Man celebrates 60th consecutive Christmas Day walk

A notch for every year a walk is completed, Colin Bedford took his 60th consecutive walk on Christmas Day

A man is celebrating taking his 60th traditional five-mile Christmas Day walk which he started in 1965.

Colin Bedford, 88, from March, Cambridgeshire, first went on the journey on Christmas Day 59 years ago and has repeated the excursion every year since.

Part of his ritual is to carve the current date into the bark of the same tree where he played as a child, which marks the end of his festive stroll.

In 1965 Mr Bedford collected a thick branch that had fallen from the tree, which he continues to use as a walking aid, which too has had a notch added for every year.

Every Christmas Day since 1965 Mr Bedford takes a chisel and hammer to carve the particular year into the tree

"I suppose it became a bit of an obsession," said Mr Bedford.

"In 1965, my wife and I, with our one-year-old daughter had gone for Christmas Day lunch with my parents, who still lived in the house where I grew up.

"When I was a small child me and my friends had a secret den in an area of Fenland called Hook Drive near Wimblington, we used to have such fantastic fun down there, it was a magical place," said Mr Bedford.

The den included four mature ash trees.

In 2014, to mark the 50th walk, Mr Bedford was accompanied by friends and family

Mr Bedford went on to explain that after their Christmas Day meal the weather in 1965 was particularly mild.

On the spur of the moment he decided to go for a "trip down memory lane".

"I wanted to show my little daughter some of my old haunts, so headed for our beloved secret den.

"When we reached the ash trees I got my pen knife out and carved my initials and the year into the trunk of the end tree.

"The whole thing brought back such vivid happy memories, I thought that I'd like to do it every year."

Since Mr Bedford's wife Margaret passed away other family members have gone with him on his festive walk