Foot path erasure.

TLM

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 16, 2019
3,233
1,710
Vantaa, Finland
Historically rights of way might have come about during the various enclosure acts and as Broch said as a means for people to cross private land to get to work, markets and also church.
So peoples needs overrode the land owning rights in these cases.
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,888
2,140
Mercia
I've used the definitive map to prove there is no vehicular right of way through our garden :)
Just for the sake of completeness (and I'm sure that Broch knows this ) the Definitive Map only covers rights of way available to the general public. There are other rights (e.g. easements) that belong to individuals or are attached to properties that can grant a right of way across a property. These may be noted on property deeds.
 
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Fadcode

Full Member
Feb 13, 2016
2,857
895
Cornwall
There is a stipulation I believe that all PROW Bridle paths and any other used access route, must be registered by 2026 otherwise they will no longer exist
If you need or want to know more you will be interested in reading this
 

Stew

Bushcrafter through and through
Nov 29, 2003
6,611
1,407
Aylesbury
stewartjlight-knives.com
There is a stipulation I believe that all PROW Bridle paths and any other used access route, must be registered by 2026 otherwise they will no longer exist
If you need or want to know more you will be interested in reading this
I think that is cancelled.
 

gra_farmer

Full Member
Mar 29, 2016
1,911
1,087
Kent
@TeeDee send me your point of interest and I'll bring up the gis layers for registries of foot paths. If it's not there your good.

Then email Google maps the error, any paths will be removed. OS is harder to amend and would not really bother.
 

Fadcode

Full Member
Feb 13, 2016
2,857
895
Cornwall
Yep, DEFRA scrapped it:

Although it was reported the Govt was (intending to ) scrapping the deadline, I am not sure they did, if you go onto the Ramblers website, they are still asking for donations and volunteers to fight against the scrapping of the deadline as one of their campaigns, unless the Ramblers site is so out of date, whereas they may be asking for donations for a cause that is already lost.
 

Broch

Life Member
Jan 18, 2009
8,464
8,342
Mid Wales
www.mont-hmg.co.uk
The ramblers wanted the deadline scrapped as it gives more time to register the paths.

The whole process is a bit of a farce really. Paths that are shown on 1864 maps between two farms are being submitted to be changed into public rights of way which are unlikely to get passed. The reason the deadline was scrapped is because of the shear number (tens of thousands if I remember correctly) of paths being submitted that have not been used for generations and that have only come to the notice of organisations like the RA because of the threat of the deadline :)

I have such a path passing through my woodland. It goes between two farms that probably shared labour or were even related hundreds of years ago. It hasn't been used in over a hundred years according to local knowledge and the two farmers don't even talk to each other. It never has been a public right of way and has no value in being turned into one so I doubt I'll have to fight very hard to get it refused (it hasn't been submitted BTW).

What the ramblers are now campaigning against is the change to the act that will give landowners the right to apply for diversions and the extinguishing of rights of way not used.

In reality, the act is only supposed to cover previous public rights of way that have been lost, abandoned, or forgotten, not 'paths' that were not used by the general public, so I suspect a lot that have been submitted will be refused if there is no evidence of historic public right of way.
 

bearbait

Full Member
The book "This Land is Our Land: Struggle for Britain's Countryside" by Marion Shoard is well worth a read. However, depending on your viewpoint, it may increase one's blood pressure somewhat!

There is a 1997 update to the original 1987 version. (And, I think, a 2000 version but this may just be a reprint of 1997.)


You may be able to get it from your local library. (Keep supporting it!)
 

bearbait

Full Member
I'm currently enjoying "The Book of Trespass - Crossing the Lines that Divide Us" by Nick Hayes (published 2020).

He intersperses the history of how the land, the commons, the rights to gather firewood, graze livestock, etc. were "stolen" from us by the various enclosures, and his recent own explorations "off piste". Interesting, enlightening and, for me at least, somewhat disturbing.
 
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bearbait

Full Member
Following on from The Book of Trespass above, I've just finished Who Owns England? - How We Lost Our Green & Pleasant Land & How to Take It Back by Guy Shrubsole (published 2019).

It covers some of the same ground (no pun intended) but I feel complements The Book of Trespass quite nicely.

Private Eye have been looking into this for a few years now. See https://www.private-eye.co.uk/registry
 
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