Beating the Bounds

/ Dom / 2 Comments

On Sunday 29 April we will be reviving the Beating of the Bounds walk after over 100 years.

Hot on the heels of last years’ highly successful Big Valley Ramble comes the Blackwater Valley Countryside Trust’s (BVCT) popular annual ‘big’ walk with a difference.

In this year’s event, run with the customary high levels of organisation of all BVCT walks, BVCT supported by Yateley Town Council, with help from local groups, is inviting walkers of every kind to stroll 11 miles through some of the Valley’s beautiful neighbouring countryside, ‘Beating the Bounds’ of Yateley Parish.

Starting in Saxon times, Yateley folk beat their way round the boundary of the Parish every year to check that their neighbours hadn’t stolen any of their land! The last time Yateley ‘Beat the Bounds’ was in 1902. So, on Sunday, April 29th, over a hundred years later, walkers can help revive this ancient tradition.

The walk starts at the Darby Green Centre and takes a circular route of just over 11 miles round the parish boundary, round some of the less well known, but surprisingly beautiful, parts of Yateley, Frogmore and Darby Green – through fields, woods, heathlands and waterways and along some of the Blackwater Valley Path.

If re-establishing an historic ritual isn’t reason enough, walkers can also raise money for two deserving local causes, BVCT and the Mayor’s Annual Charity, Yelabus. BVCT promotes and undertakes conservation in the Blackwater Valley, while Yelabus provides community transport in the Yateley area, specialising in the elderly and less able.

Children are welcome, if accompanied by adults. There is an entry fee of £10 per walker over 16 years of age, and under 16s go free.

Full details, including how to register to take part in the event, are available at: www.bvct.org.uk/event/beating-the-bounds

Andy Whitaker

/ admin / 1 Comment

It’s with great sadness that yelabus has to announce that our President, Andy Whitaker died on Sunday night in Hospital.

At present we have no knowledge of any of the arrangements.

We at yelabus will miss him and Yateley will be a poorer place with his passing.