The commercial occupiers of our countryside make a great distinction that the need for access has changed to leisure activities from a more important requirement of travel, when walking was the main mode of transport for the many. How much of this attitude has been fostered by the organization, who likes to call 'freeholders' of land as landowners, to the disadvantage of property owners fully benefiting in the growth of the leisure industry.
The pedestrian traveler, who originally marked out those routes in our countryside, which were captured by the OS surveys pre-1949, needed to go into towns, whereas the main purpose of the leisure walker today is the reverse. Does this make those routes of yesteryear obsolete?
Harry Cotterell as Vice President of the CLA wrote;
“Our members know their own rights of way better than anyone else, they know which ones work and which ones do not.”But the owner of Orleton has interpreted the reason for the footpath that appears join his house to the town of Wellington in a way that suits his wish to deny access rather than to allow it. This would fall into the category of some footpaths also mentioned by Harry Cotterell in the same article;
“We would have to go out of way to show how many pointless paths there are around the country and, perhaps, to demonstrate sensible alternatives which provide more and better access for everybody.”If we look at the potential of the overall route, it would seem to offer more. One reason why, I think, the old network is important is that it provides a framework that could, if allowed to evolve, be fashioned into an asset serving the leisure industry to the advantage of many more than the individual freeholders of large areas of agricultural land. It would be a shame that those producers, who have worked hard to pay for their acres, should have to be reminded that their customers have a choice, where to buy the produce they provide. Should it be jeopardized by a 'landowner', who according to articles on the internet, inherited this estate from a father, who was given the house and 2000 acres by the Earl of Powys because he had married his favourite niece?
Since I have been posting on this forum I have read many posts about members wishing to or actually walking across Shropshire, if the county were truly hospitable you would think that this could be achieved by walking through some of the best countryside and have routes, which avoid those roads that carry the most of the counties traffic. If this is not so then surely it should be an aim for those looking to develop the counties access network.
Nearly all, who have posted here seem to be drawn to the part of the Severn Way between Telford and Shrewsbury, to cross this part of the county, resulting in a 4.5 mile road walk. It would appear that 100 years ago people walked into Wellington (now part of Telford) from 5-7 miles away and also did similarly walking to Shrewsbury. The route that appears to enter Wellington through the Orleton Estate actually seems to source from an area that also gathers tributaries, which focus on one of the historic ferries over the river Severn, to access Shrewsbury. Now a new road has been the reason for new bridges, are these reasons for the access network to bend and conform to changing times?
There is also a new feature, which falls into the path of a direct route between the two towns. Part of a quarry near Overley was used for landfill, this has resulted with a new high point. One of the finest features of the new A5 is the spectacular scene of the plain of the River Severn against the backdrop of the distance hills, a panorama stretching from the South Shropshire Hills and Welsh Mountains all the way to the Clywyddians, as a car driver breasts the bank by Overley, should not this view be thought a valuable asset to be part of the improvements to the experience of walking through this county. Not very likely as the owner of the Orleton Estate thinks many people coming from the town onto his land are a potential danger to children on his estate and as this man is the President of the Shropshire branch of the CLA there would seem to be little hope for Harry Cotterell's suggestions to bear fruit, not that those thoughts showed at all in the official CLA policy on access, published during his Presidency.
Whilst our local authorities furnish and protect little used rights of way, which the CLA pressures for their termination, it may be in the knowledge of the CLA's members(with their 25in per mile OS maps) how to bring back those little used footpaths into a full and useful participation of the leisure industries contribution to the rural economy.
But then the 'Corruption of the Definitive Map' has always been a subject of denial and especially by the heirs of the main perpetrators.
In the above map the length of Severn Way on hard road is highlighted in red, the Orleton lostway is highlighted in purple and lengths of cross country footpaths highlighted in green, which sadly appear to have little use relative to their charm, nearly equal the length of roadway walked on the Severn Way. Is this one landowner contributing to a waste of public money used to furnish and protect these Rights of Way?
Bus and Rail stations are also highlighted, just one of the ways our leisure activities link into the commercial heart of the countries economy.