The Hills are Alive! Commoners Choir in Calderdale

Boff Whalley is best known for Tubthumping with the band Chumbawamba but now he’s a core member of the Leeds based Commoners Choir which he founded. They sing about the world around them, about inequality and injustice, and they also love to walk. Cath Long, a fellow member, wrote to Ramblings to ask Clare to join them on a hike in the South Pennines near Todmorden in Calderdale, West Yorkshire. So, on a chilly, wet and blustery Saturday in early January, they met by the Shepherd’s Rest pub and headed into the hills to ramble and sing. Boff created a choir manifesto, and one aim was to 'rehearse until we're brilliant' and they really are. Their Skelmanthorpe Flag Song, which they performed at the historic Basin Stone, was heard by fellow walkers at least two miles down in the valley. On a circular hike, which began and ended at the pub, they stopped off at Gaddings Dam, often described as the highest beach in the UK, where some choir members took the plunge and sang out from the wind-blown waves of the reservoir.Grid Ref for start of walk: SD 945 231Presenter: Clare Balding Producer: Karen Gregor

Om Podcasten

Clare Balding and guests share inspiring conversations while walking in the great outdoors.Fresh air and nature, wonderful views and uplifting chat, each week Clare hikes in a different part of our glorious countryside. Walking side by side is the perfect way to cover a huge range of subjects: literature, art, wildlife, nature, taking on personal or physical challenges, dealing with grief, confronting preconceptions about the kind of people who love to ramble. The conversations are as varied as the landscapes we find ourselves in. If there's a recurring theme, it's the accepted truth that 'solvitur ambulando' - 'it is solved through walking': The sense of wellness, the benefits to mental health, easy companionship, or sometimes just the sense of solitude that being alone in nature brings.Few things are better than going for a good walk. That's what we aim to share each week on Ramblings with Clare Balding.