IVYBRIDGE will be the destination of a forthcoming pilgrimage commemorating the historic Tolpuddle Martyrs next week . The pilgrims will be visiting the town on the evening of Thursday, July 10 and morning of Friday, July 11. The Ivybridge visit is one of a series of events on the pilgrims' 10 day walk from Plymouth to Tolpuddle in Dorset. Their visit will connect the pilgrims with the MacAndrews Field community orchard proposals, the Ermington and Ugborough Sustainable Saturdays initiatives, the Riverside Perma-culture Project, Ivybridge Environmental Action Group, the new PL:21 Transition edible landscape project plus other food and sustainability related activities in the area. The pilgrimage is to commemorate the the 180th anniversary of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, a group of 19th century Dorset agricultural labourers who were arrested for organising against their worsening conditions and pay cuts. For this, six trade union leaders from Tolpuddle were sentenced to seven years transportation to Australia. On Thursday there will be a picnic on MacAndrews Field from 6pm to 7.30pm before a 'bring and share BBQ' at Riverside, Cleeve, from 7.45pm until 11pm. You will also be able to meet the pilgrims between 9am and 10am at the youth venue where the PL:21 Transition are working on their community garden. Ian Smith from the Ivybridge Environmental Action Group is coordinating the pilgrims' visit to the town. Ian said: 'I am delighted that the excellent local initiatives around food have caught the pilgrims' imaginations. 'I hope that people from the town and the surrounding villages and countryside will take this unique opportunity to meet the Pilgrims and bring and share their stories, struggles and successes around local food and more sustainable living for the 21st century.' The pilgrims will then head off to Dartington and the subsequent stages of their progress to Tolpuddle.