme. A break with tradition Friday evenings in November may not be the best time to hold an AGM so we shall be holding the 2019 AGM at Hurst Community Centre on the afternoon of Tuesday12th November. We hope this change, endorsed by the AGM, will prove more convenient and will enable more members to come along.

SNIPPETSOur Christmas Lunch The Group’s Christmas lunch this year, held at the Darenth Golf Club was attended by 54 members. We were greeted by a room fully decked out for Christmas festivities and the warm and friendly staff. The food was excellent. In fact, the whole day was so good, and by popular demand, we are booked to return next year – so a date for your diary, Thursday 12 December. Check out the photographs on our website. Gates – Two gates have been installed just recently, part-funded by North West Kent using money collected in the memorial fund, as well as the money earned from Ramblers Walking Holidays. The two gates are in the Toys Hill area Pub news Leaders please note that the Neville Bull at Birling has closed. Apparently, the Royal Oak at Crockham Hill is no longer serving meals mid-week, but you may wish to check. The “Rock” at Chiddingstone Hoath finally obtained planning permission for its new kitchen and, reportedly, is serving good food. A compliment indeed! Two ladies, new to us, came by train from Dulwich to join a recent walk starting from Shoreham station. They thoroughly enjoyed the walk and obviously the company too as they left saying we were the friendliest group they had ever walked with! SomeofourwalkersbravedthechillforaSundaywalkinJanuary.TheysetofffromEltham,butwheredidtheytakethisphoto?(Clue:lookattheseat).

….andfinally,forup-to-datenews:-NWKwebsite:www.nwkramblers.btck.co.uk/RAMBLERS’website–www.ramblers.org.uk/KentArea’swebsite–www.kentramblers.org.ukContributionsforthenewslettertoMikeHickie(mikehickie48@gmail.com)

What happens to the forms we complete with names of those on a walk?..... At the AGM, Jack Yan presented some statistics about the walks programme for the previous year based on these forms. We offered a fantastic total of 146 walks during the year and between us all we walked a total of 12625 miles. WOW! Many thanks to our amazing walk leaders who made it possible to organise this impressive walking programme. We had 29 different leaders offering walks during the year, (three offered more than 10 each)…,.but we could do with some more so that we can continue to offer this great programme. Most of these walks, 121, took place on a Wednesday but 25 were at the weekend. We are keen to promote the weekend programme, recognising that some people that want to walk with us have difficulty making a Wednesday. Altogether there were over 1400 attendances, mainly from North West Kent, as you would expect, but we welcomed members from other groups (250 attendances) with the largest numbers coming from Sevenoaks, Blackheath and Bromley. Some learn about the walks because they receive the programme from us by email but others picked up the details from the Ramblers website (see “A compliment indeed” above). Thanks go to Jack for the figures.

New format for the walks programme. You will see that format of the programme has changed! We are moving to a different production system based on Excel (rather than Word). This move will facilitate easier loading of our programme onto Ramblers national website which, under the old system, was a laborious task. Walk leaders are being encouraged to enter details of their walks onto an Excel spreadsheet and this will feed directly into the Ramblers website. We will continue to use the same process as before for coordinating walks. The names of the coordinators are listed on the back of the programme. Once they have all the details of the walks for the next programme, they send these to Jack Yan who then loads them on to the website as well as sending them out as part of the package to members receiving the programme by email. Interested in leading a walk? Speak to a current leader or committee member. You will be made most welcome and given any support you require to get your walk sorted. Group name. At Area Council and, later, at a meeting with Ramblers HQ staff, the question was raised of whether the term “Ramblers” conveyed the right image for groups wanting to widen their appeal. HQ staff confirmed that groups could call themselves whatever they like as long as they acknowledge they are part of Ramblers. We would welcome suggestions for something catchy and attractive that identifies us with our catchment area and with walking in Kent. Footpath problems Any footpath problems in Kent should be reported to Richard Wilkes and any in the London Borough of Bexley to Maureen Carroll, while accidents and incidents should be reported to Mike Hickie. Paul Watson is the vegetation clearance coordinator – please give him a ring if you fancy joining the team.