eNewsletter

Sent by email to our members during February 2010

Dear Member,

Winter may still be with us but volunteers at the Chiltern Society are busy making plans for a number of events this year. We hope that you will take part, invite friends to come along or even volunteer to play a part in the Chiltern Way Walking Festival or the launch of the Chiltern Cycleway.

1. Chiltern Way 10th Anniversary and Walking Festival – come and walk!

Please help the Society by leading a walk for this Walking Festival

Established by the Chiltern Society in 2000, in the last ten years the Chiltern Way has become one of England’s most popular long distance footpaths because, as you know, it’s journey round the Chilterns takes walkers through outstandingly beautiful and varied scenery. It also passes through the most delightful of typically English villages with a variety of visitor attractions.

We are proud of this achievement and want as many people as possible to enjoy these stunning walks. A team of volunteers is putting together a programme of Chiltern Way walks for this anniversary year; we are planning a range of routes from short, gentle two or three mile strolls to more strenuous perhaps ten or fifteen mile hikes. Some of the walks will be circular walks and others will be linear walks on the Chiltern Way, with arrangements to share cars to get walkers to and from the start points. Other walks will be themed and we hope these will appeal to families and all age groups, for example a walk to discover the flowers of the Chilterns, or maybe a walk together with a visit to a nearby attraction e.g Chiltern Open Air Museum.

The Chiltern Way Walking Festival will offer walks throughout 2010 but we are particularly keen to have a full programme from 29 May to 13 June, when we hope to offer a walk a day over this 16 day period. These walks will be lead by our volunteers and will be advertised to members and also to the general public to come and join in free of charge. We hope to use the walks to attract more people to join the Society. We are looking for new walk leaders to lead a walk during this period – please come and help the Society in this way.

Would you like to walk the whole of the Chiltern Way this year? You will be pleased to see there are dates set for a series of linear walks on Sundays from May to September – allowing you to complete the whole route in good company. The dates are shown on the programme on the website.

To see the programme, interactive map (have a play on this – great to use to see the parts of the Chiltern Way nearest to your home!), guides to routes and distances please go to About Us > The Chiltern Way

How can you help?

Bring friends on a Chiltern Way walk this year – keep checking the website, more walks will be added as volunteer walk leaders come forward

Please volunteer to lead a Chiltern Way walk – we particularly need volunteers to lead a short walk (2-5 miles) we can even help you plan a route! You do not have to have any experience of leading walks – we welcome new volunteers to get involved – please contact Geoff Wiggett if you can help 01442 875906 or email volunteer@chilternsociety.org.uk

2. New – The Chilterns Cycleway – like the Chiltern Way but for bikes!

The Chilterns Cycleway is a 170 mile (274 km) circular route in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, linking attractions, market towns and places of interest. The route is on-road, mostly on quiet lanes, and will be clearly signposted. This project has been set up by the Chiltern Conservation Board, Chiltern Society and Cycle Touring Club. Further details please go to About Us > The Chiltern Cycleway

Calling all cyclists ! – The Chilterns Cycleway will be launched on Friday 18th June, 2010. Plans for the event are still underway but will include a Cycle Relay, where teams are spaced around the route to start off at the same time and to ride a section of the route. In this way the whole route will have been ridden within a couple of hours.

This will not be a race but a chance to enjoy the scenery along the route. If you would like to take part please put this date in your diary now and contact

Roger Lerry rogertlerry@talktalk.net for details. A number of Chiltern cycle clubs will be taking part. There will also be a series of ‘taster rides’ on offer in the week following the launch of the Chilterns Cycleway. These will be led by volunteers and encourage the public (particularly less confident cyclists) to try out a section of the route.

3. Vacancies for volunteers

Chairperson for the Chiltern Society Planning Group

Volunteer Team Leaders – working with schools – conservation work parties – Wycombe Area

For more details about these important roles, please go to Support > Volunteer

4. News from the Chiltern Society PhotoGroup

The Chiltern Society PhotoGroup’s Online Exhibition 2010 is now open on http://chilternphoto.org.uk/introduction/exhibition_2010/index.htm. CS members can browse through a total of 178 photographs taken recently by Society members, in the Chilterns and elsewhere. The exhibition is not competitive, so there are no winners, but the PhotoGroup welcomes comments about any of the photos for possible online publication. Please email them to the ChilternPhotos Editor, Quiller Barrett: webphotos@chilternphoto.org.uk.

The recently cancelled PhotoGroup meeting has been rescheduled and it will be held on Saturday 6 February, 10.30 am in the Amersham Community Centre, click here for a map. Free parking is available at weekends in the nearby Council Offices car park to the south of the Centre on the south side of King George V Road. John Fitzgerald will be showing his pictures of Cuba at this meeting

5. Woodland Archaeology workshops Pigotts Wood, near High Wycombe, Bucks,

Friday 5th March or Saturday 6th March. These have proved popular in previous years and places are limited to a maximum of 16 each day.

Chilterns Woodland Conference, Green Park, Aston Clinton on Friday 12th March, which will include a review of the 4 Years work of our Special Trees and Woods Project .

For both events please contact John Morris, Director, Chiltern Woodlands Project

Tel 01844 355503 see www.chilternsaonb.org/woodlandweb

6. Look out for the Ewelme watercress beds on TV

‘Grow your own Drugs’ – the camara crews from this BBC 2 programme have visited Ewelme to record the Chiltern Society volunteers there and to learn more about the growing of watercress – we don’t know the exact date but it is due to be screened on a Tuesday evening in February – 7.30pm BBC2

Jenny Gilmore

Director

The Chiltern Society, White Hill Centre, White Hill, Chesham, Bucks HP5 1AG
Tel. 01494 771250
Registered charity 1085163
The Chiltern Society is a registered charity which relies on membership subscriptions and gifts in wills. Please support our work to care for the Chilterns.