Forest Ramblers

F o r e s t R a m b l e r s’ C l u b

F o u n d e d 1 8 8 4

w a l k i n g i n t h r e e c e n t u r i e s

Welcome to the Forest Ramblers web site

About us

The Forest Ramblers are a London walking club founded in 1884. We are generally believed to be the oldest rambling club still in existence in the UK*.

Our Club’s original purpose was to give active support to the City of London Corporation in their endeavours to conserve Epping Forest, which they had acquired a few years earlier and which was formally dedicated as a public amenity by Queen Victoria on May 6^th 1882. The Forest Ramblers’ activities soon spread to a much wider area, however, and in the early days included visits to such distant destinations as Matlock and even Paris. Nowadays all our walks are in Greater London and the Home Counties.

The Club’s object, according to our constitution, is “to organise and carry out short rambles to places tending to healthful and instructive recreation and antiquarian interest”. We encourage our leaders to follow this principle whenever possible.

The Forest Ramblers’ walks have always taken place in mid-week. This arrangement was designed in the nineteenth century to suit retail traders, who enjoyed an early closing day on Wednesday or Thursday. In modern times it benefits people who for any reason at all find rambling in mid-week more convenient than at weekends. Wednesday walks ceased in fairly early times and nowadays we walk only on Thursdays.

We are affiliated to the Inner London Area of the Ramblers’ Association.

Our walks start fairly late in the morning, to allow full use of the London Freedom Pass and the Senior Railcard.

The Forest Ramblers 125th Anniversary Walk,

November 26th 2009

Members gather round the Club’s Centenary Stone,

erected in 1984

near the Royal Forest Hotel, Chingford

The Centenary Stone

We are a small, friendly group and would love to welcome you on any of our walks. Do come along and be part of rambling history.

*Click here to read Paul Vallely’s interesting article in The Independent, 4th September 1995, including the chronology at the end

About our rambles

Area covered:	We walk in London and surrounding counties
Frequency:	Our rambles take place on all second. fourth and fifth Thursdays except in December (second only)
Travel:	All our walks are based on rail travel (National Rail or TfL)
Meeting place:	We meet at the station where the ramble begins (not the London departure station), so that you can make your own travel arrangements if you wish
Starting time:	Our walks start in late morning and are nearly always timed so that rail travellers do not have to leave London before 10.30 a.m.
Distance:	Rambles are generally 6½ to 7 miles, but may be slightly shorter when visits to places of interest are included
Speed:	Our average walking speed is about 2 miles an hour (leisurely to moderate)
Food:	We enjoy a convivial pub lunch, within 2 miles of the start if possible
Other events:	Our Annual Lunch is held in mid-May
Programme:	Click here to see our current programme and a summary of recent walks

Contacts

Norman Coles (Ranger):

Tel. 020 8886 7542

David Turner (Hon. Secretary):

E-mail or tel. 01494 521967

Programme

History

Contact us