00:00Hi, I'm Sue Vickers. I'm author of the Cicerone Guide to the Two Moors Way and I'm also Information Officer
00:07for the Two Moors Way Association.
00:10I'm Kate Ashbrook, General Secretary of the Open Spaces Society, which is Britain's oldest national conservation body.
00:17And I was at the launch of the Two Moors Way and that makes me sound terribly old, but I
00:22was quite young at the time.
00:23Goodness, that's amazing. We're here today celebrating the 50th anniversary, that's right, isn't it?
00:30So, wow, that's really exciting.
00:33Well, it is.
00:33To have somebody that was there at the very start, that's brilliant.
00:37There are also boots planted up with flowers around the village and there's a pair of boots here that have
00:43actually walked to the launch 50 years ago.
00:46Really?
00:46That's fantastic.
00:47Somebody here in the village was here at that time as well.
00:49That's amazing.
00:50But it was 10 years in the making, so I wasn't really in on the start of the idea, which
00:55was that there should be a bridleway across Devon, north, south, south, north,
01:00and that it should be what we now call a national trail, long distance path, national trail.
01:06And the idea, at first, everybody was very excited.
01:10Then, unfortunately, the Country Landowners Association, the National Farmers Union, objected to the section in Mid Devon, which we walked
01:16today, which is absolutely lovely,
01:18because they didn't want too many people on their land.
01:21And so the Countryside Commission, which was the designating body, got cold feet and it took many years of campaigning
01:28to get the route.
01:29It's not a national trail, but it's a very important route.
01:32But we were blessed with a county councillor, Devon County Councillor, Ted Pinney, who was a brilliant supporter.
01:37And he, on the launch day, went up in a helicopter.
01:40He started in Ivy Bridge.
01:42Really?
01:42Yes.
01:42He went to Castle Drogo.
01:44Then he came here, more to Bishop, and then he went to Linman.
01:47So they got in the whole route.
01:49That's amazing.
01:50I didn't know all that history.
01:51That's really fascinating.
01:53So Sue, tell us a little bit more.
01:54What's really interesting about the history as well, I've spent quite a lot of time in the Devon record office,
01:59because I've been preparing some sort of memorabilia screens for the tea this afternoon.
02:06Yes.
02:06And I have, through that, realised how incredibly important the route was when it was dedicated.
02:12Wow.
02:12And how, and it was held in enormously high esteem by the partnerships.
02:17So that's Devon County Council, Exxon National Park, Dartmoor National Park, and the Two Mills Ware Association, as was then.
02:23Wow.
02:24And so tell us what's happening today.
02:26What's happening to mark the occasion?
02:27Well, today we've had two walks.
02:29We've had around 60 people, 60 plus, walking in two directions.
02:34One from the north, from Witheridge.
02:35Yeah.
02:36One walk, one walk coming from the south, from Elmston Cross.
02:38We've all met here, at the Memorial Hall, where the WI has provided tea.
02:43We've got a celebratory take, which we'll cut later.
02:46We're going to have speeches.
02:48Oh.
02:48We're selling Two Mills Way merchandise.
02:51Oh lovely.
02:51And we've got these memorabilia display zones as well.
02:54Fantastic.
02:55Thanks so much.
02:56And we've got people from Devon County Council, Dartmoor National Park, Exxon National Park, all over.
02:58That's brilliant.
02:58Well, thank you so much.
03:00Thanks so much for telling everybody about it.
03:02And here's to the next 50 years.
03:03Yes.
03:04Here's to the next 50 years.
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