Held on April 30/May 1, 2005 Thorne, South Yorkshire

Organised by The Humberhead Levels Green Tourism Forum in association with
English Nature, the Long Distance Walkers' Association and Leukaemia Research.

MOORS WILDERNESS ATTRACTS BUT COMMUNITY SUPPORT GIVES PEATLANDS WAY 50 ITS CHARACTER

The Peatlands Way, a 50-mile challenge walk over the Thorne, Goole and Hatfield peat moors, the Isle of Axholme and the fringe of the South Yorkshire coalfield, is almost certain to become an annual event after attracting long distance walkers from all parts of the country over the Bank Holiday weekend

The 70-plus starters included some walking shorter distances in support of Leukaemia Research but the "core" entry of more than 50 long distance walkers and a handful of runners completed the circuit in times ranging from nine to just over 18 hours.

Thorne Moorends town clerk Ian Harrison who, as secretary of the Humberhead Levels Green Tourism Forum, is the event organiser said: "Like the weekend trial with two separate walks last year the community support was outstanding. The Forum's objective is to attract visitors to the Humberhead Levels so we took the advice of the Long Distance Walkers' Association members who entered last year and made it a straight 50, concentrating our publicity on LDWA members. We were rewarded with entries from what were plainly very experienced walkers who were complimentary about the route and the support and said it could become a popular qualifier for the 100, the big event of the walkers' year at the end of May."

The route from Thorne took in Crowle, Belton, Epworth, Haxey, Wroot, Hatfield Woodhouse, Stainforth and Fishlake. Checkpoints included parish halls, churches and farmhouses with refreshments ranging from tea and biscuits, through soups and pasta to highly popular pie and peas at the finish in TS Gambia, the Thorne Sea Cadet HQ.

John Davis of the East Yorkshire Group of the LDWA, who helped develop the route, said: "'The wilderness beauty of the moors will always be the big attraction of this walk but it is undoubtedly the community involvement that will give it a unique character. It is unusual enough to arrive at your first checkpoint and find the Town Mayor in chain of office there to clip your tally and check you in, as did Coun. John Smith at Crowle. But then, approaching midnight, you come off the bank of the River Don at Fishlake and there, manning the final checkpoint is the Mayor of Thorne, Coun Richard Walker - the Mayor who had started you off at eight o'clock that morning. There isn't another walk like it."