A SECTION of the Pennine Bridleway which was visited by The Princess Royal last week will be renamed the Mary Towneley Loop.

Originally referred to as the South Pennine Loop, it is a circular route of 44 miles passing through Calderdale, Rochdale and Lancashire and includes land belonging to the Towneley family.

It will be the first section of the bridleway to open in Spring 2001.

The Countryside Agency and Sport England Lottery Fund announced that the bridleway would be renamed in recognition of the campaigning work that Lady Towneley has carried out in developing the network in the North of England.

At a special ceremony, Lady Towneley (pictured) was presented with a specially-commissioned map of the Mary Towneley Loop by The Princess Royal, which had been drawn by the South Pennine Packhorse Trails Trust volunteer cartographer John Taylor. Lady Towneley said: "It was like a dream come true when I was told of the proposed visit by the Princess Royal to ride a portion of the Pennine Bridleway.

"So many people have worked so hard for its establishment since I submitted the first proposal in 1986.

"I was taken completely by surprise when, at the end of the ride, I was presented by her Royal Highness with John Taylor's beautiful hand-drawn map of, what I only then discovered was to be called the Mary Towneley Loop.

"I feel deeply moved and honoured.

"I hope that the 'Mary Towneley Loop' will bring all the benefits of recognition and sustainable accessibility to an area full of history, hidden beauty and secret wildness which has suffered in the past from considerable neglect and environmental abuse."