Photography: Longridge 20 20 FB
YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE
They do say walking is the best exercise you can do. Alan Veale meets the organisers of the Longridge 20/20, which has been supporting good causes for almost three decades
W
hatever your personal circumstances, it would be hard to deny that the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other does have its benefits. What better way to visit your local pub, for example? Or why not walk a bit further, say 20 miles, and visit several pubs? To answer those questions, I met Alan Heaton from Longridge in a drinking establishment that must remain anonymous – I’ll explain later. Alan tells me about a Tuesday evening in 1994 at a pub not far from where we now sit. He and some mates are chatting over a session of dominoes when he tells them of the time he walked a route that included all 20 Boddingtons pubs in Preston. Hey, we all like walking, so why not try something similar in the Longridge area? So, they did, but without the Boddingtons’ label. It was a route of roughly 20 miles, and so far as he