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The Coast is Clear

Panoramic shaped image of English coastline with white chalky cliffs and sea

Gritstone News: Yorkshire author publishes first complete guide to the King Charles III England Coast Path

Gritstone Member Christopher Goddard, a Yorkshire guidebook author and cartographer, has become the first to publish a complete guide to the newly opened King Charles III England Coast Path – the world’s longest managed coastal walking route.

Published by Gritstone Publishing as a four-volume series, the England Coast Path guides have been written and illustrated by established walking author Christopher Goddard following his own 2,700-mile journey around England’s coastline.

Each volume covers a different section of the route. Book 1: The South Coast follows the path from the River Thames to the Exe. Book 2: The South West covers the Exe to the Severn. Book 3: The North Coasts takes in the north-west and north-east coasts through Merseyside, Lancashire, Cumbria, Northumberland, County Durham and Yorkshire. Book 4: The East Coast covers the Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex coastline from the Humber to the Thames.

The books are designed both for walkers tackling the entire England Coast Path and for those looking to explore individual sections as day walks or shorter trips.

Each guide includes detailed route descriptions and maps, along with practical information on transport, parking, accommodation, camping and refreshments, together with features on local history, wildlife, geology and places of interest. They also include alternative routes where sections of the official path have yet to be established.

One distinctive feature is a specially curated soundtrack. Each day’s walk is paired with a song inspired by that stretch of coastline, encouraging walkers to experience the route with a musical accompaniment. Selections include Dire Straits’ Tunnel of Love, celebrating the Spanish City in Whitley Bay; Billy Bragg’s A13 (Trunk Road to the Sea), inspired by the road to the Essex coast; and George Formby’s classic With My Little Stick of Blackpool Rock.

Chris began walking the entire coastline in 2013, documenting every stage to create what has become the first complete guide to the route.

“The English coast offers an extraordinary variety of landscapes,” he says. “There are dramatic cliffs, wooded estuaries, wildlife-rich marshes, sweeping beaches and dunes, as well as historic ports and seaside towns.”

“Because of how the route has opened in piecemeal sections over the past decade, I don’t think people quite realise yet what a big thing the England Coast Path. I think it’s going to grow in profile and popularity over the coming years. We’ve got something pretty special here!”

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Lifetime Achievement Award for top Yorkshire writer

Image of Colin holding award certificate surrounded by members of Gritstone Cooperative in the courtyard of the Piece Hall

Eileen Jones

A lifetime achievement award was made to our veteran writer Colin Speakman. He is a founder member of Gritstone Publishing Co-op, a keen walker and environmental campaigner, and the author or co-author of more than 50 outdoor books. Colin and his work are known and loved throughout Yorkshire and beyond. He is the mastermind behind the 80-mile Dales Way path, linking Ilkley with Bowness in the Lake District, for which his guidebook is now in its 11th edition.

Colin has also written walking guides to areas both in the UK and in mainland Europe, as well as poetry, topography, biography, transport history, and two literary anthologies. Recent publications include Yorkshire: Ancient Nation, Future Province and The Nut Brown Maid and Other Stories from the Yorkshire Dales.

The award was made during our 10th birthday celebrations at the Piece Hall in Halifax. Colin gave a talk about his books, and there was a mapping workshop led by Christopher Goddard, and an urban nature ramble led by writer and conservationist Laurence Rose.

Andrew Bibby and Andrew McCloy took visitors on a literary memory lane along the Pennine Way, and novelist Mike Padgett spoke about his Australian adventures. The event was organised with The Book Corner bookshop and Calderdale Libraries.

Presenting the award, Andrew Bibby said: “Colin is one of our founder members, and we are so proud to include such an eminent and prolific author on our list. He is an inspiration to us all.”

Image of Colin Speakman and Gritstone colleagues at the Piece Hall

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Party time at the Piece Hall for northern writers

Image of Piece Hall showing bandstand, in large paved courtyard with large Gothic columned building in background, under blue skies

Eileen Jones

A group of authors from the UK’s first publishing co-operative will be celebrating their 10th anniversary next month at the Halifax Piece Hall.

Writers from the Hebden Bridge-based Gritstone Publishing will be reading from their work, running workshops, chatting to prospective new writers, and handing out birthday cake in a corner of the historic architectural and cultural gem.

The event, on Thursday May 7, is being organised in association with the independent bookshop The Book Corner which is based at the Piece Hall and where the books written by members of the group will be on sale.

Established by four member-authors looking to assert more control over how their books were brought to market, the co-operative has grown and is now nine-strong. The most recent author to join is Mike Raine, a mountaineering instructor and author of the leading handbook on mountain craft. Gritstone titles are strongly rooted in a sense of place, with a particular focus on the north of England.

The group will be marking their tenth birthday by bringing out this summer the final two volumes to complete a comprehensive set of guidebooks to the England Coast Path, the longest and most ambitious of the country’s long-distance national trails. These are compact but lavishly illustrated books from cartographer Christopher Goddard and the 2026 titles, on the Northern and Eastern sections of the path, will join the South and South-West volumes already published. Christopher will be running a short mapping workshop at the Piece Hall event.

Also scheduled for publication in 2026 is fellow Gritstone member Eileen Jones’s tribute to William Wordsworth’s home at Rydal Mount in the Lake District where the poet lived for most of his life. The book has received support and co-operation from current members of the Wordsworth family who owned the house for nearly 60 years until its recent sale to the Wordsworth Trust.

Another among the list of Gritstone titles in the coming year will be Mike Raine’s new book Just One More Hill on the growing popularity of ‘bikepacking’ (off-road cycletouring), and a newly revised edition of The Long Spring by conservationist and former RSPB Director for Northern England, Laurence Rose. At the Piece Hall event Laurence will be leading a short nature ramble around the site.

Also choosing to work through Gritstone as members of the co-op are the veteran countryside writer and campaigner Colin Speakman, national parks author and activist Andrew McCloy, Yorkshire novelist Mike Padgett, and author of walkers’ and cyclists’ guides Chiz Dakin.

The Piece Hall party will feature short readings by individual authors and you can read more about each one of them on the Gritstone website here https://gritstonecoop.co.uk/authors/ The event will start at 11am and everyone is welcome to come along and chat, browse, and eat birthday cake. Andrew Bibby said: “We will be very happy to talk to writers who might want to consider joining our group, or just anyone who loves books and writing.”

Gritstone, as a fully mutual co-operative, is controlled collectively by its member-authors who discuss and agree proposed new titles for the imprint. Book distribution to the book trade, including bookshops and online retailers, is handled by a mainstream trade distributor, but Gritstone titles are also sold directly from its own website. Gritstone has recently been accepted as a member of the Independent Publishers Guild.

Andrew Bibby, one of Gritstone’s founder members, explained: “After ten successful years of trading and growth, we can definitely say that our publishing model works. The publishing industry has changed enormously in recent years to become much more marketing-led, and authors are increasingly missing out on a fair share of the rewards for their work. We enable our authors to have more control over the  publishing process. Gritstone offers a third way between conventional publishing and author self-publishing.”

Image of Piece Hall bandstand and courtyard with thanks to The Piece Hall, Halifax

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Updated Wolds Book launched from Colin and Fleur Speakman

“Fleur and Colin travelled to the historic town of Beverley, on the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds, to launch the second edition of their book The Yorkshire Wolds A Journey of Discovery.  The new edition of this acclaimed book has been planned to coincide with the work by Natural England to consider designation of the Yorkshire Wolds as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.  This year is also the 40th anniversary of the Yorkshire Wolds Way National Trail.

“The book was officially launched by Councillor Jane Evison, Portfolio holder for Tourism  for East Riding of Yorkshire Council, at the Treasure House in Beverley, followed by a book signing in the excellent Beverley Bookshop – complete with cakes and roses.  If you can’t get to Beverley for your signed copy of this limited edition, you can order it through the Shop part of this website (click here: Yorkshire Wolds Edition 2), price £15 post free.”   

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Outdoor award for writer Colin

Gritstone author Colin Speakman won the Golden Eagle award for Outstanding Services to the Outdoors at the meeting of the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild this weekend.

Colin is a prolific writer, environmentalist, academic and broadcaster. He was presented with a specially commissioned painting of Pen-y-ghent by the artist and environmentalist, David Bellamy.

A co-creator of the Dales Way, now 50 years old and one of the most popular long distance paths in the country, Colin has written nearly 60 books, covering walking and history, transport guides, biographies, poems and fiction. He has recently been described as one of 20 of Britain’s all-time “Walking Heroes”.

His recent publication was a biography of John Phillips, the influential 19th-century Yorkshire scientist who completed the first detailed geological surveys of the Yorkshire Coast and the Yorkshire Dales and who helped establish the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

His new book Yorkshire: Ancient Nation, Future Province* will be launched at a special event at Bradford university next month.

Gritstone Publishing is Britain’s first publishing co-operative run by authors. Gritstone specialises in publishing non-fiction and fiction titles relating to the landscape and the countryside. Its seven members are all experienced outdoor writers and journalists.

Caption: Colin Speakman with artist David Bellamy and his award

*Trade distribution of Colin’s new Yorkshire book: Cordee Ltd, 11 Jacknell Rd, Dodwells Bridge Industrial Estate, Hinckley, LE10 3BS, 01455 611185 and sales@cordee.co.uk

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Gritstone authors launch Countryside after Covid blog

What will be the issues facing the English countryside after the loosening of the lockdown rules on July 4th?

Some of the country’s most experienced writers on the countryside and the natural world will be sharing their own thoughts and observations on the new Countryside after Covid blog, which will be launched on July 4th.  The six writers are members on the author-owned publishing co-operative Gritstone Publishing, and the blog will be available at https://gritstonecoop.co.uk/aftercovid/. The blog will also from time to time include contributions from guest bloggers.

The blog will be launched by initial contributions from three Gritstone members.  Andrew McCloy, the author of The Pennine Way (Cicerone, 2016) and of the forthcoming Peak District Pubs (Gritstone, 2020), is also a local councillor and Chair of the Peak District National Park Authority. As such he has been directly involved in the issues of public access to the Peak District during the covid-19 lockdown.  Andrew will be blogging about the need for our national parks to take a lead in creating positive change after lockdown.

Laurence Rose, the nature writer who is author of The Long Spring (Bloomsbury, 2018) and the forthcoming Framing Nature (Gritstone, 2020), will be responding to the prime minister’s recent pronouncement on loosening aspects of the planning system. Laurence will be arguing for nationally important sites for nature to be better protected from planning decisions.

Andrew Bibby, author of Back Roads through Middle England (Gritstone, 2017), will write on how the rural economy can best be protected in the interests of both visitors and lower-income residents of the countryside.

Future blogs will be contributed by Gritstone’s other authors, Colin Speakman, Chiz Dakin and Chris Goddard.

Access the Countryside after Covid blog and post your own comments and responses: https://gritstonecoop.co.uk/aftercovid/

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Member Colin Speakman’s John Phillips Book getting great reviews

Our member Colin Speakman’s latest book under the Gritstone imprint has been in the news recently, and is getting some great reviews from book critics.

Here’s a few of the ones we’ve noticed from Professor Colin Waters (Yorkshire Geological Society), Peter Hogarth (Yorkshire Philosphical Society), Roly Smith (Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild), the North Yorkshire Moors Association and the Darlington and Stockton Times.

If you are interested in the history of science, particularly one of the great contributors to the development of geology as a science, and have a love of the county of Yorkshire, I heartily recommend this book.

Professor Colin Waters, Yorkshire Geological Society

Although ‘this book does not attempt to be a biography of Phillips’, it does a pretty good job as such. But it is also much more than a biography, conveying Phillips’ -and the author’s –enthusiasm: a veritable Excursion around the Yorkshire Mountains, Rivers and Sea Coast in its own right…

…This book –lavishly illustrated –is not primarily a geological treatise: but those who think they are not particularly interested in geology will undoubtedly learn more geology than they realise, thanks to Colin Speakman’s and John Phillips’ enthusiasm…

…What better way to escape the confines of lockdown than to travel through time and space with John Phillips?

Peter Hogarth, Yorkshire Philosophical Society

It places Phillips as not only a pioneering geologist, but also as one of the great walker-writers and interpreters of the Yorkshire countryside….

…Of course Speakman himself is a distinguished member of that band of teachers and guidebook authors which has followed in the footsteps of Phillips in interpreting the moors and dales of Yorkshire to the visitor.

Roly Smith, Outdoor Focus (the magazine of the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild)

“Using words and rare photographs in his absorbing book, Speakman shares Phillips’ passion for the Yorkshire landscape across the Dales, Moors and Coast.”

Darlington & Stockton Times

Peopled with a host of scientific personalities and characters of the times and packed with absorbing detail, this informative book is a satisfying and entertaining read that will go a long way to giving due recognition to the influential legacy of one of our finest outdoor writers and scientists, John Phillips, an extraordinary traveller through time.  

Voice – Journal of the North Yorkshire Moors Association
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In the Cold of the Night featured on BBC Three Counties Radio

Lovely to hear the review of “In the Cold of the Night” by Gritstone member, Andrew Bibby, on BBC Sounds. It was reviewed by Morag Watkins – a self-confessed bookaholic – and regular guest book reviewer on Nick Coffer’s slot on BBC Three Counties Radio:

This is a detective story that a friend gave me to read and as it is about a group of people doing the Three Peaks Challenge and as I have done that I found it interesting because I know many of the places that are mentioned.

It concerns a group of staff from a residential caravan park who are doing the Challenge largely because the boss, Richard Meade says they must. They manage Ben Nevis with the help of their guide Rug, (yes that is his nickname) and he drives them to Wasdale Head to ascend Scafell Pike.

By this time Richard Meade has been on the phone for a lot of the journey and is still on the phone and he tells the party to go on, he will catch them up in a few minutes but he never does. His disappearance results in the mountain rescue team being called out and a massive search operation being mounted.

His body is found a long way away from where he should have been. Enter the detective, the reporter, the family and the staff of the caravan park to confuse, give false leads and generally take the reader on a merry dance which is not resolved until the last few pages.

Morag Watkins, guest reviewer on BBC Three Counties Radio, August 2019
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Creating the Anne Lister (Gentleman Jack) walk from Shibden Hall by Chris Goddard

Anne Lister walk Front Cover image

Chris Goddard, creator of the Anne Lister walk map, chats about how he was asked to produce the map and what it shows on the walk around “the larger Lister estate”.

“The Anne Lister Walk ties nicely in with the BBC’s recent TV series Gentleman Jack and was launched amid full-blown Listermania. However, it was produced before anyone in Calderdale had seen the TV series, so it focuses more on the real Anne Lister sites than those featured on the small screen (in fact it turns out that a lot of the sites used for filming are too far away to walk to anyway). The council officers at Shibden Hall approached me earlier in the year to produce a map with a simple walking route around the sites of the larger Lister estate, so I devised this 5.5-mile walk to show off the best Shibden Dale had to offer.

Though it starts in Shibden Park, it quickly climbs out of the valley to Beacon Hill and follows the edge of the hills west of Halifax, with great views over the town throughout. It then drops back down into the valley past the sites of several of Anne Lister’s coal mines – sadly there is little or nothing to see of these, like the nearby grand mansion of High Sunderland Hall, felled in the 1950s due to subsidence caused by those same coal mines. However, Scout Hall’s pleasing symmetry, Walker Pit’s fine folly (named after Ann Walk of course) and Shibden Mill Inn more than make up for this.

After a pint or a bite to eat, it is an easy walk back down the valley bottom to Shibden Hall, where you can explore the interior of this 15th century mansion that was greatly reshaped by Anne Lister. The whole park around it is of her making and I’m glad that this map is part of a much-overdue process of rediscovering this inspiring 19th century woman.”

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Dales Way at 50 Podcast

Our member Colin Speakman, creator of the Dales Way 50 years ago, takes a walk with Countrystride’s Mark Richards (@Fellranger1) through Dentdale.

The podcast (50mins long) can be found on the countrystride website (as well as embedded below). Colin chats about his delight in creating one of the most popular and longest-existing long-distance walks in the UK; and also discusses brewing in Dentdale, infamous knitters and the local eminent geologist of the 19th Century, Adam Sedgwick.

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Dales Way 50 year celebrations

Over 70 walkers joined local Gritstone member and author, Colin Speakman, at the weekend on a six mile walk on the Dales Way.

The Dales Way 11th Edition by Colin Speakman

The walk celebrated the original public walk organised over fifty years ago to inaugurate the 81 mile long Dales Way. The Dales Way is now one of England’s most popular long distance walks, connecting the towns and cities of West Yorkshire with the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District. The 50 Year Anniversary walk went along the banks of the River Wharfe from the start of the Dales Way in Ilkley to Bolton Abbey in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Colin, a founder member of Gritstone Cooperative and now the Chairman of the Dales Way Association, and Vice President of both the West Riding Ramblers and the Yorkshire Dales Society, said it was “his privilege to have been able to lead the original walk on March 23rd 1969 and now the Golden Jubilee walk just over 50 years later”.

On their return to Ilkley, walkers joined Sir Rodney Brooke, President of the Ilkley Manor House Trust and Ilkley & Keighley MP John Grogan, for the official opening of a special exhibition dedicated to the story of the Dales Way.

Mr Grogan paid tribute to the vision and energy both Colin Speakman and Tom Wilcock of the West Riding Ramblers Association who had conceived and developed the route in 1969 as a way of encouraging access to the spectacular countryside of the Yorkshire Dales so close to the cities such as Leeds and Bradford. 

The free Dales Way 50th exhibition is open on weekends at the Ilkley Manor House until September 1st (see www.ilkleymanorhouse.org full for opening times and directions).

Supported by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Sustainable Development, Fund, the Dales Way Association has also published a special illustrated souvenir booklet 50 years of the Dales Way Priced at £4.99 it is available by contacting Colin, at the exhibition or can be obtained post free via the Dales Way Association www.dales way org.

Colin’s most up to date guidebook of the Dales Way, now in it’s 11th Edition, is also available from Gritstone.

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Gritstone author wins prestigious OWPG Book of the Year award

Outdoor Book of the Year award announced

Andrew Bibby’s captivating insight into southern English landscapes, Back Roads through Middle England (Gritstone Publishing, £13.95), has won the Outdoor Book of the Year award.

The award was announced on Saturday October 13, at the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild awards ceremony.

Andrew Bibby, who is an experienced professional writer who has contributed over many years to the British national press, has written several highly commended books on the countryside and the outdoors. His latest book delves deep into the landscapes of ‘middle England’, the book using the device of a journey he made by bicycle along the belt of Jurassic limestone (sometimes described as cotswold stone) from west Dorset to north Lincolnshire.

In the process of his journey Bibby turns to a wide range of disciplines, including social history, economics, and literature, to help him try to understand why the countryside looks the way it does.

Among other things, his book discusses how the countryside today is shaped by land ownership and estate management, and by changing nature of agricultural subsidies. Bibby looks at the efforts taken by residents in villages along his route to maintain community life in rural areas, and at conflicting responses that are emerging to the call for more housing in greenbelt areas. He suggests that the southern English countryside is at the same time both an old landscape and one which has seen radical change in relatively recent times.

Andrew Bibby says: “I am naturally delighted that Back Roads through Middle England has been awarded this year’s prize as Outdoor Book of the Year. This is a particular honour for me, because the award is made by my peers, fellow outdoor writers and photographers who understand the countryside and who care deeply about it.

“At a time when Englishness and English identity is increasingly an uncertain affair, my book looks for the clues that I believe are to be found in both the past and the present state of the English countryside to help us understand where we are today.”

Back Roads through Middle England is distributed to the trade through Cordee (www.cordee.co.uk) Review copies are available to journalists from info@gritstone.coop. Andrew Bibby can be reached on 01422 844026.

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Sedgwick biography book launch

Gritstone member Colin Speakmans’s highly regarded auto-biography of the Yorkshire Geologist and Dalesman, Adam Sedgwick, has just been re-released in a joint publication between Gritstone Co-operative and the Yorkshire Geological Society.

At the book launch, held at the Dales Countryside Museum, Hawes, and co-hosted by both the Yorkshire Geological Society (Andy Howard, President) and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (Ian McPherson Deputy Chair.

In the welcome speech Ian McPherson said:  “This book is a jewel.  It’s a something rare for a book about geology – a great read,  a real page turner.”

There was also a talk by Dr Nigel Woodcock of Cambridge University about how Sedgwick was inspired by the geology and landscape on his walk to school, and how his observations and interpretations of the local geology have stood the test of time, followed by a Geological Trail walk lead by Dr John Knight  of the Yorkshire Geological Society.

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Paypal has changed its terms…

It seems Paypal has changed the way it works – and not for the better for some of our customers.

Previously you didn’t have to have a Paypal account to be able to use the Paypal system to pay by credit card.

Now it seems they only give you 10 credit card transactions before requiring you to register for an account with them.

We’ve had a few enquiries from customers who do not wish to have a Paypal account as what alternative means of payment we can offer.

It’s difficult as there is no alternative as cost effective for a small coop like ours.

However, just a quick reminder that we can still accept cheques posted with an order to our head office address. (It will obviously take much longer to fulfil the order though as we need to wait for the cheque to be collected (which isn’t every day) banked and cleared before sending any items). But it’s a stopgap while we consider if there are any viable alternatives.

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First meeting of Gritstone Cooperative

Image of the first four members of the cooperative, sat around a table

The inaugural meeting of the Gritstone Publishing Cooperative was held today at the Record Cafe in Bradford.

Andrew Bibby (secretary) commented that it was a historic moment for authors, and a new beginning for the future of self-publishing.

All four founder members (Andrew Bibby, Colin Speakman, Chris Goddard and Chiz Dakin) agree that we look forward to working with each other in the marketing of all our members work.

We are not currently looking for new members while we get established, but are hoping to grow the cooperative once things progress.