Thread 11: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

[DisappointedReader]

The Observer The real Salt Path: how a blockbuster book and film were ...
2nd Observer https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-whats-in-the-book-and-what-the-observer-has-found
3rd Observer https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-the-truth-behind-the-blockbuster-book-video
4th Observer ‘I felt I was being gaslit’ – the landlord who helped Ray...
Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement Raynor Winn
Thread One www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5368194-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?
Thread 2 Thread 2. To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film? | Mumsnet
Thread 3 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5369425-thread-3-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?
Thread 4 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5370609-thread-4-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?
Thread 5 Thread 5: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film? | Mumsnet
Thread 6 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5372494-thread-6-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-
husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?
Thread 7 www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5373425-thread-7-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?
Thread 8 www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5375023-thread-8-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?
Thread 9 www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5376712-thread-9-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?
Thread 10 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5378984-thread-10-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

New posters welcome. It would be helpful to read at least the four Observer items above before posting. There are currently 10 items on The Observer website The real Salt Path | The Observer

To all - Please be extremely cautious when it comes to naming or implicating people and addresses not in the public eye or with no direct connection to the story, and around the understandable health speculations, especially where details are unclear or still emerging. Please do not engage with visitors who seem to have their own agenda and seek to derail. Avoid @'ing and quoting them as - from experience - this will only encourage them back to the threads. We have done amazingly well together for ten very interesting, very serious and very silly threads so far. I can't be here as much as I'd like so all help with keeping our discussion walking along in a healthy and civil fashion is very welcome.

No saltiness. Keep to the path.

Does stolen fudge taste better?

Please fill up Thread 10 before posting here.

Just to add today's new podcast:
The real Salt Path | The Observer

Hello all, placemarking and just wanted to shout out to @FurryHappyKittens, if you haven't seen my query to you on the last page of the previous thread please could you take a peek?

Checking in, and thank you!

Please ignore my previous comment above, I can't seem to edit it!

Thanks for this, Disappointed 😊

BRIEF TIMELINE OF EVENTS

1960
Timothy Walker born in Burton-upon-Trent (FreeBMD)

1962
Sally Ann Winn born in Melton Mowbray (FreeBMD)

1986
Timothy Walker and Sally Ann Winn married on Skye (Scotland’s People)

1980s/90s
Timothy Walker an eco-activist (Independent interview with Sally Walker, 2018)

Early 90s
Timothy Walker invests in a friend’s property portfolio (Sally Walker statement, 2025)

?-1995
Tim working as Master Plasterer for family business in Staffordshire. Sally apparently a Law Clerk (BBC)

1994/95
Sally and Tim Walker sell house in Staffordshire, leave jobs, move to rented house in Criccieth (BBC)

1995
Walkers buy ‘dilapidated’ Pen y Maes (BBC)

1995
Tim Walker employed as gardener at National Trust’s Plas yn Rhiw following a period of volunteering (BBC)

Early 2000s
Tim Walker head gardener at Plas yn Rhiw (DM comment)

c. 2000/02 (date not confirmed)
Sally Walker tells the Hemmings she has been made redundant from a hotel in Abersoch (Observer)

c. 2000/02 (date not confirmed)
Sally Walker begins working for Martin Hemmings in Pwllheli (Observer)

2002-08
At an address in Pwllheli (192.com)

2007
Timothy Walker buys a property in the south of France. His brother owns a pigeonnier next door (Observer)

2008
Martin and Ros Hemmings discover potential embezzlement of £9000 (Observer)

2008
Sally Walker repays ‘thousands’ to the Hemmings (Observer)

2008
The Hemmings discover more serious potential embezzlement and go to the police (Observer)

2008
Sally Walker arrested and bailed. She leaves for London. (Observer)

2008
Sally Walker loaned £100,000 at 18% pa by Tim’s relative “James” (Observer) Sally Walker loaned £100,000 by “Cooper”, an old friend, at 18% pa (Walker’s statement, 2025)

2008
Stolen money returned to Martin Hemmings, who signs an NDA (Observer)

2008/09
“James”’ business goes bust (Observer)

2010
Loan transferred to creditors of “James” (Observer)

Mar 2011
Pen y Maes (Walker’s home) on the market for £435,000 (Escape to the Country TV show)

2011-14
At least five county court judgements against the Walkers (Observer)

2012
Creditors call in the loan, now exceeding £150,000. Judge orders payment. (Observer)

March 2012
Gangani Publishing Ltd set up with TW as Director and TW and SW as joint shareholders (Companies House)

2012
Gangani publish How Not to Dal dy Dir by Izzy Wyn-Thomas (Sally Walker?). Those who bought the book told they were entered into a prize draw to win a house in Wales (Observer, Gangani Publishing)

2012
Martin Hemmings dies

2013
Sally Walker says they were told by clinicians that Tim ‘probably wouldn’t last two years’ (Independent interview, 2018)

July 2013
Gangani Publishing Ltd dissolved (Companies House)

2013
Sally Walker says she refunded those who had entered the prize draw (Sally Walker statement, 2025)

2013
Pen y Maes repossessed (The Salt Path)

Aug 2013
Sally Walker states her and Tim began a walk along the SWCP (The Salt Path)

2015
Timothy Walker diagnosed with possible corticobasal symptoms (CBS) (medical letters released July 2025)

2016
“James” dies (Observer)

Feb 2016
Pen y Maes listed for sale at £299,000 (Rightmove)

Jul 2016
Pen y Maes sold for £280,000 to Maxine Farrimond (Rightmove, Observer)

Jul 2016
Farrimond starts receiving letters: debt collection agencies, speeding fines, credit card bills and unpaid bills addressed to the Walkers (Observer)

Mar 2018
Publication of The Salt Path where Sally Walker writes about Tim being diagnosed with CBD in 2013, and that it is terminal

2019
Consultant suggests Tim's illness is something other than CBS/CBD (medical letters released by Sally Walker, 2025)

Apr 2020
Publication of The Wild Silence

Oct 2021
Tim Walker tells Bill Cole that consultant has advised not to plan past Christmas (Observer)

Oct 2022
Publication of Landlines where Sally Walker writes that husband Tim's brain scans are clear following their walk

Winter 2022/2023
The Walkers leave Bill Cole’s farm for pastures new (Observer)

July 2025
Observer publishes investigation

Thanks @DisappointedReader

I'd say the allure of stolen fudge is hard to resist. Could end up embezzling thousands of the wee feckers. End up with VERY sticky fingers.

This is absolutely sterling work - well done. @DisappointedReader - do you think this might be worth pinning in the OP of future threads along with references to the other articles mentioned in the thread OPs so far?

Great list. Just to add that Pen y Maes was put on the market in Jan 2010 for £395,000 (source Zoopla). The final court case was apparently in June 2013, the walk started on the first Thursday in August (Aug 7th?) source TSP, ended in Oct 2013 at Polruan, recommenced in mid July 2014 and finished early Sept (source TSP)

I didn't want to get bogged down and create a list even longer than this. I think (hope!) it's got pretty much all of the important stuff on.

@FurryHappyKittens - Is it worth adding to your list when Moth started his horticulture degree (and also mentioning he may have previously done a botany degree as per the BBC article)? I can’t find the BBC article that has a pic of him with other Plymouth first year students on his course, but it was definitely linked to on a previous thread.

I suppose you could also add film release and their various companies house mentions since being in cornwall

First Thursday in August was 1 Aug 13

Placemarking, thanks

Good point - TSP says it was a Thursday in early August so maybe the following Thursday? (8th)

We don't know for sure what date the walk started.. RW has said "one Thursday afternoon in August" but according to TSP day 33 of the walk was 14th Sept. So Day 1 would have to have been Monday 12th August. It's another inconsistency that we have no answer to.

Perhaps also worth adding the dates of the Iceland walk done for TWS @FurryHappyKittens? I feel like it’s relevant as it relates to another walk they both did. Looks like the TWS Iceland walk was done in early September 2029, according to posts on p24 of Thread 10. Thanks again for putting together the timeline!

Brilliant timeline work @FurryHappyKittens!
This is exactly what we need. To quote Deadpool 'These timelines are so confusing' 😆 so it helps to lay out events and claims.

There's a lot that's fuzzy in the early years where they met as teenagers, then got married at 24 / 26, then sold a house in Staffordshire (what were they earning and how, to be able to buy a house at that point?) before they moved to Wales. While that's before they entered the public eye, it does suggest they may have had a leg up with house buying and or jobs in the family business.

Personally, I also find the sudden selling up and abruptly moving to Wales after one of the children got out of the house quite surprising. It's too close in style to their overnight flit from the being-repossessed farmhouse. Just a hunch though that they have a habit of running away from trouble. I don't have any evidence to support that.

He must have started the course autumn 2015. The picture was from summer 2016 which stated they were all first year students.

Placemarking.

I'll add a few more things and post an updated timeline around page 20 of this thread.

Re the photos I see on Raynors IG account that relate to the walks she has written about. Did they get published in her books? It's interesting to go back and look at them. But they are not posted in any particular order. And she certainly didn't have IG when she walked the SWCP.

@Fandango52 It was in the Packet:

Eden students take award winning garden to Hampton Court Flower Show | Falmouth Packet

TWS claims walk was Sept 2019 (9 months after moving to Bill Cole's farm).

Also worth noting that RW's IG shows a different (or same?) Iceland trip in Feb 2017 (just over a year before TSP published).

Thread 11! I haven't even had time to listen to the podcast yet. I need to quit my job and live off stolen fudge bars just to keep up !