The Salopian - Winter 2021

SCHOOL NEWS
27
north across the Mynd towards Pole Cottage and beyond.
Colleagues have long since teased me about the ‘nonpermanent’
markings used in previous walks that remained
for years as large arrows in the road across the Mynd. The
National Trust had remarked upon it too, but I was glad that
some ten years of weathering seems now to have finally
removed those over-large arrows that a determined former
colleague had sprayed on the road.
The route now drops down towards
the lunch point at Ratlinghope, some
15 kilometres in and marking the halfway
point. Brow Farm is run by Mr
John Sankey, who has been a great
support to the School over the years,
as he allows us to use his campsite
field as a walk-through lunch point.
This proved a super place to hear
the happy babble of walkers as they
munched on KH burgers. By now
the sun was shining, the jazz band
were providing a brilliant background
and our walkers were cheered into
the campsite by an amazingly happy
bunch of around a dozen pupils (‘off
changes’) greeting them at the gate.
My memory of this stage in the day is one of convivial
chat and a real sense of togetherness and fun. One of our
aims in planning was to allow walkers to mingle and enjoy
conversations with people they would not normally mix with.
In the arrangements for setting off from School to begin the
walk, we did not stipulate year group or House coaches, and
pupils could board any available coach. Thus our long trail
of walkers were shaken out at the drop-off point in a suitably
random order.
Naturally we had to plan for many eventualities: medical
issues; poor weather; pupils or staff somehow going off
route; as well as a host of other potential difficulties. I
was extremely lucky in this respect to have around 60
members of the Common Room who were prepared to
man checkpoints, drive vans, deliver snacks, staff first aid
points or just be in reserve. Amazingly, the number of staff
wishing to walk worked out ideally too, so every member
of the teaching staff was involved in one way or another.
From the lunch point, the walkers tackle the second decent
ascent, this time up to the Stiperstones ridge, before turning
northwards and taking a route down past Snailbeach,
Eastridge Woods to the finish point at Pontesbury. The first
people over this part of the route were some of our faster
runners/walkers, and fortunately we got round the problem
encountered in previous years when RSSH members arrived
at the lunch point before the lunch had been delivered!
By the time most walkers were on the Stiperstones, the
weather had settled into what became a glorious day, with
far-reaching views towards Cadr Idris on the Welsh coast. The
Stiperstones provide difficult going underfoot and walkers
have to pick their way between the lumpy stones that litter
the path. By this stage, everyone was no doubt beginning
to feel the distance (we were around 23 kilometres in now)
and the inevitable ‘how far to go’ questions were fired at the
staff on checkpoints. I had provided an accurate countdown
distance to each checkpoint so there should be no reason
why anyone was given a distance that was wrong. To be told
‘only 5k to go’ then to be given a larger number at the next
checkpoint must be most frustrating! (This has unfortunately
happened in the past.)
I count myself as very lucky. Not many staff are put into a
position where they can deliver such a positive experience
to so many people. Luck has been on my side where the
weather has been concerned; placing the walk in late
September seems to have paid off for the last few years. For
me, it is so satisfying to create a situation that allows pupils,
staff and other members of the Salopian community to share
the joys of walking together across such a landscape. My
overriding memory of the day was happy walkers sharing
stories over their end of walk ice cream.
Stuart Cowper and Andrew Murray did a fine job with
coordinating the fundraising. I had some initial concerns
that we would come nowhere near the previous amounts
raised for the Shewsy, but I have happily been proved
wrong there. At the time of going to print, a pleasing
£78,254 had been raised.