New Year Walking Holiday in Swanage, Dorset from Sunday, 28 December 2008 to Thursday, 1 January 2009

Our Webmaster, Sue Searle (Mobile: 07867 508 724, E-mail: suesearle@aol.com), is organising accommodation in her own guesthouse at 6 Argyle Road, Swanage, BH16 1HZ and two other guesthouses. All rooms are double or twin bedded and have en suite or private bathrooms and the cost of a room (including full English breakfast and packed lunch) for the four nights will be £350 for two sharing or £325 for single occupancy. However, if you prefer to book your own accommodation you will be equally welcome.

Swanage has become a very popular town to visit on New Year’s Eve when all the townsfolk put on fancy dress to go out for the evening. All visitors are very welcome to join in. With a jovial and fun atmosphere, this is the ideal way to see in the New Year. Swanage, with its blue-flag beach and wonderful scenery, is a popular resort which is situated on the Isle of Purbeck and flanked by the Purbeck Hills. The town is within easy reach of the Corfe Castle and the Jurassic Coast, where footprints and fossilised bones of dinosaurs, dating back over 60 million years, have been found in several places. Click here to be transferred to the YouTube website where you can view photographs and video taken during the 2006 New Years Eve celebrations. Also, here is a link to photographs of the countryside surrounding Swanage, again, from the YouTube website.

Sue is also making arrangements for the evening meal on New Year’s Eve. However, because Swanage is very much a party town on New Year’s Eve and a lot of the restaurants will not be opening and many of the pubs will not be serving food it is important to book tables early to ensure that the group has supper. Consequently, you are asked to contact Sue as soon as possible if you would like her to reserve a place for you.

Please also contact Sue if you are interested in booking a place on the transfer service she is arranging between Wareham Station and Swanage, which will meet the 09:35 train from Waterloo on Sunday, 28th December (arriving at Wareham at 12:03) and return you to Wareham Station on the 1st January. The cost of the pick-up from Wareham Station and return to Wareham Station will be £30 per car carrying up to 3 Ramblers. Alternatively, the Route No: 40 bus between Poole and Swanage, which calls at Wareham Station, has an hourly service, although you will need to check whether this applies on New Year’s Day.

Due to the popularity of Swanage over the New Year period, we recommend that you make an early booking in order to secure your accommodation. Please send a deposit cheque (non-refundable) for £150 together with your room requirement and made payable to the accommodation organiser, Sue Searle at 6 Argyle Road, Swanage, Dorset, BH19 1HZ as soon as possible and no later than Friday, 31st October. If you have any questions, please telephone Sue on 07867 508 724 or email her at suesearle@aol.com and she will be happy to help.

About Our Group
We are a friendly and varied group of people who share a love of walking. Most of our members live in the London Boroughs of Camden and Islington, although some come from further afield. We offer a programme of day walks with the occasional weekend break or longer holiday.
 

History
The Hampstead and District Group was formed in 1983 after failed attempts in 1982 but it almost folded twice because of lack of support and its first walk did not take place until Friday, 8th July 1984 - a 4 mile walk from Woodside Park to Totteridge. However, although the Group only had 50 members at the time of its Inaugural Annual Meeting in October 1984 membership started to take off three years later and by October 1989, despite the loss of members to newly-formed groups, the Hampstead and District Group had become the fourth largest group in the Ramblers' Association nationwide, with just over 550 members. Today its membership stands at around 830 and it continues to be the largest of the Inner London Area groups.

The need to establish groups in Inner London north and south of the Thames to which individual members could be allocated first arose in 1982, when moves were initiated to split up the old Southern Area of the Ramblers' Association into eight smaller Areas - Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, London and Surrey - and it became apparent that none of the Southern Area's existing groups would come within the ambit of the new London Area.

The Southern Area, which was dissolved on the 30th September 1984, had originally been established in 1913 as the Southern Federation of Rambling Clubs and by the 3rd November 1923, when it held its first dinner, its affiliated clubs represented a membership of over 20,000. In 1927 the Southern Federation had some 50 affiliated clubs and it had accepted its first individual members.

By this time federations of rambling clubs had also been established in several other regions, threats to rights of way were increasing and there was little prospect of legal access to the moorlands of the north. New legislation was urgently needed and it was obvious that there would be strength in unity. So on the 30th October 1927 the first national conference was held between these regional federations and further conferences took place in 1928 and 1929.

After the third national conference moves were made to form a national federation of rambling clubs with the existing federations functioning as Areas Committees. The new organisation came into effect on 1st January 1935 as "The Ramblers' Association", with over 300 rambling clubs affiliated and nearly 1,200 individual members, and the Southern Federation of Rambling Clubs became the Southern Area.