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ANNUAL COACH TRIP SATURDAY 26 SEPTEMBER 2026. ALL WELCOME

This years coach trip will take place on Saturday 26 September 2026. The coach will leave the Vue Cinema car park at Doncaster Dome at 0800 (be there by 0745) and will collect at the Park and Ride of York Road at about 0815 (be there by 0800). We will be offering 3 walks, approximate details below.

11.5 mile walk from Ravenscar to the Old Harbour, Scarborough along the Cleveland Way coastal path.
7 mile walk from Cloughton to the Old Harbour, Scarborough along the Cleveland Way coastal path.
3.5 mile round walk from Scalby Mills to the Old Harbour, Scarborough along the Cleveland Way.

The walks have been selected so they are suitable for Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday Walkers.

Bring along your family, partner or a friend. They do not have to walk, a day out in Scarborough is always a good idea.

The coach will leave Scarbrrough at 1800 so this should give people time to get some fish and chips and/or visit a local hostelry.

The coach will be provided by Buckley’s, same as last year, and will seat up to 49. Based on a take up rate of 43 the cost is £20/per person. If we manage to fill the coach the cost will come down to £17.50 and you will be refunded the £2.50 difference. Please note this is a 10% increase on the 2025 cost. This reflect the cost increases experienced by all coach operators in the last year plus the travel distance is slightly greater than in 2025. All other local walking groups have experienced similar cost increases during 2026

To book a place or places send an email to tomlinsonstephen4@gmail.com with the name/s of the those you are booking for. In the email can you also confirm you have made your payment to Doncaster Ramblers.

Please make payment direct to the Doncaster Ramblers bank account details below.

Account name. The Ramblers Association Doncaster Group.
Account number 20153322.
Sort code. 60 83 01
In the reference box put your first initial then a space followed by your surname then a symbol then coach, for example A Gibson-coach. This allows us to keep track of who has paid

PLEASE BOOK YOUR PLACE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE SO IF NECCESSARY WE CAN OFFER SEATS TO OTHER LOCAL RAMBLERS GROUPS AND WALKING GROUPS SO WE CAN FILL THE COACH.

SYNED Ramblers Area AGM

The SYNED Ramblers Area AGM was held on Saturday January 17th 2026. You can read a summary here.

Annual General Meeting

Our AGM was held on 24th November. You can read the draft minutes here.

SIGN UP TODAY TO RECEIVE EMAILS FROM DONCASTER RAMBLERS

We are working towards setting up an email contact system for as many of our members as possible. This will allow us to send updates on Doncaster Ramblers activities at minimal cost. If you are not signed up on the main Ramblers website to receive emails, or you cannot recall if you have, then go to https://www.ramblers.org.uk/

1. Sign into your account (see black box at top of the Home Page.) This opens another Home Page.

2. Go to My Details and click on this.

3. Scroll down to Contact Preferences.

4. Tick email.

Walks Leaders Needed

You will appreciate that we put on three walks per week, so that’s about 150 walks a year. At the moment leadership of these walks is being undertaken by too few members. We need more people to undertake leading, particularly for the Thursday and Saturday walks. A new leader, if they wish, would be very welcome to buddy-up with an experienced leader to guide them through the process of planning, recce-ing, etc.

To submit a walk send to Peter Gravestock at: peter_gravestock@talktalk.net

Contact Charlie re queries about Tuesday walks, martin.pratt2006@btinternet.com, Angela re Saturday walks amg28@hotmail.com, and David re Thursday walks pdgadd@icloud.com.

Expenses

Ramblers has always paid expenses to members who have incurred reasonable expenses in the course of Ramblers’ activities. These include fuel expenses (at 28p per mile) for carrying out a recce, attending a maintenance session, etc.
Given that Ramblers is a charity most members choose not to claim, but the right is there.
The treasurer is responsible for deciding if something is a ‘reasonable expense’.

There is an Expense form on the website under Downloads

Ramblers Association Doncaster Group

Minutes of Committee meeting held on 17^th September 2018 at The Three Horse Shoes

Committee Members Present: David Gadd, Peter Rowsell, Marion Thompson, Sue Robertson, Stephen Saddington, Tony Marsh, Dennis Neal and Martin Wyman.

Also attended: Steve Robertson.

Apologies.

Apologies received from: David Horne, Peter Gravestock, Bob Carlisle, Dave Binnington, Jim Elvidge and Norman Lewis.

Minutes of previous meeting 16^th July.

Minutes confirmed as accurate PR/DG .

Matters arising from those minutes.

None.

Walking Festival.

DB/BC not prepared to organise it again for a combination of reasons. No feedback from DMBC received. DMBC are due to appoint a new ‘walking officer’, who may be persuaded that DMBC should organise a walking festival which we would strongly support. Defer to January meeting.

Thursday Walks Programme.

DG asked if we should expand our Thursday walks programme two or four walks a month and continue throughout the year. TM said he understood that the Thursday walks were intended to follow the monthly strenuous Tuesday walk which DG agreed. Defer to January’s meeting.

Financial Report.

DH not present. Financial report presented.

The money for the Carers walks was discussed. SS asked if this money was ring fenced, DG replied that it must be. DG asked if we should do them again next year, and there was sufficient positive support offered by Committee members to confirm that he would from May to October, no walk in August. Include in January’s Agenda to sort out the walks.

Publicity Officer.

PR said we were still getting articles in the Free Press, almost every week. Both DB and Trevor Jenkins submit stories weekly at present, PR has to decide which to use. TJ’s are longer and have a separate tab on the website, but DG said DB was happy with his shorter contributions to remain on the Home page.

TM commented that the articles were in danger of becoming repetitive. PR replied that DFP actually requested more words.

Walks Programme .

- Walks Programme format.

NL had followed the same pattern as before for the Winter Programme. DG suggested that the photo that goes on the front cover should be decided collectively, but the Committee thought that DG/NL could decide.

Rights of Way Report

MW

There have been 270 paths walked so far this year. Matters move slowly where changes to RoW are concerned, and I recognise that updates from me are very hard to comprehend unless you know the actual location and footpath concerned. Therefore I will only report in future when actual progress is made.

TM

The volunteers have made good progress since the last committee meeting in July. Three more sessions have taken place with a total of 23 volunteers turning out to help.

On July 18th an additional, non scheduled session was arranged and three volunteers installed a new kissing gate which passed through a length of newly erected fencing in Sykehouse. Before we could begin our task we had to make sure the existing fencing was secure otherwise we would be wasting our time. A successful outcome which met with the farmer's approval. Pity we didn't do the original fencing based on our "21 inches down for all posts" system!!. Their posts were 7" into the ground including the points!

On August 8th, twelve volunteers were on site by the Boat Inn in Sprotbrough, working on the flight of steps leading down from the village(Sprotbrough', FP No.3). Over 80 steps were cleared and anti-slip strips fitted. Lee Welsh, one of the team, added a photo of the work on Facebook and received over a hundred 'hits' and many comments of approval and appreciation. So the 'locals' do notice and appreciate what we do.

On September 5th, eight volunteers carried out further work at Sprotbrough, replacing 4 rotten posts and 2 handrails on the same steps previously repaired. Replacement posts were also installed on Sprotbrough FP No.2 at Fox Plantation and on St Helen's Lane in Barnburgh(FP No.7). Clearance work and repairs to a dangerous stile was also done on the path leading down to the 'Pastures' from High Melton College(High Melton FP No. 7)

We had intended to do additional work in Bentley, but simply ran out of time. This work will be done on the next session on October 3rd.

Finally, an email has just been received from Lee Welsh regarding the steps at Sprotbrough. He posted a couple of photographs of the replacement posts and rails on Facebook and received 176 'likes' and 32 comments thanking us for our efforts.

DG referred to the Area initiative on Ploughing and Cropping, and the website designed by Jez Kenyon. MW said that it was difficult for us to support this as it relied on the Pathwatch app on mobile phones to report problems, and we used a different system. Work at Bradfield was also discussed. Steve R suggested diverting Area funds to support footpath work.

Social Report.

DN said the AGM will be at the Wheatley Working Men’s Club on November 1^st.

DN asked if Hilda Levine was doing the bookings for Xmas. DG replied that HL was looking after his Tuesday walk. Liz Slack was now arranging the Saturday walk, details to follow.

Membership Report.

Sue R said that in the last period we had gained 5 new members, plus 1 reinstated. It was agreed that email addresses should not be circulated beyond the Committee.

12 . AOB.

- DG said he had tried to develop an email distribution list to cover all members but was having technical difficulties, could anyone help? MW said that in the past Catherine Palmer had used Microsoft mail merge to email all members with email addresses registered with CO. S&SR said they would look at the options.

- The welcome letter for new members was reviewed. Maybe too formal, perhaps it could be made more friendly.

- MW said he had been advised to improve the security of the website by activating the free SSL certificate offered by the new hosting company. He planned to do this in the next week..

- PR had been given a letter by BC concerning the Trans Pennine Trail Event to be held at Sprotbrough on 22^nd September. It had been agreed that we support this, but it is unclear what has been done. PR to apologise, due to illness nothing has been done.

Meeting closed 21:17