Exhibition celebrates 60 years of the Pennine Way
A creative response to a famous trail
The Pennine Way is 60 years old – or it was, to be absolutely precise, on April 24. It would be older if the long campaign for such a trail by journalist and inveterate rambler Tom Stephenson hadn’t borne fruit earlier.
He was 72 when it was officially opened on that day in 1965 and the first walkers embarked on its 268-mile length, from Edale in the Derbyshire Peak District to Kirk Yetholm, just over the border in Scotland.
Many thousands of people have walked it since – or run it (the record for a man is just over two days and 10 hours, set by American John Kelly in May 2021; for a woman, it’s three days and 46 minutes, achieved by British runner Anna Troup in August of that same year).
Who knows how many indelible memories it has generated? Or blisters and midge bites it has inflicted, for that matter?
But one way to experience it without actually having to pull on your boots (or running shoes) is to catch the travelling anniversary exhibition which has just arrived at Bowlees Visitor Centre, in Upper Teesdale, on the North Pennines stretch of the trail.
A Trail of Inspiration: the Pennine Way at 60 features the work of artists, musicians, videographers, writers and poets who have been inspired by their experiences along the route.
Among the latter is Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, who in 2012 broke with convention by walking it ‘back to front’ because he reckoned it would be “downhill all the way”.
He gave poetry readings as he went and wrote a book about it, Walking Home, in which he recorded the pleasure and the pain.
Among other contributors to the exhibition are Anita Sethi (writer), Sally Zaranko (printmaker and textile artist), Fredi Chohan (walker and adventurer), Jon Harrison (film-maker), Kat Wheatley (artist), Andrew Cannon (poet, photographer) and Kevin Threlfall (painter).
There is also a collage featuring 300 Pennine Way images sent in by members of the public.
One exhibitor is Simon Wilson, programme manager for business and engagement with the North Pennines National Landscape team, who looks after the 73 miles of the Pennine Way that fall within the North Pennines.
Also an artist, he says: “My earliest excursions onto the trail were as a child from Edale, and more recently in the North Pennines.
“I have painted and sketched many times along the trail. To step onto the Pennine Way is to share an experience with others, an experience that brings us closer to nature.”
Chris Woodley-Stewart, director of the North Pennines National Landscape team, says: “It’s a pleasure to be bringing this exhibition to Bowlees, right next to a stretch of the Pennine Way which will be familiar to so many people.
“Walking from Bowless Visitor Centre brings you very quickly to the Wynch Bridge at Low Force and then straight onto the Pennine Way.
“Follow the trail for a couple of miles and you’re at High Force, one of the most spectacular sights on the trail.
“The North Pennines has some of the most memorable stretches of this wonderful walking route
“We hope that the exhibition inspires more people to at least walk a short stretch of it, if not the full route.”
The exhibition can be seen at the Bowlees Visitor Centre until August 31 (open daily, 10am to 5pm) and then at The Sill, at Once Brewed, near Hadrian’s Wall, from September 12 to November 2.