What’s in a name?
The Club was originally founded in the mid-1960s by Pat Connors and John Lewis, not as a walking club, but as an amateur boxing club. The club was called St Edward’s Amateur Boxing Club as the boxing training took place in the gym in the old St Edward’s School in Whitley Bay.
Some years later, an Army Youth Team stationed at Fenham Barracks in Newcastle approached St Edwards Amateur Boxing Club with a view to providing a variety of sporting activities to their cadets, including boxing and fellwalking.
The Army Youth Team suggested a winter walking programme, and John Lewis contacted local schools to see if they were interested in taking part. The only school which replied was the former La Sagesse School in Newcastle. The first winter walking programme started in early 1971, and this was expected to be a “one off”.
Due to the popularity of the walks, with parents and other adults joining the club, this led to monthly walks being arranged using a hired bus. This then became a fortnightly programme of walks.
The boxing club came to an end when Pat Connors died, and the Army Youth Teams were sadly the victim of financial cuts, but the fellwalking has continued ever since and has gone from strength to strength. The Club became known as St Edward’s ABC Fellwalkers; in time the reference to the Amateur Boxing Club was dropped and the Club is currently known as St Edwards Fellwalkers.
If you were wondering where the Club’s logo comes from, the central shield is based on the arms of St Edward the Confessor, in a nod back to the logo for the the old St Edward’s School.
