THE new Bishop of Bradford defied blisters, sore knees and stiff muscles to tramp across Ilkley Moor as part of his pilgrimage through the district.

The Right Reverend David James had decided on this novel, but physically demanding way of getting to know his new area.

After a Eucharist service at St Margaret's Church, Ilkley, last Thursday, the Bishop and his party of walkers and clergy, armed with staffs, boots and warm clothing, stepped out on to the moors under glowering clouds.

Clad in black hat and green gaiters, the Bishop appeared just another hiker with a group of friends. The day before he had covered 15 miles from Embsay to Bolton Abbey.

"Well, I am still alive!" said Bishop David. "We are covering nine miles today, but it is over the moors so it will be hard going.

"I could do with a new pair of knees and that might be all the praying I am doing! The weather isn't putting me off, though. It's what you expect in January."

Matthew Barnard, churchwarden at All Saints Church in Ilkley, joined the pilgrims for the Ilkley Moor leg and also went on the Friday route from Keighley to Bingley and Shipley.

He said: "It's a brilliant idea. He is getting to know people on a normal level and getting back to nature."

But there was sadness on the route on New Year's Day when the grieving parents of two-0year-old Robyn Lloyd, who died in a car crash near Embsay two days before Christmas, joined the Bishop for prayers at the scene of the accident.

On Saturday, beginning at his grandmother's home in Midland Terrace, Canal Road, Bradford, the Bishop visited various places of worship, business and recreation in the city, including Bradford City's ground. He took gifts to a synagogue, a mosque, a Sikh Gurdwara, a Hindu temple and a Roman Catholic church.