This investigation of the Ugbrooke Estate started as a whim and at a first glance there seemed to be not a lot wrong with the access map of the area, perhaps a little thin but that is the norm for Devon, where you either go and get lost on Dartmoor or don't walk at all except on the coastal path
.
Elsewhere in a topic on the paucity of 'allowed walking' in East Anglia mention was made of the 'Devonian Disease'. Here we have a perfect example of the terminal stages of this phenomena, yet it goes undiagnosed and the reason is we are unable or untrained in the science of access.
The first signs of this come from the Rambler's "Don't Lose Your Way Map". I don't intend this as a criticism as it is something that has taken much time in studying and comparing old maps with new ones to understand it myself. That is recognizing 'Continuity of Way', I use a term of personal choice because no other is in common usage. To understand the continuity of a way the researcher must identify a destination, the destination may be historically redundant, yet the way may have an alternative purpose today. Landowners make a great play on our footpaths being shortcuts of yesteryear and old ways to work, yet they are all we have and the leisure usage of today provides the alternative destinations.
One of the most memorable lessons I learnt from Self Employment were the dangers of using free editorial for cheap publicity, Sally Lindsay may have given the Hon Alexander a free ride on national TV, but it has drawn attention to the area that these ventures into posh and expensive entertainment, dependant on good marketing have denied those, who have to seek cheaper means of staying healthy.
I will put one item of the glaring effects of the Devonian Disease, an underpass through the two lanes of the A380, my guess is it joins two parts of the outlying estates 3000 acres. Alongside it two rights of way that come abruptly to a halt a the Highway Authorities fence.
It has a local effect on circular routes of 5 - 10 miles from several urban sites, it has regional implications joining linear routes from the coastal strip and I suspect more informed research than I am capable of would attribute national consequences.
At the moment the graphics that reveal these observations are taking up most of my time, I had hoped to attract some local knowledge, as I am a total stranger to the area, as it is all in Virtual reality. Is the underpass a drainage conduit, so much of the old field drains have fallen into disrepair since landowners started fancying themselves as farmers, it is probably now an expensive publicly financed sump