Author Topic: Ugbrooke Park and a virtual trespass  (Read 3891 times)

barewirewalker

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Ugbrooke Park and a virtual trespass
« on: 13:26:24, 23/02/21 »
A few nights ago Mrs BWW was watching Sally Lindsay's A Posh Sleepover' at Ugborough Hall. Not quite my cup of tea, but a caught enough bits to trigger my interest. On a number of occasions, I have followed up some reference to past country privileges and found X zones or excessive areas of privacy that have an impact on access in that area.
With the Ramblers' 'Don't lose your Way'(DLWC) campaign fresh in mind, I measure a 2040 acre X zone that is directly attributable to the surrounding parkland of the hall, with an 11 mile perimeter and creates a 3.25 mile barrier N2S. Now, this is a long way from my area, but even at this distance the area seems to both local and regional impact on access.


As with many of these country Estates, their locations are important historically and geographically, sadly the DLWC has missed the real 'Lostway', IMO, because the wrong map was the base map, but the flaw can be seen on Google Earth by pasting this reference, 50.59851, -3.59183. The continuance of the way through the Park wall gate links the countryside from the Chudleigh side towards the coastal strip.

Are there any members local to this area, if I were local and a few years younger, that Hill camp and the intervening valley would be fodder for my camera.


I am glad to see the main routes fill in on the DLW map that challenge the Estates notion of extended privacy, Sally Lindsay's free editorial for the luxurious hospitality of Ugbrooke Hall should attract some comment on the social inhospitality that may well affect many others outside the park walls.
BWW
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barewirewalker

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Re: Ugbrooke Park and a virtual trespass
« Reply #1 on: 11:47:21, 24/02/21 »
Past and go; https://www.ugbrooke.co.uk into a browser and an impressive aerial view comes up on the screen. This quickly turns into a wedding venue video, which is clearly a piece of very slick and expensive marketing.


Having trespassed virtually yesterday, I found a hidden way in yet I only ripped my trousers on barbed wire on top of the gate seen on Google Earth(50.59851, -3.59183). The footpath, which is a right of way, opposite is a clear sign that this way once connected the estate to Chudleigh, and if this was only for domestic staff to access their place of work is this a reason why a vastly transformed village or township be cut off from their countryside by a 3-mile barrier totally made private for a very modern commercial enterprise.

I believe my trespass would have ended in discovery, not because I allowed myself to be seen, but the exit point I chose was a closed point seen on GE (50.58587, -3.58847).
Careful planning and reconnaissance are the bywords for a good trespass, to get caught on the wrong side of a locked gate is not a mistake I have made in reality. As the Estate no longer uses this gate onto the busy A380, they use another close by exiting onto Gappah Lane. I would be very surprised if any pedestrian traffic using this route to effect a crossing would come in contact with any of the romantic scenarios the most ingenious wedding planner would imagine.

The growing populations of the Chudleigh and Chudleigh Knighton, where there is a footbridge over the River Teign. A feature that should have some importance in the planning or even understanding of an access network.

It is quite clear that this excessive area of privacy, a 2000 acre blot on the landscape, denies the locals many good walking experiences, but it does have a regional impact as well. The edge of Dartmoor is just 10 miles from the coastline and this is where the railway is.
BWW
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barewirewalker

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Re: Ugbrooke Park and a virtual trespass
« Reply #2 on: 12:46:04, 25/02/21 »
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 ;D
BWW
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Jac

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Re: Ugbrooke Park and a virtual trespass
« Reply #3 on: 08:52:29, 26/02/21 »
Hi BWW. I'm fairly local to Ugbrooke but normally prefer to walk on Dartmoor or the SWCP ;) . Reading through your posts I find it difficult to identify exactly where your concerns lie. Grid refs would be a huge help.
With regard to 'posh wedding venues', I have no problem. It seems an appropriate use for overlarge houses no longer serving their original purpose. Commercial activities such as this bring in revenue and provide local employment. As does shooting, though to a lesser extent.
Devon is not well served with PROWs though I suspect many tracks which in other areas would have been left as bridleways were tarmacked in Devon hence the maze of tiny narrow lanes (Whitstable Dave!).


I'll offer you another estate near Exeter for study- Perridge.
So many paths yet to walk, so little time left

barewirewalker

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Re: Ugbrooke Park and a virtual trespass
« Reply #4 on: 11:17:33, 26/02/21 »
Hi Jac and thanks for your interest, if you watch SL's broadcast you may as I did see a free editorial that is an extension of reality TV based on the emotive drive of Downton Abbey fiction. I have no problem with this if people want to set weddings in fairy tale settings, I even have no problem with the estate making money out of a shoot setting that harks back to Edwardian times.

What I am trying to evaluate is the cost of local amenity and connect it to the Rambler's DLYW map as a stepping stone to understand how access should be a partnership between occupier of and visitor to our countryside.

It is clear that Ugbrook is trapped in a past time as far as access and land management is concerned. Bear with me and I will try to explain further, as this is merely a theoretical exercise that exposes some real issues that if understood could show how access could develop to give areas such as yours a future.


On a local point, it seems that bringing Castle Dyke Fort into a loop with Chudleigh Rocks, a good step for local amenity walking. Is it possible to walk the track through Riding Parks from Lawell house to the end of the right of way at SX 87012 78664?


P.S. Thanks for the Perrdge tip, its horrendous. Take me months to sort that one out. Probably best left to the locals, they really have a case of Corruption of the Definitive Map. If I was a local I would be claiming rates relief and demanding that it be charged directly to Perridge Estate. :tickedoff:
« Last Edit: 15:34:35, 26/02/21 by barewirewalker »
BWW
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barewirewalker

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Re: Ugbrooke Park and a virtual trespass
« Reply #5 on: 12:37:28, 26/02/21 »
 This is the Rambler's DLYW map with the ways filled in coloured blue, there is, IMO, an important lostway missing because mapping from 1920-1947 reveals the way, which explains the purpose of a Righty of Way that ends at SX 87012 78664. This lostway is coloured purple, between points a and b.


I believe that this route from Chudleigh to Ugbrooke Hall shows a link both commercial and domestic between the two. Had this link been a right of way more thought may have gone into access management within the estate and the current activities, on which the upkeep of the house is probably dependant, should have resulted in other routes.

This raises another type of lostway, I call them Consequential Lostways. The purple way between a and d completes a route across the estate taking visitor traffic away from the Hall and if you reverse the flow of ab, to account for the use of the lostway ending at Wapperwell, then b to e minimizes the pedestrian flow through the centre of the estate. The darker shading of these old maps denotes Parkland, Ugbrooke is a walled estate and the entry points can be seen using Google Earth.
a. Is at 50.59672, -3.59777. Paste this reference into GE and the track leading down to the bridge between Middle Pool and Lower Pool can be seen. By clicking on the man icon, top right of the screen and dragging it on the road, where it lights blue on the marker, both the end of the right of way and entry point through the estate wall can be seen by swiping the screen to rotate the angle of the camera.
BWW
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barewirewalker

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Re: Ugbrooke Park and a virtual trespass
« Reply #6 on: 09:52:05, 03/03/21 »
I'll offer you another estate near Exeter for study- Perridge.
This rather diverted my attention from my studies of Ugbrooke, but it has raised an interesting idea. Perridge is almost so gross it is difficult to know where to start, but it does show why Ugbrooke is a particularly good example.

The half dozen or so Rights of Way that have been left dangling around the perimeter of the estate, like clamped off arteries in a corpse that has expired during an operation, show the co-existence of the estate with it's surrounding rural community in pre-war Britain. The Lostways as filled in by the Ramblers, partially explain this, sadly it leaves Jac with a journey to a National Park to take exercise.


The Estate is hidden between two ridges as can be seen using the 3D extension in Memory Map, like Harry Cotterrel of the CLA, who writes about access yet ignores the fact that he has a sizable chunk of Offa's Dyke in his back yard. This estate has an important antiquity within its walled perimeter.
« Last Edit: 10:10:39, 03/03/21 by barewirewalker »
BWW
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Jac

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Re: Ugbrooke Park and a virtual trespass
« Reply #7 on: 11:39:16, 04/03/21 »
Had occasion to drive the A380 between Exeter and Newton Abbot in the morning rush hour today. As it's only a dual carriageway not motorway pedestrians are not banned but attempting to cross it would be madness the footpaths should have been give bridges/underpasses.
So many paths yet to walk, so little time left

barewirewalker

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Re: Ugbrooke Park and a virtual trespass
« Reply #8 on: 12:00:14, 04/03/21 »
Had occasion to drive the A380 between Exeter and Newton Abbot in the morning rush hour today. As it's only a dual carriageway not motorway pedestrians are not banned but attempting to cross it would be madness the footpaths should have been give bridges/underpasses.
HaHa, there is an underpass and looking at the layout on the map I would guess that it is there to join up the 3000 acres the estate is reported to own. Right adjacent to the track are two rights of way that come to abrupt ends at the A380.

It is the Devonian Disease, wipe out rights of way, then maintain a policy to ensure few get established.  ;D National initiatives ensured the formation of National Parks and the Coastal Path, not many people know  ;) !, the CLA were on the brink of taking the creation of the Coastal Path to the European Court of Human Rights.

Thanks for your continued interest Jac. How close are you to Chudleigh, I would love to get hold of photos of a disused railway bridge just west of the town.

BWW
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Jac

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Re: Ugbrooke Park and a virtual trespass
« Reply #9 on: 07:31:18, 05/03/21 »

Thanks for your continued interest Jac. How close are you to Chudleigh, I would love to get hold of photos of a disused railway bridge just west of the town.


Exeter. What's the grid ref of the bridge?
So many paths yet to walk, so little time left

barewirewalker

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Re: Ugbrooke Park and a virtual trespass
« Reply #10 on: 08:31:27, 05/03/21 »

Exeter. What's the grid ref of the bridge?
Huxbear railway bridge;  SX 85650 79715
BWW
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Jac

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Re: Ugbrooke Park and a virtual trespass
« Reply #11 on: 11:26:10, 05/03/21 »
Huxbear railway bridge;  SX 85650 79715
With current restrictions/rules/guidance I am not happy to explore but when restrictions lift I shall enjoy poking about this area a bit - seem to be lots of paths that could /should be open to use.
When the Teign valley railway closed in the late 50s no-one would have considered it's value as a recreational route. The recent bicycle boom could never have been envisaged at a time when the aspiration was to own a car.  Further north the old railway line has been utilised for public use, now called the Wray Valley trail, but it's disjointed. Much has been absorbed into agricultural use and I heard a rumour that residents of Lustleigh objected to it going through the village on it's original route through their delightful but rather posh village. Perhaps when the pub is able to open again they might wish it did.
« Last Edit: 12:48:46, 05/03/21 by Jac »
So many paths yet to walk, so little time left

barewirewalker

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Re: Ugbrooke Park and a virtual trespass
« Reply #12 on: 11:44:25, 05/03/21 »


My critical map of Ugbrooke Park, with a special dedication to Jac, the blue dotted lines are the Lostways filled in by those, who responded to the ramblers appeal. Some filled in grey lanes and others followed the instructions to trace in Footpaths only. This in some places leads to confusion because the continuity of way is the real clue to why the footpath is there.

My additions are the dotted lines in purple, hopefully, others will understand my reasoning. I will not deal with all in this post.


1a-1b.It is a missed lostway, it is the reason that the footpath which is a right of way from Chudleigh is there, as a way through to the Hall. The continuity of way is recorded on a 1920-1940 OS map as is the track clearly in existence today on Google Earth as is the gateway through the Park wall. Parish Churches are frequently the focal point for pedestrian ways. Adding Ic as a modern recognition of the need to incorporate the natural and historical terrain into access management, as is also reflected in track 9.

Track 2 is also a way missed by the rambler's compiler because it is a grey lane, but today's map does not show the position of Chudleigh station (it was under the centre of the interchange of the A30 ) marked with a flag, and taking into account that the house was once a boarding school, let alone a major employer for the entire period that GWR's Teign Valley Railway line operated.

3. Is a Consequential lostway. As Jac pointed out, there should be an underpass, in fact, there is and the pedestrian traffic from the east used the old Exeter Road as part of the continuity of way their route was taking them. Clearly, public access to this new subway should have come into the planning of the A380 and this lack of public representation makes it a Lostway.


« Last Edit: 12:02:09, 05/03/21 by barewirewalker »
BWW
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barewirewalker

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Re: Ugbrooke Park and a virtual trespass
« Reply #13 on: 10:52:54, 06/03/21 »
With current restrictions/rules/guidance I am not happy to explore but when restrictions lift I shall enjoy poking about this area a bit - seem to be lots of paths that could /should be open to use.
Thanks Jac I would like to add photos and any observations from a local person to my file on Ugbrooke. Have archived a few others that I looked into over the years, which I need to compare with the Ramblers DLYW campaign.

When the Teign valley railway closed in the late 50s no-one would have considered it's value as a recreational route. The recent bicycle boom could never have been envisaged at a time when the aspiration was to own a car.  Further north the old railway line has been utilised for public use, now called the Wray Valley trail, but it's disjointed.

A similar initiative by a group of railway enthusiast was foiled by a local landowner, hereditary estate going back many years in  Shropshire, a disused rail line between Craven Arms and Bishops Castle. The landowner was of the Local Access Forum, I did 5yrs he has been there for the duration of 20 years. He could not understand why anyone would want to walk from Bishops Castle to Craven Arms, an 11 mile walk, between 2 public transport hubs. Which are, incidentally directly in line with the Kerry Ridgeway and  Anchor, which is the start of the Annual X Wales race /walk to Clarach Bay on the Welsh coast.


Begod and begorrah, Landowners are thick :tickedoff: if it wasn't  :2funny:

Much has been absorbed into agricultural use and I heard a rumour that residents of Lustleigh objected to it going through the village on it's original route through their delightful but rather posh village. Perhaps when the pub is able to open again they might wish it did.

The economics point to public access increasing property values, yet we plod with the same old maxims about old ways passing through peoples house to destroy their value, rather than study the detail and try to find out how some paths earn their local economies £100,000's per mile per year ::)

Returning to my map;
4. There is a clear well-used track that is possibly part of the original Exeter road, this road was an integral part of all-access, foot and wheeled. A parallel NE-SW is a clear need to offset the disruption by the A380.



BWW
Their Land is in Our Country.

barewirewalker

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Re: Ugbrooke Park and a virtual trespass
« Reply #14 on: 11:02:01, 08/03/21 »
5. Is a grey lane, often assumed to be a Right of Way and as such were frequently left off the DM,(because they were mistakenly thought to be Highway),  if the lostway from the SE of Lower Dunscombe Farm were in place then the additional destination provided by the grey lane leading to the frame is also a lostway.

6. A consequential lostway, though possibly used historically, however if there had been the sort of cooperation between occupiers of the countryside to give appropriate hospitality to visitors as envisaged by the 1949 Act, then this way would seem to be obvious to a level of access management that looks beyond the boundaries of individual areas of land occupancy.

7. A GE visit to the road adjacent will indicate the need that this short length of field margin can provide. The Ideford Arch is a feature that can add to 'quality of way', why not use it and combined with the underpass adds to the overall interest of the access network.
BWW
Their Land is in Our Country.

 

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