We have a detailed history of the walk which makes quite interesting reading. As such, we have divided it up into four different sections to make it easier for the reader.
We hope you find this interesting as the walk started off with modest intentions as a Community initiative. It has grown and grown over the years and now takes a lot of organising, which starts from the conclusion of the previous years walk! If you have any old photographs or anything for us to archive on these pages, please email us.
A North Wirral Rotary Club Founder member, the late David Perrin, first thought up the idea of a Community Project designed to enable local charitable organisations and individuals to raise money for the charity or good cause of their own choice. He felt that the Club could organise a Sponsored Walk, providing all the necessary facilities for participants to raise money, through personal sponsorship, in support of their chosen ‘good cause’.
After some research it was decided that the Walk should follow the coastal route from Seacombe Ferry, via New Brighton, Meols, Hoylake and West Kirby to the Wirral Way, finishing at the Wirral Country Park, Thurstaston, approximately 15 miles. There would be Check Points at Leasowe, Hoylake and Caldy where assistance could be provided if necessary.
Participants would pay a nominal registration fee to help cover some of the Club’s operational expenses, but it would be their responsibility to donate all sponsorship money they collected to the organisation or charity they were supporting. With the full support of members, the first ‘Charity Walk’ got under way in the autumn of 1986.
Our ‘Registration Desk’, sited on the open promenade, was a decorator’s pasting table (suitably reinforced in the middle to avoid possible collapse!) and the names of the participants were individually recorded by hand on an A4 refill pad, with their £2 (adult) fees tossed into a tin box with a complete disregard for security. Mind, we only attracted 100 walkers, including children and two dogs! But it was a great fun day, enjoyed by all of our members involved and, with some satisfaction; we felt we had indirectly helped a few good causes. How much was raised for ‘charity’ that day? We hadn’t got a clue, but it was agreed that we would have another ‘go’ the following year.
In 1987 we attracted about 300 participants and the pasting table was replaced by more substantial ‘furniture’, courtesy of the Mersey Ferries Catering Department. Over the years that followed we became more professional in our approach and, with ever increasing patronage, operational changes had to be made.
The Wirral Coastal Walk was moved from Autumn to late Spring each year; the Leasowe Check Point was abandoned because of congestion in the vicinity and difficulty in getting supplies to the site. The promenade at the junction with Harrison Drive became the site of the first Check Point for a while, before finally being moved to the present location, on the embankment in the vicinity of the recently built ‘hostelry’ known as ‘The Derby Pool’. Here vehicular access is good and there is an ample supply of fresh water.
With the ever increasing quantities of water required for diluting concentrated fruit juice, provision of fresh water to the check points became a bit of a ‘headache’. For signing off the walkers at Thurstaston, no longer could a small tent suffice for protection from the elements, so a small Marquee had to be hired and erected. Again, because of increasing numbers and of facilities required at the finish, the “small” marquee became a “big one.”
Perhaps the booking and registration procedures have been modified more than anything else during the past 38 years. Pre-booking and provision of official, consecutively numbered, sponsor forms were introduced, with requests for forms made to a member of the Coastal Walk Committee by telephone who recorded and delivered all literature to the prospective walker or organisation’s group leader, by post. Later, three members of committee had to share this task until it was realised that professional help was required to handle the hundreds of enquiries being received during the three months prior to the date of the Walk.
‘Serve Wirral Training’, an organisation based in Wallasey, where young people were trained in various skills, such as information and computer technology, agreed to handle the ever increasing workload, previously attended to ‘in house’. From 2003 until 2019, Bebington CVS (subsequently VCA Wirral and then Community Action Wirral – CAW) provided us with administrative support. For the 2013 walk, they sent out 4403 sponsorship forms. The 2020 and 2021 Walks had to be cancelled due to Covid and CAW ceased to exist in 2022. By then an ever increasing number of sponsorship/registration forms being downloaded via the Wirral Coastal Walk website so the administrative help was no longer required.
The single registration position had to be supplemented with up to 10 tables for registration purposes, staffed by 20 members, wives and friends, over a two and a half hour period. This, in addition to an Enquiry Desk and Information Section. To minimise congestion at Seacombe, registration start times run from 8:30 to 10.30 am, with an attempt to get the younger walkers and the less able bodied off to an early start, leaving the more experienced until later.
There are many marshalling duties that must be covered along the entire route of the Walk. For this to be accomplished the Wirral Rotary Clubs are assisted by Charity organisations, and “Friends of Rotary”.
Many of the marshals carry out more than one duty, for example, those involved at the start must disperse and take up afternoon duties at one of the Control Points, the Signing Off ‘desks’ at the finish, or control of traffic and additional car parking at Thurstaston, coupled with erection of direction signs and notices is another job that has to be attended to from early morning. For some of us, our day starts at about 8.00am. and, if lucky, we can be relaxing back home by 7.30pm.
Since 1987, we reckon the walk has raised approximately £3.5 million which has been distributed to charitable and other organisations. The preprinted (available from a number of charities) and downloaded Registration and Sponsorship forms remain in place for walkers to assemble pledges (many of which can be eligible for Gift Aid) if they wish but there are many on-line giving systems which can make collecting donations much quicker and easier – and make Gift Aid collection by charities very much simpler.
Apart from a ‘little blip’ in the year after the birth of the National Lottery, numbers taking part has steadily increased, until the Covid Pandemic. The walk was cancelled for two years but was reintroduced in 2022, and in 2023, close to 2,000 people did the walk.
The Walk continues to provide valuable income for many charities, both national and local, as well as many good causes supported by individual walkers. It remains primarily a community project as it was first envisaged. It continues to be organised by the Wirral Rotary Clubs.
The essence of the Walk is unchanged, but it continues to develop and move forward. Whilst walkers can still register on the day with cash or card, walkers can now register in advance online directly on the Wirral Coastal Walk Website (and almost 90% did so in 2023). This allows them to walk directly from the start, only showing the registration on their phone or a paper printout when signing off (and receiving a certificate) at the end.
The Walk now starts at the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton which has the advantages of more parking, better public transfer links, and refreshment facilities. Interestingly some Walk Veterans insist on doing an extra 2.5 miles by using the original start at Seacombe Ferry.
There is no doubt that our success in attracting ‘thousands’ rather than ‘hundreds’ of walkers in recent years, is due to the excellent publicity the Walk has received from the local press and radio and now social media, particularly Facebook and Instagram.
Organisations such as the St John Ambulance, Raynet, Merseyside Police, Merseyrail, the Staff at the Floral Pavilion, Wirral Rangers and local Bus Companies continue to play an important part in the operation. Without their involvement, and Rotary volunteers, the Walk could not continue to operate at the present level. Those who provide music and entertainment, and participants in fancy dress, all add to the carnival atmosphere we have tried to maintain.