History...
The Sheffield Night Hike has over 40 years of history raising money for Christian Aid and CAFOD. During that time thousands of people have walked the walk, made new friends, and raised many thousands of pounds.
We would like to expand the History of the Sheffield Night Hike. If you have special memories of past Night Hikes, what they have meant to you, whether the weather was favourable or foul, etc. and would like to contribute to this History, please forward them to info @ sheffieldnighthike.org.uk.
2008: Saturday 5th July
This years walk was a tough one, much harder than 2006 and 2007, so very well done to all those who did the walk. It was WET and DARK. During the day there had been very heavy downpours and bright sunshine, but at night we got a dry start that became a persistant drizzle by Fox House which stayed for the whole night.
When I say it was DARK, which is not surprising at night time, but this year it was really dark because of the low cloud. We were actually walking through the cloud when going past Stanage Pole. The walks in 2006 and 2007 were clear nights and you could see all the stars, and the moon light was sufficient for navigation. But for this night, torches were required all of the time just to see where you were putting your feet. (As was discovered by a group of teenagers who found that 'glowsticks' just did'nt give out enough light, or last long enough. Other walkers lent them some spare torches to help them out.)
This year there were 50 walkers, and about £3500 was pledged to Christian Aid / CAFOD.
Again I would like to use this opportunity to give a big THANK-YOU to the whole of the organising committee, backroom team and Raynet.
2007: Saturday 23rd June
This years walk was very nearly cancelled. It took place during the few hours of 'dry' weather sandwiched between several days of heavy rain. It was less than 2 days later that the tragic floods hit Sheffield and the South Yorkshire region. Our prayers go out to those affected by these floods.
Though there was very little rainfall during the walk, it was very muddy underfoot.
£3000 were pledged, from 48 people who started the walk. There were 46 who finished the walk, the last walker finishing at about 4:30am. The 2 who did not finish were the youngest walker, a boy of 10, and his Dad. And they had completed 15 of the 17 miles, reaching the Redmires reservoirs. (My son will have no excuse not to do it next year!) The oldest walker was 60+. So with a walking age range from 10 to 60+, there is no excuse for any reasonably fit person not to do it!
Supporting the walkers were a backroom team including; 22 route marshalls, 8 clerical, catering and organisational, 10 members of Raynet providing radio cover, and a specialist First Aider.
I would like to use this opportunity to give a big THANK-YOU to the whole of the organising committee and backroom team. As a 'quick' walker I was back at Lodge Moor by 2:30am, and home in bed for some sleep by 3:00am. It was not until researching this information for this website that I realised how walking is the 'easy' option. The backroom staff had done most of the clearing up by the time the last walker returned at 4:30am, so they were in bed by 5:00am, and this was a bit earlier than in previous years.
2006: Saturday 1st July
I don't have many details of this years walk, but I do have some personal memories.
I can remember it being a very warm and clear night. I walked the whole route with a couple of friends in shorts and a T-shirt. It was Quarter Final day of the 2006 World Cup, and England had lost 3-1 on penalties to Portugal. During the early miles of the walk I remember listening to the evening game Brazil-France (France won 1-0). Later that night I remember switching the radio back on and listening to Hallam FM in the early hours of the morning as we were walking past Stanage Pole. It was a surreal experience.
The next weeked the following article was written in the Sheffield Telegraph. (I did email them and ask if their permission was required to include the image and text on this website. I had no reply. If anyone reads this who can put me in touch with the appropriate person to ask for permission to use this image and text, it would be greatly appreciated. If there are any legitimate reasons that this image and text cannot be used here then please let me know and I will remove them. Thanks. 'Website Editor'.)
Night Of Passage (from the Sheffield Telegraph, Saturday 8th July)
Young people walked 17 miles through the night to maintain a Sheffield tradition. David Bocking joined them
They say it’s a rite of passage for Sheffield teenagers. A bit of an adventure. Something you'll al\ways remember.
And whether you are actually a teenager or a 44-year-old accompanying parent in a dodgy 1980s lumberjack shirt (to keep off the chill, you understand), the Sheffield Night Hike is certainly not something you'II easily forget.
Seventeen miles of woods, moorland and farmer’s fields, 1,000 feet of boulder-strewn ascent at night accompanied by a gaggle of 14-year-old girls singing 'These boots are made for walking'. This is the midsummer night’s adventure organized by local supporters of Christian Aid and Cafod for the last 39 years.
"lt used to be 25 miles and we'd take bets on how far people would get when they turned up," said Wendy Holmes, who’s been counting them out and counting them back in again since1981.
"Then one year, when we were still starting from Graves Park, we saw a girl setting off in skinny jeans, stiletto boots and a jumper and I said: 'She'll get to the park gates'. Then 25 miles later she came back and she was fine. That taught me a lesson."
At that time the night hike followed a circuit more or less around Sheffield’s long-forgotten outer circle bus route but concerns about the safety of late-night urban traffic led to the hike being switched to the countryside between St Luke’s Church at Lodge Moor and Hathersage Methodist Church.
Thousands of people have taken part over the years and some of the original teenage walkers are now helping a new generation. (Around 30 people helped as marshals or catering staff last Saturday night, along with several members of the Raynet radio team, who always assist at the Night Hike.)
And since the Night Hike's inception, along with the other daytime walk held in the spring, the Lodge Moor walks have raised an estimated £250,000 for Christian Aid and Cafod, largely for work among the poor and starving of the world.
Organiser Richard Buckley says the walks have probably saved many lives since they started and this year’s Night Hike is expected to add more than £4,000 to the total.
This was very much on the 64 walkers’ minds as they set off into the summer’s evening of the Mayfield Valley.
We’re doing this to raise money for people in Africa, who might have to walk this far just to get water," said 13-year-old Phoebe Amato-Pace as she and her variously singing and chortling friends passed through the fields watched by a family of disconcerted sheep.
Yellow marshals cropped up every now and then to advise on directions and proffer "Oh, a mile or two" to shocked participants who wondered how far they’d come so far.
The streetlights began to appear over distant Sheffield as the hikers started out over the Houndkirk Road to Fox House and after sad reflections on the tearful David Beckham and discussions of the nature and intent of the afternoon’s meeting of Rooney’s heel and Carvalho’s groin, there were cheers in the moorland sunset when a young Francophile discovered the Brazil result.
Night fell at just the right moment as a series of frogs appeared and the girls turned to a discussion of the Blair Witch Project as the path wound into the darkness of Padley woods.
At Hathersage, the (just over) half way point, the walkers were offered drinks and early breakfasts by the catering team, some of whom said they were only too happy to be catering rather than walking on this occasion.
"My feet feel as If they're being pressed on by lots of rocks," said 14-year-old Grace Freeman. "But I'm most worried about running out of food."
The early morning stretch through the Hathersage fields brought on a metaphysical mood, as the girls (and an 11-year-old brother) pondered the distance the light had taken lo reach us from the stars overhead.
Do you know, if the population of China walks past in a line, you will never see the end, came an assertion from the darkness.
Marshalling by a signpost below Moorseats Farm was teacher Chris Cook and his dog Jem, neither of whom felt there was anything remotely bizarre about marking physics papers at two in the morning by the light of a torch in the middle of a field.
As we approached the path up to Stanage Edge, a fellow walker helpfully stopped us under the trees. "This next bit is the toughest bit of the walk." he said. "But after that it’s downhill all the way,” he added (metaphorically it later transpired).
"I feel like a zombie on autopilot, said Phoebe Amato-Pace, after climbing over a mile and a half of rocks and boulders to Stanage Pole.
"My parents didn’t think I could finish it, said one walker. "So I’ve done this out of spite as much as anything.
"In their faces," she added, a touch of delirium perhaps setting in as the sun rose over Lodge Moor.
It was good but hard, sighed 14-year-old Heather Ibbotson.
"I think we’ve done two things by doing this." reflected Grace Freeman. You've accomplished something and by raising money you've accomplished something for someone else."
We are all legends, she added sleepily.