Thread 12: 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/ami^being^unreasonable/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/ami^being^unreasonable/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/ami^being^unreasonable/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/ami^being^unreasonable/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/ami^being^unreasonable/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/ami^being^unreasonable/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/ami^being^unreasonable/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?
Thread 11 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5382212-thread-11-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 eleven 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.
Will our life-size cardboard cut-out Simon Armitage keep his head?
NB Timeline coming in the first posts of this thread for reference.

TIMELINE PART ONE – 1960 to July 2013

Please do not quote this 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, 2018)

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

c. 1988 – c. 1991
Sally Walker states she worked at the local court in the fines department, worked her way up, then was offered the opportunity to study; she completed two years of a law degree, whilst working full time and having two children, as well as renovating their house, and growing vegetables (Career Interrupted podcast, No money No home No plan…, 19 June 2025)

1980s/90s
Tim Walker an eco-activist according to Sally Walker (Independent, The Salt Path One woman’s journey…, 23 August 2018)

Early 1990s
Sally Walker says Tim invested in a friend’s property portfolio (Raynor Winn website, Sally Walker’s statement, July 2025)

? – 1994
Tim Walker states he was working as Master Plasterer for family business in Staffordshire; wife Sally Walker was a Law Clerk from Gwynedd (BBC Wales North West, The life of a garden, 7 September 2004)

1994
Tim Walker says he and Sally left their jobs, sold their house in Staffordshire due to young son wandering into road where they live, and moved to rented house in Criccieth (BBC Wales North West, The life of a garden, 7 September 2004)

1994
Walkers bought ‘dilapidated’ Pen y Maes, and Tim, mentioning a botany degree, began volunteering at the National Trust’s Plas yn Rhiw garden (BBC Wales North West, The life of a garden, 7 September 2004)

1995
Tim Walker employed as gardener at Plas yn Rhiw (BBC Wales North West, The life of a garden, 7 September 2004)

Late 1990s
Ros Hemmings states she met Tim Walker when he was the gardener at Plas yn Rhiw, and she worked in the house there (Observer, The Slow Newscast, The real Salt Path, 29 July 2025)

Early 2000s
Tim Walker was head gardener at Plas yn Rhiw (The Daily Mail, Couple whose memoir inspired hit film, btl comment by Pwhlleli local, 6 July 2025)

c. 2000/02 (date not confirmed as Ros Hemmings unsure of exact date)
Ros Hemmings states Sally Walker told her she had been made redundant from a hotel in Abersoch (Observer, ‘She broke the trust’ video, 6 July 2025)

c. 2000/02 (date not confirmed as per above)
Ros Hemmings says Sally Walker began working part time for her husband Martin Hemmings in Pwllheli (Observer, ‘She broke the trust’ video, 6 July 2025)

2004
Tim Walker worked at Plas yn Rhiw (BBC Wales North West, The life of a garden, 7 September 2004)

2004
Tim Walker, his brother, and their families, photographed by local resident at Village du Dropt property (The Daily Mail, The Salt Path secret, 15 July 2025)

c. 2004
Ros Hemmings states that Tim Walker left his job at Plas yn Rhiw in ‘I think, 2004’ (Observer ‘The Slow Newscast’ podcast, 29 July 2025)

2007
Tim Walker bought 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 real Salt Path, 5 July 2025) Pigeonnier owned by his brother (The Daily Mail, The Salt Path secret, 15 July 2025)

c. Easter 2008
Martin and Ros Hemmings discovered potential embezzlement of £9000 (Observer, ‘She broke the trust’ video, 6 July 2025)

2008
Sally Walker repayed ‘several thousands’ to the Hemmings (Observer, ‘She broke the trust’ video, 6 July 2025) She said Martin Hemmings had lent her the money (Observer ‘The Slow Newscast’ podcast, 29 July 2025)

2008
The Hemmings discovered more serious potential embezzlement of over £60,000, and went to the police (Observer, ‘She broke the trust’ video, 6 July 2025); the amount was between £60,000 and £70,000 (Observer ‘The Slow Newscast’ podcast, 29 July 2025)

2008
Sally Walker arrested and bailed, with instructions to return to the police station the following day. She disappeared (Observer, ‘She broke the trust’ video, 6 July 2025)

2008
Sally Walker loaned £100,000 at 18% pa by Tim’s relative “James” with house as collateral (Observer, The real Salt Path, 5 July 2025); Sally Walker says she was loaned £100,000 by “Cooper”, an old friend, at 18% pa with house as collateral (Raynor Winn website, Sally Walker’s statement, July 2025)

2008
Stolen money returned to Martin Hemmings, who dropped the case (Observer, ‘She broke the trust’ video, 6 July 2025); Hemmings agreed to an NDA (Observer, The real Salt Path, 5 July 2025)

2008/09
“James”’ business went bust (Observer, The real Salt Path, 5 July 2025)

c. 2009/2010
Loan transferred to two creditors of “James” (Observer, The real Salt Path, 5 July 2025)

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, The real Salt Path, 5 July 2025)

March 2012
Gangani Publishing Ltd was set up with Tim Walker as Director and Tim Walker and Sally Walker as joint shareholders (Companies House)

2012
Gangani published 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 any other legal…charge’ (Observer ‘The Slow Newscast’ podcast, 29 July 2025; Gangani Publishing, 2012)

February 2012
Creditors called in the loan, then exceeding £150,000. Judge ordered payment within 12 months or house would be repossessed (Observer, The Salt Path what’s in the book and what The Observer has found, 6 July 2025)

2012
Martin Hemmings died (Observer, The real Salt Path, 5 July 2025)

2013
Sally Walker says they were told by clinicians that Tim ‘probably wouldn’t last two years’ (Independent, The Salt Path One woman’s journey…, 23 August 2018)

2013
Sally Walker says she refunded those who had entered the prize draw (Raynor Winn website, Sally Walker’s statement, July 2025)

June 2013
Pen y Maes repossessed (The Salt Path, 2018); The Walkers left under cover of darkness according to a local farmer (The Times, The Salt Path scandal: what Raynor Winn’s former neighbours think, 11 July 2025); The Walkers hid under the stairs as the bailiffs arrived (The Salt Path, 2018)

July 2013
Gangani Publishing Ltd dissolved (Companies House)

Please do not quote this post!!!

TIMELINE PART TWO – August 2013 to present

Please do not quote this post!!!

Early August 2013
Sally Walker states her and Tim began a walk along the SWCP one Thursday (The Salt Path, 2018)

29 August – 17 September 2013
Simon Armitage walked from Minehead to Land’s End (Guardian, Simon Armitage to walk south-west coast path, 19 February 2013)

October 2013
According to Sally Walker first part of walk ended at Polruan (The Salt Path, 2018)

Mid July – early September 2014
Walk recommenced at Poole, and concluded at Polruan, according to Sally Walker (The Salt Path, 2018)

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

Autumn 2015
Tim Walker began horticulture degree, with full student loan funding for a first degree (Falmouth Packet, Eden students take award winning garden to Hampton Court Flower Show, 8 July 2016; The Salt Path, 2018)

2016
“James” died (Observer, The real Salt Path, 5 July 2025)

25 July 2016
Pen y Maes sold for £280,000 to Maxine Farrimond (Land Registry; Observer, The real Salt Path, 5 July 2025)

July 2016
Farrimond started receiving letters: debt collection agencies, speeding fines, credit card bills and other unpaid bills addressed to the Walkers (Observer, The real Salt Path, 5 July 2025)

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

22 March 2018
Hardback publication of The Salt Path

2018
“Moth”’s real name was Ray (Independent, The Salt Path One woman’s journey…, 23 August 2018)

September 2019
Walkers walked in Iceland (The Wild Silence, 2020)

17 October 2019
Consultant suggested Tim Walker’s illness may have been something else, a ‘more unusual disorder’ (Raynor Winn website, medical letters, released July 2025)

3 September 2020
Hardback publication of The Wild Silence

21 May 2021 – 15 September 2021
Sally Walker states her and Tim walked the length of Britain on various long distance footpaths (Raynor Winn Instagram; Landlines, 2022)

October 2021
Tim Walker told Bill Cole that consultant advised not to plan past Christmas (Observer, ‘I felt I was being gaslit’, July 2025)

Winter 2021
Sally Walker states that two scans taken before and after their walk of various UK long distance paths showed that pre-walk recorded damage to Tim’s brain had disappeared by the post-walk second scan, which had ‘a normal reading’ (Landlines, 2022)

15 September 2022
Hardback publication of Landlines

Late September 2022
Bill Cole read in Landlines about Tim Walker’s normal brain scan results in late 2021 (Observer, ‘I felt I was being gaslit’, July 2025)

October 2022
A few weeks after Bill Cole read the book, Rick Stein filmed at Haye Farm (Observer, ‘I felt I was being gaslit’, July 2025)

November/December 2022
Shortly after filming, the Walkers left Bill Cole’s farm for pastures new (Observer, ‘I felt I was being gaslit’, July 2025)

14 February 2023
Series 3, Episode 2 of Rick Stein’s Cornwall aired, featuring the Walkers as cider farm entrepreneurs (BBC 2, Rick Stein’s Cornwall)

24 April 2023
Sally & Tim Walker walked the London Marathon (Raynor Winn’s Instagram)

7 April 2024 – 18 April 2024
Sally & Tim Walker walked The Thames Path (Raynor Winn’s Instagram)

5 July 2025
Observer began publishing articles by investigative journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou (Observer, The real Salt Path collection, July 2025)

Please do not quote this post!!!

TIMELINE PART THREE – Links to references

BBC 2, Rick Stein’s Cornwall, 14 February 2023: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001j82s

BBC Wales North West, The life of a garden, 7 September 2004: https://archive.ph/6KXzq

Falmouth Packet, Eden students take award winning garden to Hampton Court Flower Show, 8 July 2016: https://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/14607378.eden-students-take-award-winning-garden-to-hampton-court-flower-show/

FreeBMD: https://www.freebmd.org.uk/

Career Interrupted podcast, No money No home No plan…, 19 June 2025: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/career-interrupted/e283no-home-no-money-no-plan-URg9c06YKIW/?t=58

Land Registry, LL53 6YA: https://landregistry.data.gov.uk/data/ppi/transaction/3B7E0B90-8B85-EA99-E050-A8C062057E77/current

Scotland’s People: https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

The Daily Mail, Couple whose memoir inspired hit film, 6 July 2025: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14880299/couple-memoir-Salt-Path-film-Gillian-Anderson-Jason-Isaacs.html

The Daily Mail, The Salt Path secret, 15 July 2025: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14904933/French-property-Salt-Path.html

The Guardian, Simon Armitage to walk south-west coast path, 19 February 2013: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/feb/19/simon-armitage-south-west-coast-poetry

The Independent, The Salt Path one woman’s journey…, 23 August 2018: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/the-salt-path-book-journey-walking-coast-path-cornwall-devon-homelessness-a8502256.html#comments-area

The Observer, The Slow Newscast, The real Salt Path, 29 July 2025: https://observer.co.uk/listen/the-slow-newscast/the-real-salt-path-1

The Observer, all articles in the real Salt Path collection:
https://Observer.co.uk/collections/the-real-salt-path

The Times, The Salt Path scandal: what Raynor Winn’s former neighbours think, 11 July 2025
https://archive.ph/g3sOO

Zoopla, Pen y Maes, Y Ffor, Pwllheli, Gwynedd, LL53 6YA: https://www.zoopla.co.uk/property/uprn/10070273056/

Any new items for the Timeline let me know and I'll do my best to include in its next iteration.

A shed load of fudge with thanks to our Correspondent with Timeline Portfolio @FurryHappyKittens and to all our contributors.

Please fill up Thread 11 before boarding the charabanc transfer over here.

Photos 1 - 5 of The Timeline for Thread Gallery

Photos 6 - 9 of The Timeline for Thread Gallery

Absolutely - seconded! And huge thanks to you, @DisappointedReader, for being an excellent and patient Sherpa and helping us all stay on the path from Threads 1 to 12 👏 👏

Photos 10 - 11 of The Timeline for Thread Gallery (links to references)

Absolutely amazing effort. If i get a moment I will update the inconsistencies list in chronological order to tie in with this.

ON PAIN OF DEATH*
DO NOT QUOTE THE WHOLE TIMELINE OR WHOLE TIMELINE IMAGES POSTS

*After a drive-by scolding, you will be shooed away under the stairs with the audio author version of TSP on repeat and no fudge or cider allowed.

Massive thanks to @DisappointedReader @FurryHappyKittens and all.

Thanks to everyone for their input to The Timeline - very much a collaborative effort! 😀

That took some travelling through ....but... Land ahoy!

Anyone know what this story of being stranded in a survival bag on the side of a mountain is all about? It's a section of RW interview by a Dutch (I think) tv company on IG.

www.instagram.com/p/CYjt8KRJFRY/?igsh=MThycGE3Zm1tMm4zeA==

It is TWS:
LostSunglasses · 14/07/2025 13:35

AldoGordo · 14/07/2025 13:23
In light of all that has been revealed, I still wonder how the idea of walking came about. Did they think of it after they fled the house in the night? Or was it something they had planned for a couple of years knowing that the debt was due and the house was at risk? Or was it just a walking holiday they had been planning to do at the time anyway, but was re-imagined to form the basis of TSP? It feels like such an odd thing to do as people who clearly didn't have much experience of long distance walking or camping, irrespective of Tim's health, and they both had a living parent.
Well, The Wild Silence says they spent every weekend in the early years of their relationship climbing in the Peak District, and wild camping in the Scottish Highlands, including some quite hardcore stuff like nearly dying in a storm on the side of a mountain when their tent is blown away and they have to climb into a survival bag. So, although RW represents this as something they stopped doing once they had children, if you were going to be undramatic and matter of fact about it, you could probably recast the whole TSP as 'When we had some unexpected free time, we decided to get out our old camping equipment and go back to a low-cost hobby we used to do when we were younger.'

Checking in - I have so much to catch up on!

This may well have been said before but I think Salty Walker benefitted greatly from TSP being published just before the pandemic.
Like many people, I read it during lockdown, when we couldn't go out in nature or travel to the coast whenever we wanted to.

@User14March 'Do we have a Pennines correspondent?
To confirm/deny it’s FULL of dead sheep & rabbits? Dead ewes to be precise?'

We do prefer to decorate the landscape with dead southerners but that gets complicated sometimes. I'd say more hares than wabbits.

Placemarking.

And offering heartfelt thanks to all the Thread Correspondents for Timelines, Fudge, Keeping To The Path, Inconsistencies, Medical Knowledge and Interpretation and all the others. I had no idea when I first joined Thread 1 that so many weeks later I would be still and even more invested in this tale (murkier than a pint of proper scrumpy).

It really is hard to believe that they have any real wild camping experience, even if decades before and they don't seem to get better at it. They remind me more of the idiot influencers with no experience who attempt Crib Goch on Snowdon clad in designer trainers and are then so very surprised when they need the urgent help of mountain rescue.

Just had another look at that article about TW at the garden show:
It says there that the students are in their "first year on the HND and BSc garden and landscape design courses"
so it it looks like it wasn't horticulture at all?
Maybe he was initially planning to do horticulture, as reflected by what the 2015 doctor's letter says, but then either was not approved (horticulture is a more scientific field than garden/landscape design) or changed his mind.
It could be that he started horticulture in 2014, found it too difficult and switched subjects in 2015 and that's why he was a first year student that year.
I still wonder how much of the prize win was due to him and how much to the others in the group. I spontaneously imagine him as a freeloader in this group while reaping the glory but I just MIGHT be prejudiced against him 🙄

This has been covered earlier...I shared a link to the degree which is listed as Bsc Horticulture (Garden & Landscape Design)

https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/bsc-horticulture-garden-and-landscape-design

One thing that especially stuck out to me is the cheap lightweight supermarket sleeping bags which of course turned out not warm enough, because that is such a rookie mistake.
Many make it once, but if you've spend one night shivering through the night, you usually learn from it and steer clear of such bargains.