I have been asked today to say a few words about Ralph’s connection with Environment Bromley (Enbro), and about the Saturday walks which Ralph organised for many years.
I first met Ralph in 2007 when he led a series of public walks on Saturdays following the railway line from Charing Cross to the sea at Hastings. This was very attractive for us because we were both at work all week, and the walks attracted a slightly younger group of those at work as well as members of the public who did not belong to Enbro. Ralph also repeated each stage so everyone could catch up if they missed a week, and he gave us all a certificate at the end signed by Ralph as Route originator and walks leader. I still have my certificate pinned up on the wall by my computer. At the end in Hastings we had a painful paddle in the sea and went out for a splendid fish and chip supper. A celebratory meal at the end of each summer’s walks became an annual event.
Ralph was already 74 years old at that time but he was very fit, and walked with a long loping stride which ate up the miles without seeming to tire him at all. He kept us all together and, if anyone got too far ahead, he would neglect to call out as they missed a turn and make them walk back to re-join us. He always had his very heavy camera round his neck and we had a ritual of the group photograph at the beginning, and at important spots on the route, and plenty of pictures of scenery along the way.
At the end of the summer Ralph invited us all round to his house for a slide show, and he very kindly laid out food and drink for the evening. He also showed us slides of the next year’s walk, along the Medway, and this was when we realised how busy Ralph had been all summer, planning for the next year, devising a new route, walking it, revising, photographing, drawing detailed maps for the path and setting the maps on the page with text. He would prepare a sheet for each stage of the walk and a pack of sheets for the whole summer. He would get about 30 or 40 photocopies of the pack and sell them to participants to cover his costs. He always had half a dozen of these packs with him in case a new walker wanted one. I lifted his rucksack once or twice and it was really very heavy. He would try to sell the pack to any passing strangers we met on the route, fellow walkers or perhaps a local homeowner leaning over the fence as we went past.
Ralph also planned transport meticulously, and gauged the right speed for the walk for 5 or 6 hours so that we reached the end point just as the local bus, perhaps the only one for two hours, came round the corner. We were all so impressed by this and we joked that he had power over buses and perhaps a connection upstairs to help with this.
Walking is thirsty work and many of us would head for the pub at the end of the day. Ralph would not join us and sometimes he would hurry us past a pub as we looked longingly inside. But I remember once at the Red Lion in the Ashdown Forest buying him a pot of tea which Ralph enjoyed sitting in the pub garden. I think he mellowed towards pubs just a little after that.
Over the years this pattern of walks continued. Ralph would often go the extra mile and organise a treat for us. At Sheerness we were met by Mummers, at St Marks’s he arranged for us to go up the Tower to the roof from where we could see St Paul’s Cathedral, at Peacehaven the Mayor came out to greet us, at St Peter’s Hambleton we had a delightful tea. Our fame was assured when a group photo and a walk report appeared in the Hastings Gazette.
Ralph eventually went digital with his photographs and used a PC to prepare his slide shows. I remember one year he came round to our house to select the best photos for the year from the ones the walkers had taken. At the end of the evening every photo which made the final cut was by him! He started to experiment with putting music to his presentations, and really enjoyed showing them to us. Walkers helped Ralph with all the new technology, even putting the pictures onto a DVD for a couple of years. Ralph would talk to the walkers for hours on the phone to discuss why some feature didn’t seem to work on his computer.
Further long-distance footpaths followed – the North Downs Way, the Ravensbourne and its tributaries, Greenwich meridian, High Weald. The meridian walk was quite hair raising at times as Ralph would want to photograph us holding a long rope stretched along the line of zero longitude. Sometimes this meant us strung out across a busy road as he slowly adjusted his focus and the cars whizzed past.
A well as his Saturday walks, Ralph organised several series of local walks for Enbro, including Snowcat, Blue Plaque, walks for the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and some bus walks.
By the start of the Greensand Way, Ralph’s illness was beginning to affect him, and he would sometimes stop at lunchtime and let us finish on our own. This was also the year of Ralph’s 80th birthday, and he planned a route of 80 furlongs for us all to do. He completed most of the walk himself, and then returned to this Church to welcome us all to his Birthday party of tea and cake. Later there was a supper too, and Ralph regaled us all with tales of his walks as a young man, including his time in Crete. He auctioned off much of his walking gear including his ice pick which a walker enjoyed taking home on the bus. Ralph told us that for his 30th birthday he had led a walk of 30 miles, so we were grateful we’d got away with only 80 furlongs.
In the next couple of years we did further long-distance walks devised by Ralph, Westhaven and SLOOP, and also various Blue Plaque walks. We all took turns at leading one or two stages. This helped to introduce new walk leaders into Enbro, as many of us had not done this before, and the numbers joining in the walks continued to grow. Then in 2016 we repeated Ralph’s 2006 walk, Darenth days. One of the walkers stepped in to co-ordinate and update the pack, and ensure that there was a leader for each stage. There was so much work involved in organising a repeat of an existing walk that we marvelled afresh at how much Ralph had done originating the series. Ralph still kept in touch, and his carer would drive him to meet us at lunchtime to see how many of us had turned up, and how we were managing without him. The walker also arranged a repeat of the Hastings line walk, then handed the baton to one of the other walkers who has organised the Pilgrim’s Way. Ralph would keep an eagle eye on who was leading each stage and ring up the second we got home to interrogate us about how it went. It was lovely to see how his interest and engagement with these walks continued for so long when he was bed-bound. He kept thinking ahead and last year suggested we repeat his Medway Meanderings which we are planning to do next year.
Ralph was very proud of his long-distance walks and I think he would be very pleased to see so many of his Saturday walkers here today. We finished the Pilgrim’s Way last Saturday and thought about Ralph when we reached Canterbury Cathedral and received a blessing from Canon Emma Pennington. A second group will reach Canterbury tomorrow and Ralph would have been very content that so many of us completed the Pilgrimage.
[some small edits to maintain confidentiality]
Ralph Palfrey's Walks 