5 years ago in February, Rethinking Cities, the Museum of Walking‘s parent, were asked by Greenwich Healthy Living Service to devise walking and cycling routes around doctors’ surgeries and children cities, creating a pattern of more than 140 routes right across the Royal Borough – to encourage gentle exercise.  Doing our bit to seed a legacy for the London Olympics.

10 years ago in September and October, Andrew Stuck who had set up Rethinking Cities a couple of years before, joined 30 artists on a Walking and Art residency at Banff Centre for Arts in the Canadian Rockies, led by inspirational Ernie Kroeger.  With lots of practical experience of commissioning artists to help promote healthier environments and active travel, Andrew set to on creating the Museum of Walking and began recording  interviews with artists for Talking Walking.

20 years ago in March, a whole decade earlier, Andrew, working as TravelWise Manager at Wiltshire County Council, launched Get Wiltshire Walking, to create local walking forums that devised walking initiatives in their local neighbourhoods.  Also launched on that day, and part-funded by Get Wiltshire Walking was the Salisbury Doorstep Walks, inspired by Dr William Bird, and pre-dating the national ‘Walking for Health” initiative.  We are delighted that both Get Wiltshire Walking and the Doorstep Walks are still thriving!

This article previously appeared on the Rethinking Cities website.