THE HISTORY OF BWOAS
I've had a wonderful time looking back through old photographs in order to compile a page to celebrate the history of BWOAS so far. There are so many treasured memories of different walks and camping trips, all spent in truly the best company.
I hope that browsers will enjoy reading through the story and looking at the various images.
What started as a few friends wanting to improve our lifestyle and explore the outdoors has snowballed out of control into a huge collective of individuals or all ages and from all walks of life. BWOAS is such an important entity in the local community and has touched many people's lives.
Thank you to each and every person who has been involved with the group since the conception in 2011 until present day. Here's a "CHEERS" to all of you and, of course, to absent friends who are pictured.
A big "mover and shaker" in the group was Ste Carter and his beloved Manchester Terrier, Lil, who were both such an integral part of BWOAS for many years and are sadly missed. We shared so many amazing adventures together and participants from those years will be able to laugh about all the antics that went on.
Here's to the next stage of Bolton Walking and Outdoors Appreciation Society!
COLIN - BWOAS Committee Chairperson and Founding Member.
2011 - THE CONCEPTION
Essentially, casual dog walks, a trip to the mountains and a charity walk led to the creation of the Bolton walking group. Between myself and co-founder members Garry Sands, Marc Powell "Rhino", "Big" Danny Garthwright and Chris Lever "Bungle", there was a shared love of adventure and the outdoors and often walked the hills and woodlands around Bolton chatting and finding respite away from our busy, chaotic lives.
In March 2011, we came together to climb Ben Nevis, the UK's highest peak. This was my personal second attempt at the mountain, after being beaten by the weather a few years previous. The trip was great fun and we managed to get lots of enjoyment from walking in the area but "Neverest" was not to be on this occasion. Which taught us all a lesson - start smaller and work up to the big stuff. And so we started to visit the Lake District and Peak District together, as well as walking in the West Pennine Moors of an evening several times a week. We couldn't get enough!
At the time, I was heavily involved in the music scene. Playing in three different bands, managing events and running a popular jam session in Bolton town centre. A mutual friend Ryan Walsh had approached myself and others at the Alma Inn to ask about organising a charity gig to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Care and Manchester Children's Hospital after his daughter, Jade, was born with a rare form of Leukemia and was successfully treated. The lightbulb "pinged" and as well as helping out with the music event, myself and the other founders organised a charity walk from the Barnstormers pub in Horwich to the legendary Strawbury Duck in Edgworth - a venue we still frequent regularly.
The walk was an immense success, attracting over fifty people from around the Bolton area. Aside from raising around £1.5k for both charities, it generated a huge interest from the local community and really threw petrol onto the flames of our idea of starting a walking group. We then went on to organise a second charity walk for April 2012, which attracted an even larger crowd. The demand was there, and it was evident that others shared our love of getting out in the hills for a bit of exercise and have a mental reset from all the stress and aggro of life. BWOAS was born!
2012 - THE WALKING GROUP BECOMES ESTABLISHED
All of a sudden, we were off up and down the motorway to climb peaks like Helvellyn, Scafell Pike and LOTS of trips to Eryri, or just "North Wales" as we called it then. Many mutual friends and acquaintances began to see all the fun we were having and noticed the positive difference in all of our fitness levels and general outlook on life. Which not only inspired the core members to keep pushing the distances and difficulty, but also attracted people to come and join them.
The local walks also gained huge popularity in a short space of time. Unlike today, there would be a random post on social media in the morning saying something like "Rivvy Pike t'neet, meet at the Crofters 7PM" and people would literally just turn up. Of course, we weren't attracting the numbers we have these days and it was more friends and friends-of-friends so very logistically easy to organise.
At this stage, people around the area were referring to us as "The Bolton Walking Group", but we were also trying to figure out a fitting name for what we were going. We joked about "Bolton Wanderers" for a while, and also the "Bolton Bog Trotters", which was already in use by a cycling club. All of the core members had a love for real ale, most of the walks tended to end at reputable watering holes with fine cask on the pump. We liked the outdoors, walking and ale. So the original name for the group became Bolton Outdoors, Walking and Ale Appreciation Society.
Original walking group logo by Will Aspinall.
It wasn't long before Ste Carter came out on a Sunday walk up to Pendle Hill. A mutual friend introduced "Carter" to a few of us organisers and we instantly hit it off. "I wouldn't mind getting out on a few more of these" he remarked. In hindsight, that was quite understatement and Carter took to the group like a duck to water, helping out with organising the walk, planning routes, running people around in his nippy little MG. And he was never without Lil by his side, who was very much like Ste - friendly, mischievous, full of energy and fun to have around!
2013 to 2018 - BECOMING BIGGER AND BIGGER
Into 2013 and things showed no sign of slowing down. Local walks were taking place almost daily and attracting anywhere from five or six people up to twenty. Trips further afield also became more regular with organisers taking it upon themselves to book hostels, bunkhouses and campsites. This further accentuated the social side of the walking group and real life long friendships began to form between various "regulars".
A big change to the dynamic of the group was when my colleagues Mike and Faye (both now Barnes) joined the fold. We worked together at Booth's Music in Bolton and over a few random conversations about the Lake District, a trip to climb Helvellyn was organised in February 2014. Due to an absolutely huge dump of snow and the Kirkstone Pass being closed, we ended up climbing Cat Bells, Maiden Moor and High Spy in absolutely fantastic conditions. Among the other walk participants, I also invited another colleague, David Meehan, and Mike and Faye also brought along their friend and fellow musician Rob Thorpe. Little did we know that this walk would lead to many different walking group outings and trips across the country, as well as solid friendships that have stood the test of time!
Over the next few years, we settled into a rhythm of regular evening walks and plenty of excursions further afield. Groups numbers sometimes fluctuated, but there was always a good representation of the aforementioned "core" members, including Garry's fiancé Emma Entwistle who had been attending from around 2012.
Other regular and prominent members in the group at this time would include Jade Riley, Jimmy Moran, Si Diamond, Ric Kay, Ric Koreishi, Joey Ludlow, Emma Riddiford and Marcus Clarke. Not an extensive list but these guys attended many walks and were a big part of everything we did back then.
2017 to 2020 - THE "OG DREAM TEAM"
Following a period of ill health around 2016, I had lost a lot of fitness and my commitment to organising as many group outings had waned somewhat due to fatigue. We still had regular walks but there more sparsely so than frequent. I was on the mend in early 2017 and keen to get the walking group back up and running on top of my new found love for solo walking and wild camping around the Lake District and Scotland, which was really helping me build my fitness back up.
This reignition of motivation with the walking group with several new faces joining the walks and bunkhouse trips who would go on to become a massive part of steering the helm over the next few years. We were privileged to welcome individuals such as Georgina and Johnny Crowe, Steve Bailey, Dave Shuttleworth, Andy Fee and Ricky Davies into the ranks, who fit right in with all the other "core" group members. Again, developing friendships that are still going strong years later.
All this new energy and enthusiasm brought about a spate of intrepid mountain days with wild camping expeditions to remote areas and plenty of "Wainwright" bagging. The local walks were less frequent at this stage in the group's history because of the general ambition to conquer longer routes, bigger mountains and spend time sleeping under the stars.
Everything was going so well. Then BOOM - Covid hit!
2021 - THE AFTERMATH OF COVID
A testing time for everybody, Covid really knocked the wind out of the sails, as far as group walks were concerned. Many of us were able to enjoy the new found peace and quiet walking locally. I was working from home and made very good friends with my parents' dog, Gaia, who insisted on nice countryside walks once I had finished my daily tasks.
This was also a real period of reflection and it was during this period that I passed my driving test and decided I was going to finally sign myself up to a Mountain Leader training course at Glenmore Lodge in the Cairngorms. While this is not my personal biography, it's all relevant and attaining my ML would have big implications for the group.
Once we were "allowed" to play out together again, we immediately took to the hills, never taking them for granted after having our freedom stripped from us in the way it was during Covid. Every single weekend, the walking group would be out locally, in the Lake District, the Peak District or the Dales enjoying beautiful routes and lots of wild camping.
In August 2021, I completed my final Wainwright summit after ten years of bothering to actually tick off the summits we were doing. My parents, Michelle and Colin Snr, joined me and members of the walking group in Keswick for the weekend to climb Tarn Crag near Grasmere. This has to have been one of the wettest days ever in the history of humankind.
2023 - THE BIG EXPANSION
So in May 2023, I completed my Mountain Leader assessment and passed! While a personal ambition, I wanted to be able to use my new qualification to benefit the walking group as much as possible. After pondering a few ideas of possible paths that I might take, I decided to throw myself head first into what I can only describe as the natural extension of the walking group - Moors to Mountains. My own venture operating professionally guided walks across the UK.
It was easy to recognise that interest was growing within the local community from those who had found a love for walking and the great outdoors during Covid, but perhaps didn't have the experience or skill set to get out by themselves.
This really was a turning point for the walking group. My vision was to keep the group walks to local routes once a week on Wednesday evenings, so that they could be more accessible. And then to offer my professional services further afield for those who might like to take on a more challenging adventure in a more controlled environment that I could manage by myself.
I took it upon myself to step up promotion for both my new business and the free community walks, using skills that I had employed for many years as an events manager. What happened next can only be described as totally and utterly MINDBLOWING. The interest was greater than I had imagined with the advertising Wednesday walks attracting more and more walkers each week. One evening, we had SEVENTY people turn up. This was not sustainable and so BIG changes were made to how the walking group would operate from that moment on.
2024 - MONDAY MOOCHES BECOME A "THING"
Starting out as casual Monday dog walks organised by David "Noggy", who had by this point become a very active and enthusiastic member of the group, it was decided to add an extra night to our walking schedule.
Assisted in a huge part by regular volunteers Tom and Catherine , the first "Monday Mooch" up to Great Hill was an immense success. These regular walks at the start of the week soon started to attract quite a different crowd to the usual Wednesday regulars as a number of walkers with interest in joining the group just couldn't physically make Wednesdays. These days, there's a large overlap of people who attend both Monday and Wednesday walks although some do stick exclusively to their preferred evening.
Adding the extra walk per week was another huge turning point for BWOAS and demonstrates both the demand from members of the community and also the interest from existing group regulars who just can't get enough!
PRESENT DAY
And here we arrive at the version of the Bolton walking group that so many of you know and love. I decided to drop the "Ale" association as real ale pubs were no longer a big part of what we were doing, and the whole ethos of the group had become to promote healthy lifestyle within the community.
It was decided to appoint volunteers to help out on the Wednesday walks, working at a 1:12 ratio at first and then 1:8. This meant that we had to cap numbers and so with six volunteers, the format of a group size of fifty four was introduced. Radios were bought. And then an idea that was unpopular at first was implemented by way of the Ticket Tailor booking system, which totally alleviated my workload.
The next big stage was to get sports club insurance for what was now, finally, being called BWOAS. This dictated that committee members needed to be appointed, with official club policies and a constitution written up and first aid equipment purchased for walk volunteers. Never, ever, ever did any of us expect this level of organisation and professionalism when we started to organise walks in 2011.
I have mentioned the names of several "legacy" group members previously. There are just TOO MANY amazing individuals who have joined since 2023 and I wouldn't want to do anybody the injustice of forgetting a name.
But, for all of us involved in this wonderful community, we owe everything we have in place to all the selfless volunteers who put their name down every week to help to manage the group, reccy and organise walks and everything else that goes on behind the scenes.
AND it really would not have been possible to get to where we are over recent years if it wasn't for the skills, professional expertise, time, energy and sheer passion for the group shown by those who stood forward to make up the committee:
Catherine Lock, David Naylor, David Noggy, Graham Lyall, Karen Flannigan, Lorraine Hamer, Matthew, Tatty Tarn, and Tom SB - thank you all from the bottom of my blackened satanic heart and on behalf of all BWOAS walkers.
