The Christian Aid Sponsored Walk was introduced by the Church of St John the Baptist in Meopham in 1967 as a means of boosting funds from the house to house collections during Christian Aid Week. 

The Walk was devised by the local footpath group to cover a twenty-mile circumference of Meopham taking in the delightful scenery of the North Downs on footpaths, bridleways and country lanes.

In its original form, it started and finished at the Meopham Primary School, with the co-operation of the Headmaster David Jennings. It was a challenge for the organiser to plan and mark out the route, each year and to co-opt helpers as marshals and sweepers. There were drink stations in the morning and afternoon, and the welcome lunch-time soup kitchen was at Miss Marc’s house, Poundgate, Harvel in the early years. There were as many as twenty five marshals required to station themselves along the route, sometimes at quite remote locations in the middle of fields and the lucky one at the Vigo Inn.

The marshals had to arrive early and walk to the previous marshal point hammering red wooden markers into sometimes very hard ground, and then return to their base before the first walker arrived. A deck chair, a good book and a flask was all that was required to enjoy a relaxing day in the countryside - or, a sheltering tree, waterproofs, wellingtons and umbrellas, to endure a miserable, wet day. The first walkers, or rather young lads running to be home before the start of the Cup Final, came through early on and the day then would stretch out until finally the slower walkers and the sweeper would arrive. Often, this would be as late as 7.00 p.m.

The organiser also had (and still has) to be a diplomat taking criticism from the council for “illegal bill-posting”, walkers who were lost - often because markers were pulled up, farmers whose crops were trampled and even the police did their best early on to discourage the walk from even taking place. The “gem” was a complaint that a marshal was unable to help a walker whose sandal had broken, because he had no supply of string!

Walkers in the early years came en-masse from all around and in 1974, 263 walkers raised £1196. There was a regular party from Catford School and from Gravesend School and the Gravesend churches. The scouts and guides from time to time have supported the walk.

The Walk has continued every year since 1967 and on only two occasions has it had to be abandoned due to severe weather. It is now a walk, which takes in the churches of the Deanery, thus simplifying the marshalling and involving, hopefully, more participants.

A chronological listing of some available information, with a listing of organisers follows;