Liphook Community Magazine Summer 2020

ARE WE IN DANGER OF LOSING SOME OF
OUR LOCAL FOOTPATHS AND BRIDLEWAYS?
Rights of Way
Shaped by our ancestors over centuries, rights of way tell the
stories of our landscape, our history and our heritage, they
describe how generations before us travelled to the pub, field or
shops and they allow everyone to enjoy the countryside, both on
our doorstep and across Britain’s iconic landscapes. However,
some of these rights of way are in danger of being lost forever.
Back in 1949, Government legislation required most local
councils to draw up a ‘definitive map’ of all the footpaths,
bridleways and byways in their area. In some areas the mapping
was already pretty good but in others few routes were recorded.
Moving forward to 2020, the Countryside and Rights of Way Act
included a commitment to ‘extinguish’ any pre-1949 paths not
included on these ‘definitive maps’ by 2026. So the race is on to
ensure all existing routes are on the Council definitive maps
before this date.
The Ramblers Association has been concerned about this and so
organised a “Don’t Lose Your Way” volunteer led project, with the
objective of finding these missing rights of way and applying for
them to be added to the ‘definitive maps’. They set up a web site
this spring, which included old maps and current definitive maps
and they have encouraged everyone interested to compare the
two to spot those missing. This project has attracted a lot of
media coverage in the press and also on some television magazine
programs. More information about this project can be found at:
https://www.ramblers.org.uk/get-involved/campaign-withus/dont-lose-your-way-2026.aspx
The rights of way went unrecorded for a variety of reasons, in
some cases landowners illegally closed paths without following
official procedures. In others temporary wartime stopping-up
orders weren’t reversed. Some footpaths were forgotten when
new roads or houses were built and some councils came under
pressure from large estates not to record routes accurately and it
also appears that some councils just weren’t very good at it.
So what does this mean for us?
In Hampshire it is estimated that there are still over 700
routes/rights of way yet to be included on the definitive maps. If
any path isn’t recorded by 2026, it could be blocked or built over
without anyone legally able to object. You might think that these
‘lost’ paths are overgrown and hidden under brambles and nettles
but many are used regularly today by walkers, shoppers and
commuters, maybe during the recent social distancing you have
walked some of them yourself.
Acknowledgement:
Some of this material has been reproduced from the magazine
“Walk” with kind permission from the Ramblers Association.
Fay Boyett
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