Muppett’s Walk: Stanbury to Keighley Along the Worth

A big thanks to Lucy Johnson for this lovely blog about the Muppet Memorial Walk organised by RWF for the Keighley Walking Festival. If you would like to write a blog on a River Worth matter please contact us.
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​What better memorial to a much loved person than leading a favourite walk in their memory? As part of Keighley Walking Festival the River Worth Friends organised a walk from Stanbury to Keighley on Saturday 27th of September. This walk was advertised as “Muppett’s Walk.” At several points during the hike walk leader Sue Patchett shared memories of Michael Pascal, who preferred to be known as Muppett.
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Muppett was passionate about broadening access to the countryside. He campaigned for many years to ensure access to the Dales bus service that runs from Keighley. He was good-humoured, invariably clad in Crocs, and passed away very suddenly last year.

Muppet on a walk in 2022, in the middle with crocs.

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​The Stanbury walk followed a route devised by Muppett. It was attended by 14 intrepid walkers, and led by Sue  supported by Malcolm Eldon, on a bright autumn day. Most participants met at Keighley bus station, where Sue was proudly sporting an eye-wateringly bright Walking Festival hat, the familiar River Worth Friends high-vis and jazzy trousers.
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The bus route up the valley was scenic and calm, through a landscape studded with scenic villages, known for the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway and its role in the 1970 version of The Railway Children. We arrived as scheduled at the meeting point and acquired a few more participants, with only Malcolm and Rita sporting bare knees in the late September sunshine. 

​The walk was gently undulating and picturesque throughout. The most challenging element were the relatively frequent stiles, one of which had caused an uncomfortable impromptu dip in a small stream on a previous iteration of this walk. The stile has since been repaired, but if you were trying hard you could probably still have a mishap.
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Photographs were taken at various traditional bridges, and at Lumbfoot, an idiosyncratically signed small settlement. Sue was keen to avoid the walk being an endless photoshoot, so she tried to rein in some of Malcolm’s more elaborate photocalls, in order to keep the walk moving and arrive in Keighley on time.
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During the walk I mostly chatted with Sue, who is an endless source of jawdropping stories delivered in habitually dead-pan style. We ranged from tales of local campaigning, to her recent funded trip to a conference in Birmingham, where the food was not up to Sue’s very specific standards, and the state of railings both public and private. (Sue’s railings are yet to be painted at the time of writing, despite her continuously volunteering to paint various railings in the community).
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I was intrigued to hear that in some respects Sue is a born campaigner rather than self-taught – her father spent many years lobbying parliament to protect badgers in the local area, and also went through a litigious phase trying to solve issues in court. As for how she manages to contribute meaningfully to practically every environmental cause going within a fairly wide area, Sue 

She's not going to creep up on any wildlife in that get up!

​commented, “I’ve got lots of faults, but organisation isn’t one of them.” She also said that she can easily spend four hours at a time on her computer emailing local councillors or uploading and updating photos. She commented on her abrasive, effective campaigning style: “You’ve either got it or you aint!”

​We continued over the gentle hills, mostly through green fields, with the occasional tweak here and there to add a bit of woodland or avoid a road. As we neared Keighley, we were treated to the deisel train passing at Damem’s station, holding us up at the barrier as Malcolm snapped a few more shots.

Diesel trains have no character!

The planned lunch spot was postponed due to winds, so instead we settled down close to the campfire spot at Damem’s Nature Reserve. Unfortunately, it seems that the spot is beloved by local dogs, who had chosen well-targeted spots to leave evidence of their walks, reducing the number of available perches. Sue regaled me with the escapade of Malcom’s Weir over lunch. It was detailed and dramatic enough to merit its own blog at some point, although Malcolm claims that the majority of Keighley is already familiar with the tale. 

​​Lunch completed, we continued back to Keighley, spotting ink caps on the way, and arriving back close to the train station to finish the day. Several walkers peeled off as we returned to the town, leaving a small group to bid farewell to near the train station. We were fortunate with the weather and the route was excellent. Sue proved herself to be a patient leader, even with Malcolm’s occasionally loose interpretation of back-marking. I highly recommend checking out more of the programme next year. 

Your blogger, Lucy Johnson, frightening the walkers.