Ramblers’ Life President Celebrates 90th Birthday

Published on: 26 Jan, 2025
Updated on: 26 Jan, 2025

Veteran walker Keith Chesterton was literally “given the boot” when he was presented with a birthday cake made in the shape of a walking boot at his 90th birthday party.

Keith Chesterton with family and Guildford Ramblers walking friends at his 90th birthday party.

Keith has been a member of the Ramblers nationally for 65 years. He founded the Guildford Ramblers in January 1989 and was its chairman for 23 years. He is now its honorary life president.

During his time with Guildford Ramblers he has led more than 1,000 walks and has seen membership grow from 20 to more than 300 walkers.

He has always been a keen walker; as an eight-year-old he remembers asking his mother if they could walk home from the cinema, as he preferred it to the bus.

Keith said: “Walking is much more popular now than it used to be. People walk for many different reasons, some for fitness or to meet people, others for the love of countryside or an interest in plants, trees and wildlife.

“We are so lucky because the area around Guildford is really great for walking. There’s so much variety, the North Downs with great views, the Surrey Hills with its pretty villages and in many of them a good pub if you want to stop at for a drink and a snack.

“There’s a great variety of vegetation, depending on whether the sub-soil is sand, clay or chalk and if you prefer a less strenuous walk there’s the flatter area of the Thames basin.

“You get a much better feeling for an area by walking through it rather than driving or even cycling. And within five minutes of starting a walk you can get away from traffic noise.”

Keith Chesterton’s boot-shaped birthday cake.

However, Keith doesn’t just walk around Guildford, in earlier years he has climbed Kilimanjaro and trekked to Annapurna base camp.

Closer to home he completed the Surrey Three Peaks, Yorkshire Three Peaks and Welsh 3000s Challenges and has walked 11 of the best-known long distance paths in the UK including the Pennine Way, Offa’s Dyke Path and the West Highland Way, which he completed only seven years ago.

His other interests include his family, cycling and cross-country skiing when younger, and politics. He spent eight years as a Guildford Borough Councillor, and was lead for the environment and four years as a Surrey County Councillor.

Guildford Ramblers offers an extensive selection of walks. There is a Wednesday morning walk of five to six miles and a longer walk of eight to 10 miles on a Saturday.

On one Monday morning a month there is a short three to four-mile walk.

For the full programme of walks go to www.guildfordramblers.org.uk/ and click on the ‘walks’ tab.