Irony of the new-style Walking Day

THE irony of the new-style Warrington Walking Day which will take place this year is that it will result in changes many people have been seeking for years.

It will not be on a week day and it will be held in a park.
The changes are, of course, a direct result of the borough council’s current financial difficulties. But organisers say they represent an opportunity to breath new life into a celebration that has been declining in popularity for some years.
Whether or not they accord with the original purpose of Walking Day when it was founded in 1834 is debatable.
The Rev Horace Powys, the then Rector of Warrington, founded the event as a celebration of Christian Witness and a counter-attraction to Newton Races , which he said were causing drunkenness and gambling.
Newton Races died out many years ago but Walking Day continued, interrupted only by World Wars and Covid. It has remained a highlight of Warrington’s calendar for thousands of people.

Whether it ever achieved the ambitions of the Rev Powys is another matter. I remember reporting on Walking Days in the 1960s on the number of little children in their white dresses waiting outside town centre pubs while their parents celebrated their own act of Christian Witness inside, propped up against the bar.
The organisers of Walking Day Reborn are right to suggest this year offers an opportunity to breath new life into an event which has declined in popularity in recent years. But great care has to be taken if Walking Day is to return in anything like its traditional form when current financial pressures ease.
There is already talk of a lively, carnival atmosphere and food and drink.
We don’t want the Rev Powys turning in his grave.