The term legend, it is agreed, is often overused. It is also agreed that it is wholly justified when applied to Joss Naylor MBE.
Farmer, athlete, record holder, charity patron and fundraiser, Joss died on June 28 at the age of 88. He was the most famous fell runner the Lake District has seen with remarkable achievements to his name. Even outside Cumbria and the world of fell running, people have heard of Joss Naylor.
Joss first came to prominence in the 1970s breaking the Lake District 24-Hour record three times. His 1975 record of 72 peaks, covering 100 miles and around 38,000 feet of ascent in 23 hours 11 minutes, stood for 13 years and contributed to him becoming known as King of the Fells and the Iron Man.
Olympic Gold medal winner and co-founder of the London Marathon Chris Brasher described him as “The Greatest of Them All” and Joss featured as one of Britain’s top 100 sports personalities in the 2007 book Best of British: Hendo’s Sporting Heroes by sports journalist Jon Henderson.
Born in 1936, he started running as a boy. His first race came at Maypole celebrations in Wasdale where a fell race was organised. Joss won it as his first attempt.
It was not always easy however. Described by consultant in Manchester as a born athlete, Joss said he was “brought up in pain” and was only freed from it following operations to remove cartilage from his right knee and more surgery to remove two disks from his back.
In 1960, at the age of 24, he was invited to take part in the Mountain Trial, a gruelling 18-mile fell race that includes nearly one-and-a-half miles of climb for which he famously wore his work boots and cut-off trousers.
He also ran in Switzerland and America in the 1970s and completed the National Three Peaks Challenge, the Pennine Way, the Welsh 3000s, the Wainwrights and the Coast to Coast in the notorious summer of 1976.
He was later warned that farming was putting too much strain on his back and he was advised to stop and to give up running in his mid-40s. He sold his cattle, took a job at Sellafield – and kept on running, of course.
He even created his own fell-running challenge, the Joss Naylor Lakeland Challenge, from Pooley Bridge to Greendale Bridge. The 48-mile, self-organised, anytime mountain challenge is for runners over 50 and traverses 30 summits with 17,000 feet of climb. Joss did the inaugural run in very bad weather in 1990, aged 54, taking 11 hours and 30 minutes.
At the age of 80 in 2016 he ran from Caldbeck, where his father Joe was born, to Wasdale.
Of all the challenges he achieved, Lakes, Meres and Waters of the Lake District remained his favourite and the one featured in the book of the same name he produced with Cumbria Life’s Vivienne Crow in 2021. The title won the The Latitude Press Prize for Illustration & Presentation in the 2022 Lakeland Book of the Year competition.
Joss completed the 105-mile route mapped out by Dave Meek that takes in 26 of the Lake District’s named bodies of water and 20,000ft of ascent, on Saturday, June 25, 1983 when he was 47. His time of 19 hours 14 minutes and 25 seconds slashed six hours off the record achieved the previous year by Alan Heaton and 16 hours off Leo Pollard’s time on its first run in 1981.
Recalling reaching the finish, Joss said: “It was one of them days. It was absolutely magic that morning, it was so peaceful, there wasn’t many people around, just the perfect day. It was like going into another world.”
Joss and Viv retraced his steps for the book during the summer of 2020 and readers get to see it through his eyes, which included lamenting the loss of species such as yellowhammers, peewits, lapwings, wheateaters and ring ouzels on the fells and the abundance of bracken and briars.
He knew the fells like the back of his hand; all them including individual crags and features rolled of his tongue. But, like he said, he gathered sheep on them for 70 years.
Proceeds from the book go to Brathay Trust, which provides outdoor and creative activities from its base near Ambleside to help improve the life chances of disadvantaged young people. Joss was patron of its Ten in Ten marathon challenge.
He had a reputation for completing tough challenges on little sustenance. “A drink with two or three spoonfuls of glucose powder, that would do me for 50 miles, to keep me ticking over,” he said.
He never took up running professionally and never had a training schedule but he did enjoy a pint of Guinness. In his 70s, Joss started spending winters in Spain to avoid the damp and cold of Britain.
Joss remained ambitious to the end. Despite relying on walking sticks when was 85 he had plans to revisit the Four Passes when he hit 90. The 19-mile route with 5,300ft of ascent takes in Sty Head, Black Sail, Scarth Gap and Honister and he had run them before, in one hour 49 minutes.
He would have enjoyed the Olympics this summer for he was full of admiration for athletes who have given their all to sport.
Joss was also renowned for encouraging other runners and for providing support or pacing for other runners attempting the same or similar challenges. His advice for those considering Lake, Meres and Waters was: “Just go and do it.”
Keith Richardson, journalist, former Cumbria Life editor and author, researched, wrote and published his biography Joss in 2009. Here he remembers his friend
For many people memories of Joss Naylor will be about his endurance running. And while his achievements in that field are considerable, I sought in my biography to also focus on the man and his life in general.
It soon became apparent that Joss Naylor was, as well as being an amazing runner, also a Cumbrian character and someone whose interests and passions far exceeded that of solely running.
He was a passionate campaigner for all things essentially Cumbrian and especially related to shepherding, the culture of the land and the Norse heritage of the fell farms. The dry-stone walls, those barriers that span the fells and the generations to this day, were a particular example of his love of the fells. If he saw a broken-down dry-stone wall where a gap was, quite literally, fenced over or filled with a wooden pallet or similar device, he would be outraged.
The pattern of dry-stone walls in his native Wasdale are second to none and he did all he could to maintain them where possible, including building new stretches with great care, devotion and skill. He was also enthusiastic about discovering ancient dwellings on the fells and giving them new life through diligent restoration.
He was, in short, a one-man archaeologist, in many ways answerable to no one and determined to stand up for and preserve what he believed in; a way of life that he thought was fast disappearing.
But he did not dwell in the past. Through his running and essentially kind nature he raised many thousands of pounds for charity. And his personal campaigns also highlighted the issues of pollution; acid rain and its affect the fells being one of his major concerns.
While I think of him always as being a very independent, solitary figure – arguably at his happiest and most content when running along the fells with only a sheepdog or two for company – if you put him in front of a big audience, armed only with a microphone (or sometimes just the power of his voice) he could talk long and entertainingly about his life, interests and views.
There was much more to Joss Naylor than met the eye. And certainly, much more to him than an ability to run the fells, break records, set new standards and inspire legions of runners.
Joss Naylor was Cumbrian through and through and it was a privilege to be granted the honour of writing his life story and, for a relatively short time at least, to be a part of it.
MORE TRIBUTES TO JOSS
Teresa Jennings, CEO of Brathay Trust: “Joss was not only a supporter but also a cherished fellow of Brathay Trust. His unwavering commitment to our mission and his passion for the outdoors left an indelible mark on our organisation. Joss’s legendary feats as a fell runner and his tireless advocacy for young people resonated with all of us. His spirit of adventure, resilience, and love for the Lake District inspired countless individuals, both within and beyond our community. As we mourn his loss, let us remember Joss Naylor as a beacon of determination, kindness, and camaraderie. His legacy will forever echo through the hills and valleys he traversed, and in the hearts of those he touched. May his memory continue to inspire us as we carry forward the work of Brathay Trust.”
Vivienne Crow, his co-author of Lakes, Meres and Waters of the Lake District: "It was a real privilege to work with Joss and to get to know him. The word ‘inspirational’ has been used to describe him on countless occasions, but it doesn’t just refer to his achievements and his seemingly superhuman ability to push through physical and psychological barriers. His generosity of spirit was something that always struck me as exceptional – whether it was sharing his time by chatting with admirers on the fells, sharing his experience by encouraging fellow fell-runners, sharing his reputation to help raise money for charity or simply sharing his passion for the fells... And it was done with complete humility. It’s something we could all learn from."
Terry Abrahams, award-winning photographer and film maker: “You really were and always will be a legend. I’ve no doubt he’s running about in the heavens looking down upon his ancestral home of Wasdale… People like Joss make places. The land makes people like Joss.”
James Rebanks, farmer and award-winning author: “The odd time I spoke to him he had a lovely sensible and quiet way with him. A proper Cumbria – no hype and BS, just got on and did his thing, and hard as nails."
Rathbones of Keswick: “The greatest fell runner ever. An absolute gent.”
Steve Backshall, TV presenter: “Farewell to the legend Joss Naylor, king of the fells.”
The Original Mountain Marathon (OMM): “The sport and the community have lost a great.”
Chris Hillidge: “For those of us who like running around in the hills, especially the Cumbrian mountains, this guy was the pinnacle.”
Fell Foodie Harrison Ward: “The true definition of a legend and a proud son of Cumbria. Where are we building his statue?”
Simon Walkden: “One of the greatest athletes this country has ever produced, yet most people will have never heard of him. A Cumbrian legend, a fell running inspiration.”
Tim Farron MP: “He was such a fantastic advocate for the Lakes, the inspiration for generations of fell runners and a kind and gentle man.”
Mark Richards, presenter of Countrystride: “His monumental fell running achievements and self-effacing modesty live on in the memory.”
Mark Adam Smith: “Quite the most inspirational athlete I can think of. A Wasdale shepherd that just won everything and never lost his love for the fells. We've lost an absolute great.”
Stuart Ferguson, chairman of the Fell Runners’ Association: “Joss inspired so many and will forever be remembered for what he gave to our unique sport.”
Alan Hinkes OBE, high altitude mountaineer: “I had been aware and in awe of Joss Naylor since I started hill walking, rock climbing and fell running in the 1970s. He was a mythical, inspirational figure. A machine of a runner, noted for his heroic running exploits, often running in his shepherd’s boots.
“In the last 20 years I got to know Joss, often meeting him at events in Cumbria and sharing a beer with him. It turned out the respect was mutual and he had been admiring my mountaineering exploits. We always had good craic together and he was never short of an entertaining tale to tell in his Cumberland accent.
“I had a couple of visits to Joss’s Wasdale home in his beloved Greendale and walked around where he had cleared the bracken and sat with him on the stone seat which he built. I was always in awe of his anecdotes, learning more each time I chatted with him. His fast Scafell Pike up and down record of 47 minutes was phenomenal. I’m sure he told me that he ran it in his boots after work on the farm.
“Last summer I returned to Greendale, walked up Middle Fell and sat in Joss’s seat. The bracken was encroaching as Joss was now in a care home in Gosforth. I knocked some of it back before visiting him. Sadly, a stroke had affected his left side, but his sharp mind and wit was still shining brightly and his right hand had an iron hard Cumberland farmer’s grip.
“Joss was a one off and a true legend. The Cumbrian Fells will never be the same without Joss Naylor.”
![Cookham Barns 1925, Gilbert Spencer, Abbot Hall [credit Liss Llewellyn]](/resources/images/128x89/1x/17938067.jpg)
![Cookham Barns 1925, Gilbert Spencer, Abbot Hall [credit Liss Llewellyn]](/resources/images/180x180/1x/17938067.jpg)
