New Years Day Walk - 2014

[Gizmo (Dave)]

The past three years New Years Day Walks have seen well over 200 dogs come together, with their owners, for walk at Hylands Park in Chelmsford. 200+ Greyhounds really is a sight to behold, and was described by one person as "like V Festival for Greyhounds"!


There will be two walks - one long at around 1 hour, and one short at around 30minutes.




This will be a GreyhoundPLUS walk so all of you that have another breed of dog that you normally have to leave behind can bring them along this time.

Day / Date / Time - Sunday 1st January 2014 - midday

Meeting Point - Hylands Park, Chelmsford, carpark 2 Writtle Gate, off Greenbury Way (A414 Writtle by-pass)

Address of walk n/a

Nearest available postcode (please check this if using for your SatNav) - CM1 3RL

Map link -
Multimap link

Map



Rough Directions - From Chelmsford town centre head towards Harlow and take the A414 Greenbury Way, Hylands Park entrance is about 3/4 mile on your left.

Parking & Charges - Parking - no charge.

Suitable for buggys and wheelchairs? yes, we'll be walking on the meadow and possibly through the woods but it's fairly even.

Toilet facilities - yes at the Cafe and in Writtle Road car park

Refreshments – yes, we will be offering hot drinks at the end of the walk, with a donation bucket close by There's also a very slow cafe by Hylands House.

Anything else – This is a GreyhoundPLUS walk. Greyhounds that are not so good with other dogs may need extra attention and possibly muzzling.

Contact name and phone number of Event Organiser: Dave 07881 950620

[Gizmo (Dave)]

Once again Hylands Park have put up the price of an event license, which we need for the event to go ahead.
They now want an absolutely ridiculous £150 !!

Jan Tiffen has pleaded with the council for a discount, but without success.
I wont post my true feelings about how and why they want to charge us £150, as I'd just end up banning myself. But I can assure you, I'm not impressed

We'll be collecting money at the beginning of the walk to try and offset the charge, so keep an eye out for the collection buckets. Any surplus will go to needy Greyhounds

[Jane]

Nov 8, 2013 14:09:07 GMT Gizmo (Dave) said:

Once again Hylands Park have put up the price of an event license, which we need for the event to go ahead.
They now want an absolutely ridiculous £150 !!

Jan Tiffen has pleaded with the council for a discount, but without success.
I wont post my true feelings about how and why they want to charge us £150, as I'd just end up banning myself. But I can assure you, I'm not impressed

We'll be collecting money at the beginning of the walk to try and offset the charge, so keep an eye out for the collection buckets. Any surplus will go to needy Greyhounds

Got my finger on the button in case you're tempted but to be honest I think this is a special circumstance & I'd overlook any such comments. The annual Greyhound Walk is such an amazing sight the press is always happy to print a story so they get free publicity thanks to us. There's a thought, maybe we should charge for a namecheck in future articles?

[Kerry Custard]

£150 is ridiculous to walk through a park that is owned by the council for the people living in the area. The obvious way forward is to make sure when the press give it a write up that they cover the angle about the outrageous charges being charged for a charity event. Won't change much but I think it's worth telling the public about it.

[Blokey Bloke]

Dec 24, 2013 13:35:46 GMT Kerry Custard said:

£150 is ridiculous to walk through a park that is owned by the council for the people living in the area. The obvious way forward is to make sure when the press give it a write up that they cover the angle about the outrageous charges being charged for a charity event. Won't change much but I think it's worth telling the public about it.

When did Councils change from being there to mend roads, empty (single) bin and keep the lights on? They are now money pits with a big percentage of the poll tax going on pensions. Makes Arthur Daley seem honest! Don't start me on the aggressive milking of the 'motorist' who I believe are tax payers!

Come the revolution brothers (and sisters of course)!

[Charlotte]

Bump!

3 days to go!

[floydpink]

Safe to say that it will be wet at Hylands, as it is everywhere at the moment, so wellies/boots etc are a very good idea

[jacksmum]

Thanks to all the team for organising today's walk and the much appreciated hot drinks and cakes!

Debbie and Jack x

[wandasmum]

Am I missing something here. Why do we need an event license. Surely it's just a lot of individuals walking their dogs?

[ruxpin]

Thank you to all those who made todays walk possible. There was a good turnout despite the pretty awful weather. Luna declined the invitation as she does not do mud but Bobbie had a great time. It was lovely to meet and talk to new greyhound owners that I have never met before and to see so many dogs that have been homed from our kennels over the years enjoying themselves. It was a particular joy to see an old favourite of mine, Minstrel. Some of you may remember him from dogs needing a home. He was in our kennels for approximately three years, eventually being homed at the grand old age of 9. He now has a fabulous life in the countryside (he has just celebrated his 11th birthday) with his pack of lurchers/greyhounds and walks 4-5 miles a day. He was a lovely dog, not the greatest around small dogs and not the most handsome but what he lacked in looks (I personally thought he was lovely) he more than made up for in personality.

For me this is what makes greyhound walks so special. I volunteer at my local kennels (and have done so for the last 10 years), I get to know the dogs there, have the pleasure of taking part in these walks with like minded people, at the same time socialising my own dogs and get to see some of our kennel dogs in their lovely forever homes and to top it all off our kennel dogs benefit from your kind donations. I will be taking three bags of goodies back to the kennels on Saturday courtesy of Rob which will be very much appreciated.

Thank you to everybody who works so hard at Greyhound Walks to make it all work so well and a special thank you to Janet for setting it up in the first place, so many people and dogs have benefited from this wonderful group of people.

wishing you all a happy and peaceful 2014.


Carol x

[Charlotte]

We had a great time despite the rubbish weather! Lovely to meet newbies to the walks and I hope they all enjoyed it

A big thank you to everyone for their help. We're both pooped! Lucky David doesn't go back to work until Monday, but I go back tomorrow

[Mrs P]

Couple of pictures from my phone.

Great job done by all the volunteers on a pretty inhospitable day. Was lovely to see people after being away for so long. George has dried out now, not sure about our coats though. Thank you to Jan Tiffen for Millie sitting, she wasn't up to walking the distance today but enjoyed supervising the tea/coffee from the motorhome step. Lovely cake at the end too

[Mrs P]

And the obligatory "in front of Hylands House" photo nicked from a Facebook page.



Note all the hoods!

Can't say how incredibly impressed we were at the turn out and the dedication and high spirits of sight hound owners, and each person I spoke with I told them so too. Not a walk to be missed they said

When we arrived at 10.30 we had thought there might be 40 or 50 make the journey, after a walk across the lake aka Hylands Meadow with G&M I adjusted that to 30 or 40 it was so very wet and miserable. But they just kept arriving! And so many people stopped for a cuppa and cake.

We are blessed with such hardy and committed walkers!

[debbie]

It was a lovely morning, who cares about the weather! Really good catching up with people. Thanks to all who organised and helped it run (or walk) so smoothly.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using proboards

[Jane]

What a great turnout, well done to all who braved the conditions! What was the final figure, anyone know?