A GROUP of Wye Valley walkers have stepped out in tribute to a former member who died a year ago.

Nearly 50 friends returned to the site of Neville Littleford’s last walk to dedicate a bench to his memory.

The four-mile walk organised and led by the retiring chair of Ross Ramblers, Ian Foster, started at 10am at the Crown Inn in Woolhope and led to Sollers Hope Church to dedicate the bench.

Neville, a founder of Ross Ramblers, was 84 when he led the Tuesday group on his last walk, and they had just left Sollers Hope Church when he died last December.

The parochial church council gave permission for his memorial seat to be sited in the churchyard with a view of the church and the surrounding countryside.

Ross Ramblers spokes­man Allan Ricketts said: “Rev Crispin Pemberton led the short ceremony of dedication sprinkling the seat with blessed water and spoke of Neville’s many years’ service to Ross Ramblers and his passionate enthusiasm for the countryside and background history of the walks he led.”

Mr Ricketts gave the gathering the apologies of Neville’s widow Thelma Littleford, who intends to visit and see the seat in the spring, and also showed the group Neville’s collection of 13 fabric long-distance walk badges which he has inherited and which have been sown onto an old haversack by Yvonne Watkins.

Allan added: “Neville’s great concern was to maintain rights of way for public use and he was a very active Ross Ramblers committee member. In 2002 he was a consultant in many parts of Herefordshire for the Herefordshire Trail (154miles) and acted in the same capacity for the Ross Round Walk.”