SIXTY walkers gathered last week, at the Prince of Wales pub in Ross-on-Wye, to celebrate the life of Neville

Littleford, who died of a heart attack whilst leading a walk not far from his home town in December.

Neville lived in Bernard Hackett Court in Ross-on-Wye.

Fellow rambler Allan Ricketts said: “Neville died of a heart attack the day after his eighty-fourth birthday. He was a founder member in 2001 of the Ross Ramblers Group and was a vital and active person with a huge, charismatic personality who was extremely generous with his time, concern and possessions.

He leaves a widow Thelma who very kindly gave his maps, walking books and CDs to those at the gathering.

“Neville only started serious walking when he retired in 1994 from running a pet shop with Thelma in his native Birmingham and moved to Ross. In the next twelve years he completed seven British national trails including the notorious, 630-mile-long South West Coast Path.

“In addition he completed 14 Recreational Paths over 50 miles in length, including Wainwright’s Coast to Coast and Four Challenge walks. His favourite of these was the Abergavenny Three Peaks which he walked six times in nine years. Showing amazing consistency, with one exception, his record cards indicate this walk always took him seven hours and 15 minutes.

“On average he led a walk for the Ross Ramblers every month. Neville would work out the walk and research the history and places of interest.

From his extensive collection of maps he photocopied the area and marked the route on the copy. In his archives there are 130 of these walks and he had already planned walks for the next three months.

“As the local Ramblers footpath officer for many years, his knowledge of the paths in the 32 parishes of south Herefordshire was unrivalled. Neville’s great concern was to maintain them 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 (154 miles) and acted in the same capacity for the Ross Round Walk.”

An hour of tributes at the gathering covered Neville’s walking, his helpfulness, his ballroom dancing expertise and the walking holidays he organised. Speakers were Satish Barot, Heather Davies, Lyndon Duke, Ian Foster, Sally Northcott, Allan Ricketts, Margaret Rodgers, Guy Vowles and Danny Webb. Joe Kennedy sent apologies but emailed the participants with information about Neville’s love of football and horse racing.

As a mark of respect a Neville Cyril Littleford Memorial Fund has been set up to be administered by Ross Ramblers Committee to promote the aims of  the Ramblers Association.

Allan added: “At present this stands at £950 and any further donations will be very welcome. Cheques payable to Ramblers Association (HW2) should be sent to Hon Treasurer 4, Fisherman’s Reach, Wilton, Ross on Wye HR9 6BE.