The West Yorkshire Pennine Way stretches from Black Hill on the Derbyshire border until it crosses over to North Yorkshire at the edge of Oakworth Moor.

For some, walking the Pennine Way might be a "once in a lifetime" thing - something to aspire to - but for many of us in West Yorkshire it's a place to go for a weekend stroll or even a bit of bog-trotting.

Being able to navigate your way with map and compass is a must on the Pennine Way

At its southernmost point in the county walking the Pennine Way is no picnic. The official footpath guide warns: "The top of Black Hill is indeed black: a flat expanse of powdery and often squelchy peat." And it doesn't get much better as it makes its way over Standedge. After making a very brief detour into Greater Manchester taking in Blackstone Edge (described by writer Daniel Defoe as "a fearful precipice" and the Andes of England) it follows old packhorse trails, finding a way though the more gentle valley of the River Colden before climbing up to Haworth Moor.

The 120 ft. high obelisk at Stoodley Pike commemorating the Battle of Waterloo, Top Withens thought to have been immortalised by Emily Bronte as Wuthering Heights and a plaque commemorating dialect poet Ammon Wrigley (at the place where his ashes were scattered in 1948) are just some of the sights along the way.

Tom Stephenson

Yet this footpath, and the other long-distance trails which followed, might never existed without the vision of one man. In 1935 rambler and writer Tom Stephenson, inspired by the Appalachian Way in the United States, suggested a long green trail along the backbone of England. Stephenson had written many articles calling for greater access to the countryside and somehow this suggestion echoed the national mood. Britain was in the midst of the Depression and the wild moorlands provided a place of escape for West Yorkshire's millworkers. "I may be a wage slave on Monday, but I am a free man on Sunday" sang Ewan McColl when there was a mass trespass of Kinder Scout (now the first stretch of the walk) in 1932.

Stephenson's call led to the formation of the Pennine Way Association whose inaugural conference in 1938 stated: "The wide, health-giving moorlands and high places of solitude, the features of natural beauty and the places of historical interest along the Pennine Way give this route a special character and attractiveness which should be available for all time as a natural heritage of the youth of the country and of all who feel the call of the hills and the lonely places."

The Pennine Way climbs up to Top Withens on Haworth Moor

It took until 1965, 30 years after Stephenson first proposed the idea, for the Pennine Way to become a reality. On April 24th in that year 2,000 people, including Stephenson, gathered on Malham Moor to celebrate the completion of the footpath. The Countryside Agency is marking the 40th anniversary of this event with a 'Walk the Way in a Day' celebration. The South Yorkshire stretch has been divided into the following walks: Ickornshaw Moor, Withins Height, Upper Calderdale, Stoodley Pike, Cragg Vale and Millstone/Blackstone Edge.

However, anyone intending to take a walk on West Yorkshire's wildside should take warning from the original walk committee: "While the greater part of the Way is across well-trodden tracks, the route in places crosses expanses of wild moorland devoid of prominent landmarks and consisting largely of peat, heather, bog and tussocks of rough grass. These sections of the route can be traversed only by strong walkers, and in bad weather they can be safely negotiated only by people who can steer a course by map and compass."

But, forty years on, words penned especially for the path's anniversary by Yorkshire bard Ian McMillan remind us of Tom Stephenson's gift to West Yorkshire and the nation:

The Pennine way is a beautiful thing
In summer, autumn, winter, spring.
As the clouds dance across the Pennine sky
And the wild birds wheel past the walkers eye.