Section:GDN 12 PaGe:6 Edition Date:190807 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 6/8/2019 17:43 cYanmaGentaYellowblac

• The Guardian
  6 Wednesday 7 August 2019

but in practi ce, they do not. When

the maps were drawn up in 1949,

the recording process was patchy

and fairly arbitrary: some parishes

faithfully set down all their paths,

some managed a proportion, others

did almost nothing.

Some of the omissions are

shocking: drovers’ roads used for

centuries suddenly truncated,

key access ways to historic sites

or coastal features vanished. One

reader found a local walk that

simply ended in the middle of a

wood, an orphan caused by the

boundary between Herefordshire

and Shropshire. “It was great fun

researching the history of the

footpath and I learned a huge

amount,” he says. The application

is now lodged, and despite the

frustrating pace at which local

authorities are examining each case,

the application will stand , beyond

the 2026 deadline if necessary.

Near St Just in Cornwall, a

Ramble on:

how to save

a footpath

After his original

article about lost

rights of way,

Kevin Rushby

was contacted by

scores of readers

fi ghting to rescue

threatened routes

S am Thompson is

standing at the end of the footpath

that he is helping to save. There is no

sign, just a gate and a post adorned

with a few strands of barbed wire.

“I started walking this route a few

months ago. It connects to woods

that otherwise I’d have to walk

through a housing estate to reach.”

We are in the York suburb of

Acomb, a former village now

swamped by sprawling post-second-

world-war housing developments.

To outsiders, it can seem like an

endless, stupefying maze of long

bends and cul-de-sacs where

car drivers are kept awake only

by extraordinary numbers of

crumbling speed bumps. “We’re in

our 20s ,” says Thompson. “It was

what we could aff ord.” We climb the

gate and start down a narrow path

lined by tall grasses, soon dodging

through a hedge to emerge in a wild

meadow, beyond which lies a line

of trees. The change from brick and

asphalt to rural beauty is dramatic

and totally unexpected.

A few months ago, I wrote a

story in these pages about the

urgent need to identify and reclaim

lost rights of way in Britain. After

the story appeared, a member of

the UK walking charity Ramblers

posted handwritten notes through

behind every lost footpath. One

right of way was rediscovered after

an observant art-lover spotted an

interesting aspect to a Gainsborough

painting in Tate Britain. “He

had worked out the spot where

Gainsborough had painted the

picture in 1747 and, from that, after

checking old maps, had realised that

the artist had been using a footpath,

one subsequently lost.”

Stephen Whittle had a similar

experience with an 1892 painting by

Thomas Prytherch that showed an

access lane down to the River Severn

at Wroxeter, an ancient route and

one Stephen had used as a child to

go swimming, but which was now

blocked by gates. Maps from the 19th

century back up his claim.

The battle for rights of way is

certainly not a new one. Prof Eric

Jones, an emeritus professor at

Melbourne’s La Trobe University and

the author of Landed Estates and

Rural Inequality in English History,

There are

thousands

more miles that

could disappear.

We need more

people involved

Guardian reader discovered a vital

path connecting to the s outh-

west coastal route. “It was almost

invisible due to high ferns growing

all over, but it was possible to follow

the traces. It is not a long stretch and

could be cleared with a brush cutter.”

In Devon a group of locals, the

Brentor Commons Association,

identifi ed a lost drover’s path then

got a grant from the Co-op Local

Causes to fund restoration. Their

centuries-old path, now named The

Holloway, has become a popular

local walk.

In Leintwardine, Herefordshire,

estate maps from 1780 helped

Jonathan Hopkinson identify a

lost way, possibly part of a Roman

road. The application to change the

defi nitive map is now under way

and Hopkinson has identifi ed two

further paths that will help create a

circular route.

For Jack Cornish, a key discovery

of the project has been the history

all the houses on Thompson’s

street alerting them to a local path

under threat. It was a path that

was used but its legal status was

uncertain. Boots on the ground were

needed. “This path has changed my

perception of Acomb,” Thompson

says. “The fact that I can be in fi elds

and woods so quickly: I’m defi nitely

happier and more at home now.”

He wrote to the Guardian to

tell us about it, and he was one of

many: we received tales of ongoing

battles and those that had only just

begun. Readers described fi nding

fallen footpath signs and heading off

through beds of nettles to identify

local rights of way that had been

forgotten. Others, working from

maps, began to discover lost paths

in their own neighbourhoods while

a considerable number had been

reminded of lost routes they had

known as children. There were cases

of schools putting up fences that

blocked much-loved and well-used

routes across playing fi elds. A huge

range of issues were raised : changes

in farming practices, austerity

cuts to local government, access

to coast and riverbanks, access to

riverbanks when the river moves

and ones pertaining to the law about

paths that have been established by

regular public usage (a footpath can

be established as a right of way by

regular use for 20 years if there has

been no attempt to prevent access by

the landowner ).

At the Ramblers , the Guardian

reader response was deeply felt and

appreciated. “Around 4,000 copies

of our practical guide to saving

footpaths were downloaded,” says

Jack Cornish, the coordinator for the

Don’t Lose Your Way project. “Lots

of people got in touch with personal

stories. It was fantastic. Of course,

the process takes time, but I’m sure

we’re going to save hundreds of

miles of previously unidentifi ed

rights of way.”

He is under no illusions about

the signifi cance. “ The response

highlights how much more is out

there. There are large areas of

the country from which we hear

very little. Potentially, there are

thousands more miles that could

disappear without immediate

action. We urgently need more

people to get involved.”

The reason for the urgency is

the UK government’s decision to

set 1 January 2026 as a deadline for

applications to change defi nitive

maps held by local councils. These

maps are supposed to show every

public right of way in existence,

Kevin Rushby

in Wales

Stephen Whittle

in Wroxeter

A rescued

footpath in the

Peak District

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