THE 268-mile Pennine Way, which crosses some of the wildest and best-loved landscapes in Britain, is an inspiration to artists and a challenge to walkers, but also a place of work for hill farmers and shepherds, innkeepers, hospitality-providers and even rescuers.

Now, in a perfect combination of time, place and circumstance, the full story of this wild and challenging footpath will be told in an exhibition to mark its 50th birthday in April. To some it may come as a surprise to find that it hasn’t been there since before the invention of maps, walkers and time itself: in fact, it was designated a National Trail – the first of 15 throughout England and Wales – on April 24, 1965.

When Burtersett artist Brian Alderman approached Fiona Rosher of the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes with a view to staging a general exhibition of artists’ work, featuring the landscapes, people and wildlife of the Dales, he knew nothing of this.

“I hadn’t a clue the anniversary was this year. Once I did, I thought what a fantastic theme it would give us for the exhibition, not just of artists’ work but as a celebration of everyone who lives, works and farms in and around the Pennine Way,” says Brian.

And so it is that also represented in ‘Pennine Ways’ which opens on Friday, February 27 and runs until the end of April, are – among others – the Tan Hill Inn, the highest pub in Britain, providing shelter and sustenance for many a walker; Amanda and Clive Owen whose farm at Keld is off the path, but so high it looks down on the pub; the Swaledale Mountain Rescue team; and the Green Dragon Inn, Hardraw, with the neighbouring Church of St Mary and St John. Brian Alderman will recall, through archive material and photographs, the story of the devastating summer flood of 1899, which reportedly washed bodies out of the graves, and carried headstones two miles downstream, as a raging torrent of water swept all before it, changing the local landscape forever. The professional artists, meanwhile, tell their own stories of their knowledge and love of the Dales landscape which has been their inspiration, and of the Pennine Way whose entire length some have walked.

For some, childhood memories have been the defining influence. Moira Metcalfe, a painter from Appersett, who has done 20 new works for the show, recalls “floating on lilos in the becks of Swaledale,” when, with her parents, she enjoyed many a Dales holiday from her home in Leeds.

"My father loved going off the beaten track, and one day on his travels he spotted a house in Appersett and fell in love with it,” she says. Moira had just completed a degree in fine art, and so came to live there with them. Now, 37 years later, the house is her own home.

For Sarah Smith, a sculptor living in Giggleswick, the Pennine Way came into being the year she was born.

“My earliest memories are of visits two or three times a times a year to my great grandparents’ house near Malham. Each holiday included endless walks on Malham Moor so although I’ve lived elsewhere and even abroad for some of my life this landscape is the source of my inspiration,” she says, and her work is clearly drawn from the vast wild space that surrounds her studio.

“Those spaces between the actual carving when I walk the land are vital - they are enriching and inform my work,” she says.

The exhibition, in the John Richard Baker Hall, named after the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority employee who was the inspiration for Calendar Girls, marks – coincidentally – another milestone on the history of the footpath. It was revealed earlier this year that the authority is to take over management of the whole length of the walk from April 1, from Derbyshire’s Peak District, through the Yorkshire Dales, thence to the Northumberland National Park and into the Scottish Borders.With an annual grant of £350,000 from Natural England, and a contribution for maintenance from each of the 13 local authorities who currently look after their own stretch, it is a huge responsibility, but one for which the authority has planned for a year and is proud to own.

‘Pennine Ways’ is at the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes and includes works by Brian Alderman, Stef Ottevanger, Frank Gordon, Moira Metcalfe, Bill Oakey, Alan Lyman, Ann Kerr, Roger Lofts, Nolon Stacey, Jack Sutton, Janet Rawlins, Sarah Smith, Carol Tyler and David Tarn. The museum is open daily from 10am to 5pm and entry to the exhibition is included in the ticket price: £4.50 for adults, £4 concessions, including full-time students, and under-16s go free. An annual pass is £9.