Walk honours Chesterfield gay rights pioneer and raises hundreds of pounds for LGBT+ centre
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The 5.3-mile walk – in memory of Edward Carpenter – started in Chesterfield and finished in the rural Derbyshire village of Millthorpe on Sunday.
Ed Fordham, one of the walkers, said: “We raised more than £1,500 for the the Derbyshire LGBT+ centre in Rutland Road.
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Hide Ad“We were delighted to set off from the Chesterfield Arms pub by the Mayor of Chesterfield, Councillor Gordon Simmonds.
“Twenty of us walked to Millthorpe where Edward had lived for nearly 40 years.
“It was very special that we were joined by gay human rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell, and also councillors from Chesterfield and North East Derbyshire.”
Born in Sussex in 1844, Edward lived in Chesterfield before moving to Millthorpe with his partner George Merrill.
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Hide AdEdward, a poet and philosopher, lived as an openly gay man at a time when it was illegal to be gay.
He was way ahead of his time and celebrated for being the ‘last gay man standing in Britain’ when most of gay London fled to Paris in the wake of Oscar Wilde’s imprisonment in 1895.
The weekend also saw the release of a book, The Chesterfield Letters of Edward Carpenter, edited by Ed and Luke Povey.
The book – which features a collection of previously unknown and unpublished letters written by Edward to Chesterfield architect William Martin Ashmore – can be bought from Ed or Luke’s stall at Chesterfield Market on a Thursday or Saturday.
