Following the decision by the Wainwright Society’s committee to ‘stand aside’ from the Pennine Journey project, a ‘Pennine Journey Supporters Club’ was established. The PJSC was inaugurated on 31st March 2012 and the Charity Commission’s ‘Small Charity Constitution’ adopted. At the inaugural meeting it was agreed that the Club would initially concentrate entirely on its core purpose of promoting and supporting the Pennine Journey route so that this tribute to AW became permanent. 

The PJSC is now recognised by the appropriate highway authorities as the ‘Responsible Organisation’ for Wainwright’s Pennine Journey. The waymarking of the route is now complete and in 2017 the Ordnance Survey released new Landranger maps as well as the last Explorer map (307- Consett & Derwent Reservoir) in the series of Explorer maps that now cover the entire 247 mile route. 

Our next stage in the journey of ‘A Pennine Journey’ is to campaign to have Wainwright’s Pennine Journey designated as a National Trail as a tribute to Alfred Wainwright and preliminary discussions with the National Trail authorities have already been held. Our target to have this status achieved by is 25th September 2028 – the 90th anniversary of AW leaving Settle on the start of his ‘A Pennine Journey’.

Prior to the Club’s establishment £3,000 was raised towards the cost of waymarking the route and it is not envisaged that the Club should need to become involved in any major fundraising. Consequently a modest annual subscription is all that should be needed in the future and as the Pennine Journey route measures 247 miles then the annual subscription, for the foreseeable future, will be £2.47. 

It is hoped that PJSC members will appreciate that they can play a significant role without it being time-consuming and take their turn in becoming committee members so bringing to it new ideas and initiatives. If you believe that you could offer a little bit of time in helping the PJSC grow then please get in touch with our Chairman at info@penninejourney.org.