RAMBLERS and music lovers alike are being urged to join a walk and talk, taking in the beauty of a scenic part of The Gustav Holst Way, to understand more about the life of the Cheltenham-born composer and his passion for walking.

Former BBC and Sky News journalist Frank Partridge, who wrote a guidebook to the Gustav Holst Way, plans to lead a walk, preceded by a talk, leaving the Farmer’s Arm pub in Guiting Power at 10.30am on June 13.

Participants are then being encouraged to carry on their conversations over lunch (not included in the price of the walk) at the pub when the walk is over.

The route, from Guiting Power to Naunton, is around four to five miles.

Gustav Holst was a keen walker, who walked for pleasure and out of necessity. As a young man his first job, as the organist at Wyck Rissington church, earned him only £4 a year, which meant he was invariably unable to afford public transport.

The budding composer would often take his trombone with him to practice his skills in the Cotswold Hills.

On one occasion he recalled being chased off a field by an angry farmer who blamed him for alarming the ewes and making them lamb too early.

Volunteers at the Holst Birthplace Museum laid out the Gustav Holst Way, a 35-mile rambling route across the Cotswolds that was officially inaugurated four years ago, to mark Gustav’s lifelong love of the Cotswolds and walking.

 

*Tickets for the guided walk and talk cost £8 (£6 for Holst members) and can be purchased from the Holst Birthplace Museum and Cheltenham Tourist Information. For more information on the museum visit www.holstmuseum.org.uk.