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?

UPDATED TIMELINE
please do not quote the entire post!

1960
Timothy (Tim) Ronald Walker born in Burton-upon-Trent Registration District (FreeBMD)

1962
Sally Ann Winn born in Melton Mowbray Registration District (FreeBMD)

Early 1980s
Tim Walker and Sally Winn meet at college (The Salt Path)

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

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

Late 1980s/Early 1990s
Babies happened here (FreeBMD)

Early 1990s
Tim Walker invests in a friend’s property portfolio (Sally Walker statement, 2025)

? – c. 1994/1995
Tim Walker working as Master Plasterer for family business in Staffordshire. Sally Walker a Law Clerk from Gwynedd (BBC Local News interview when he worked at Plas yn Rhiw, a NT property)

1994/95
Sally and Tim Walker leave jobs, sell house in Staffordshire due to young son wandering into road where they live, and move to rented house in Criccieth (BBC Local News interview)

1995
Walkers buy ‘dilapidated’ Pen y Maes near Pwllheli (BBC Local News interview)

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

Early 2000s
Tim Walker head gardener at Plas yn Rhiw (comment by a local on first Daily Mail article)

c. 2000/02 (date not confirmed, as Ros Hemmings not sure exactly when this happened)
Sally Walker tells the Hemmings she has been made redundant from a hotel in Abersoch (Observer)

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

2004
Tim Walker has a degree in botany, and is working at Plas yn Rhiw (BBC Local News interview)

2004
Tim Walker, his brother, and their families, photographed by local resident at Village du Dropt property, potentially this includes a house and a pigeonnier (Daily Mail)

2007
Tim Walker buys the house at Village du Dropt, with a little land. The property was run down but habitable at this time according to a local resident (Observer) The pigeonnier is owned by his brother (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” with house as surety (Observer) Sally Walker loaned £100,000 by “Cooper”, an old friend, at 18% pa with house as surety (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)

January 2010
Pen y Maes listed for sale for £395,000 (Zoopla)

March 2011
Pen y Maes on the market for £435,000 (Escape to the Country TV show)

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

March 2012
Gangani Publishing Ltd set up with Tim Walker as Director and Tim Walker and Sally Walker 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 free from mortgage or other impediments (Observer, Gangani Publishing)

c. June 2012
Creditors call in the loan, now exceeding £150,000. Judge orders payment within 12 months or house will be repossessed. Walkers are both unemployed at this stage (Observer)

2012
Martin Hemmings dies (Observer)

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

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

June 2013
Pen y Maes repossessed (The Salt Path); The Walkers leave under cover of darkness according to a local farmer (Observer); The Walker’s hide under the stairs as the bailiffs arrive (The Salt Path)

July 2013
Gangani Publishing Ltd dissolved (Companies House)

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

October 2013
According to Sally Walker first part of walk ends at Polruan (The Salt Path)

Mid July – early September 2014
Walk recommences, and concludes (The Salt Path)

25 June 2015
Tim Walker diagnosed with possible corticobasal syndrome symptoms (CBS), although these symptoms are indolent and mild (medical letters released July 2025)

Autumn 2015
Tim Walker begins horticulture degree, with full student loan as funding for a first degree (Falmouth Packet, The Salt Path)

2016
“James” dies (Observer)

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

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

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

February 2017
Walkers travel to Iceland for walking holiday (Raynor Winn Instagram)

March 2018
Publication of The Salt Path

2018
“Moth”’s real name is Ray (Sally Walker in Independent interview 2018)

September 2019
Walkers walk in Iceland (The Wild Silence)

17 October 2019
Consultant suggests Tim Walker’s illness may be something else, a ‘more unusual disorder’ (medical letters released 2025)

April 2020
Publication of The Wild Silence

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

October 2022
Publication of Landlines

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

July 2025
Observer publishes articles by investigative journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou, including information that Tim Walker still owns the property at Village du Dropt (Observer)

please do not quote the entire post!

Link to all Observer articles etc.:
https://Observer.co.uk/collections/the-real-salt-path

It's not that strange, really. I recently asked for all of my medical notes and there's quite a bit of guff on some letters written by various people who've either misheard, not listened, or been confused about what I actually said.

Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote a series of books we all know ‘based’ around her childhood as a pioneer girl. As an old lady she said “All I have told is true, but it is not the whole truth”.

She was honest; to a point. She omitted much tragedy and hardship and sorrow from her books, choosing to reshape her story into an American mythology of adventure and triumph. She never claimed any of her books as memoir. There’s a great book about her true life called ‘Prairie Fires’ if anyone is interested. But my point is Sally Walker should have been more Laure Ingalls - her story should have been ‘based’ around life events. Clearly today people like SW also like to invent tragedy in order to sell an alleged triumph. Yet when the tragedy and the triumph are both ousted as potentially fake there’s literally nothing left but dust and anger and moral outrage from her readership.

I’ve followed these threads and still am feeling distaste for this awful unveiling of truth. Just wanted to post this as I try to forget TSP (already binned) for far better books 🙌

@FurryHappyKittens This is wonderful and you are fantastic; all the thanks to you x

Thank you!

Have corrected a couple of typos in my master document that are always hidden until it's too late to amend!

Any other vital happenings, with dates, and references, let me know here, and I'll include for the next thread.

Well done for all the dates and sources - when you are able to.

Nice way to shut down any further conversation. Please stop digging a hole for yourself by replying to me.

The kicker was just then when you declared yourself so innocent of psychologising, that I was the one who had done so!

You wrote of “Subconcious turmoil” producing physical issues whilst discussing both FND and whether people “fake” neurological illness. It’s written in your own words.
wrong thread to try that tactic! nobody here will have the wool pulled over their eyes.

Do have a read into the biological medical research, sadly there isn’t a large amount as these things get psychologised or written off as “stress”. Or “subconcious turmoil”

That is both interesting and odd. Do any of the birth records sleuths have any thoughts on this?

@Digitalhen Yes, I was an avid reader of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books - and felt moved by her experiences. I appreciate you explaining the difference between these and the 'unflinchingly honest' TSP - which, is so problematic, it has brought us all to examine it here.

Agreed, @Digitalhen, but she wrote them as children’s fiction, too. I think that two of them in particular (Little Town on the Prairie and The Long Winter) are astonishing novels, and that narrative effect more than justifies some omissions (the other unpleasant family who shared their house during the Long Winter) and while other omissions are due the fact that they were intended for young readers (eg the death of her brother in babyhood).

@FurryHappyKittens, that is a remarkable piece of work, but presumably you realise (and everyone who’s contributed) that SW, if she’s not doing so already, will certainly read these threads at some point? She’d be a fool not to inform herself as much as possible of where people have noted inconsistencies etc if she’s planning a narrative for a self-exonerating book, or an interview. These threads would be a remarkably rich resource for someone constructing ‘their side of the story’.

Nice to see ads to buy the book springing up on Mumsnet 😂 obviously all this chat has given them an opportunity to cash in. Classy

Thanks so much for the timeline @FurryHappyKittens. It's really helpful.

Well, hopefully Chloe H can get there before SW!

@FurryHappyKittens big thanks for the timeline!

Happy for anyone to glean what they can from our discussions, and the timeline.

If it gives journalists a heads up, all to the good.

SW can do as she will, at least we have a resource for anyone interested that happens to pass by! 😀

Here's another suggestion then for everyone to buy the books second-hand, not new! Charity shops are a great option and they must be being inundated with donations of unwanted copies.

Yeah - I had an accident on holiday and it was a right palaver getting my notes sent through to my local hospital for follow -up. And the gos weren't a lot of help in the process either.

Thanks for all your work. I also liked your double drive by scolding in bold not to quote the whole timeline post! Please take note everyone.

I suspect that SW (et al!) will already know full well what the inconsistencies are. They were just counting on nobody else noticing or sticking their head above the parapet to blow the whistle.

Addition to Timeline - comes during-ish when Bill Cole was told Tim advised not to plan beyond Christmas 2021.

2020 – early/mid 2022
Sally Walker states that two brain scans taken before and after their walk of various UK long distance paths show that pre-walk recorded damage to brain has disappeared by the post-walk second scan, which is ‘clear’ (Landlines)

I mean, RW could try that. But I think the timeline does several useful things (superb work @FurryHappyKittens ) One, it puts things in order to show people exactly what is supposed to have happened so that they can draw their own conclusions - useful when you're trying to be analytical not emotional or partisan. Second, it brings transparency and I think that's important given the key bits of the story that the WW have left out or selectively shared. We who are sceptical about all this have nothing to hide - let's lay it all out and then whoever wants to defend this couple's actions, can do so. With, one would hope, the same use of detail, examples and evidence to support it.

I looked in various charity shops while on holiday hoping to find copies, and didn't, but I think it was a bit too early in the cycle for people to have done that. I think it'll start to happen in the next few weeks. But others may have more luck than me, and there are also second hand copies on Amazon, World of Books, and various other sites.

Thank you all for kind words regarding the Timeline. It's very much been a collective effort, with info gleaned from many forumers. 😀

And to be honest I'd rather MN subject us all to ads for the books than to the intrusive Ann Summers flashing arses.

Agree. And tbh if RW uses it to help construct ‘her side of the story’, or if she claims it contains inaccuracies and tries to use that to undermine her critics, it will just highlight how she’s avoiding addressing the key issues.

unless she can verifiably confirm that she didn’t steal the money, then I don’t think there’s any way back from this. It’s been nearly a month since this hit the news and she hasn’t denied stealing it so it’s not looking good for her

Which brother? Martyn was living permanently in France. Was Adrian living in the UK?