The project was initiated during Gordon Brown’s government, and it has taken 18 years and seven prime ministers to get to this stage.
About 80% of the route is now open and most of the rest of the path is due to be completed by the end of the year.
“It is brilliant – the best thing I’ll do in my working life,” says Neil Constable, who led the project for Natural England.
For him, the length of the path isn’t really the point. What makes it so special, he says, is that you can walk to the coast anywhere in England, turn left or right, and walk beside the sea for as long as you like.