Author Topic: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?  (Read 33106 times)

barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #60 on: 16:45:21, 19/07/16 »

I suppose suggesting a landowner ought to allow a permissive path is presumptuous, I think the trees along the ditch and river side hide the strong possibility that a way exists. However the precedent of the way having been there is not shown on the old maps. It is just a 'common sense' suggestion to bring into use a valuable length PRoW, which has become unsafe, because of the change in time of the nature of road traffic.


However old maps do show a way along the south river bank of the River Lugg from Ashen Grove, which 'common sense' suggests was a way, integral to the community, to school and church. Would this footpath have been included in the Definitive Map by civic office holders with more enlightened minds? If there was a PROW along this grey path, it opens up a possibility of a route from Queenswood Country park of 4 miles, this walk encloses 345 acres.
 A four mile walk is just touching on a useful distance, it is one mile greater in distance cardiac surgeons like their patients to walk daily after major heart ops. Queenswood Country Park covers 47 acres according to this web site. 
This area cannot provide a walk within its boundaries of this length,  but it can provide the parking and the information. I failed to find even a hint that such thinking is contained within the policy document Harry Cotterell promoted as common sense.


Does fact that landowners occupy space within our country, which implicates others within our community, merit such a poor understanding. This is an example barely 8 miles cross country from his doorstep and perhaps 15 miles by road.


Credenhill Park Wood is closer and this is possibly the model he has in mind for the quintessential example of 'what walkers want'.


It is worth a look at because it also relates distance to area................
« Last Edit: 16:50:08, 19/07/16 by barewirewalker »
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barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #61 on: 12:57:45, 27/07/16 »

Driving east along the A438 towards Hereford a glimpse of Credenhill over the hedge. Credenhill Park Wood ticks all the boxes to meet the needs of walkers as described by Harry Cotterell and this is the route he must take many times. Is it with a sense of smug satisfaction that the 'walkers needs are so neatly wrapped up in this particular example, this particular landowner can see no deeper into the needs of access as a social tool?

It has all the criteria, if the way marks are in place, the circular layout of the ProWs, enclosed, should be easy to follow, there is parking!

Is it all a bit too neat? And who are the primary users; dog walkers or walking tourists? One fits into the category of social need and the other is a revenue creator. Does this example of a walking location inspire in the way our countryside might inspire, for example the young, to walk 10 even 15 miles just to explore?
This criticism might not be justified if such an example was not visible from the top of Credenhill (as shown by the sight line) and the possible ways to do such a route not recorded on every OS map until the compilation of the Definitive Map.

The CLA policy on access does not tackle issues relate to this part of the equation, but this example does highlight the relationship between area and linear distance. The purple highlighted area of Credenhill encloses an area of 255 acres approximately, by walking twice around and over the hill it is possible to squeeze a 5 mile route out of it.
From the top the view is clear to Garnons Hill, a knoll in Nash Wood and Merryhill Wood, had the footpaths recorded on the OS map editions pre 1949 been included would it be possible to link these hills into a route.

The sightline is 7 miles in total, suggesting a route maybe 10 to 15 miles and there is one hill, which I have found to have been bagged by a bagger, Garnons. It is a tump, I believe, is Nash Wood knoll one half of a Bump. There are two knolls there.
These are destinations or route targets sought by walkers, do the authors of a national policy on access even know of these features?
Rather than going back to the previous page this is the map with the old footpaths over drawn which have been left off the DM.

in Green and Yellow.

BWW
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barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #62 on: 10:44:15, 02/08/16 »



Can you spot the difference between the last map in the previous post and this one?


Most of the mapped footpaths from the early prewar surveys by the ordnance survey went onto become PRoWs by being recorded on the Definitive Map. The green an d Yellow got left off the Definitive by Harry Cotterell's predecessors.
Whilst walking across the countryside shown on the Tregynon map, where I was verbally abuse for being on a PRoW, I was making a good direct cross country route to a bridge over river Severn. This was my destination and the end of a days walking of about 20 miles. There is a similarity here as the there is direction towards Byford shown by the old ways, close to the location of the old ford Bridge Sollers provides today's crossing of the Wye.


Was it coincidental that I got verbally abuse by a landowner on a PRoW at a time when the CLA and Sarah Slade were flooding their publications with anti access propaganda, also around the time Harry Coterell wrote;
Quote
Landowners would have to give more than they were taking away, thereby providing a net gain in access

Did HC's own knowledge of the history of his and neighbouring parishes suppression of all those old footpaths influence him to write these words, if this was the case and as president of the CLA when it published its policy on access. A markedly 'holier than thou' document, trumpeting the landowners as victims of national pressure groups pressing unreasonable claims for lost ways.
Why do I bring back this after a number of years? Sadly these arguments were never properly refuted, because they were written behind closed doors and I am pretty sure that attitudes and mindsets are embedded from that time.


It is appalling that this institutional dishonesty has not been explored and exposed when it directly restricts the valuable expansion of an access network, which will create additional income for the rural economy.











BWW
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barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #63 on: 13:58:59, 06/08/16 »

Reading Harry Cotterell's article, where he wrote;
 
Quote
"Our members know their own rights
of way better than anybody else,
they know which ones work and
which ones do not, which are
used and which are not. Perhaps
we should think about members
collaborating with neighbours
and parish councils to propose
improvements to the rights of way
network on their land."  
I can't help but question this, it seems that a decision has already been made on his estate, which shows landowners make decisions of this nature in a negative way rather than with a positive, outward looking motivation to preserve the very best our access network has to offer;

1885 edition of OS map.
The red highlighted path, which leaves the old back drive to the front of Garnons House, indicates a way to the west to east footpath that bypasses the house. Where does the foot traffic creating this path come from? Some from dwellings along the road from the north? It is almost as if the Ordnance survey has left grey paths on the Explorer series as a 'Ghost from times past' pointing an accusatory finger at Garnons, apart from a 2.25 mile off road PRoW, which leads back to Staunton on Wye, other paths seem to prove the strength of way adding foot traffic towards the crossings of the Wye river.



The grey paths are highlighted in red and show a continuity of way from the north and northwest toward Mansell Gamage. I think the slight westerly influence is probably due to the earlier crossing at Byford. But there is still a very strong line of travel approaching from the west. Shown by the bridleway and footpaths from Staunton on Wye. Where a sudden kick north reveals 2 miles of bridleway crossing Letton Lake. This can be seen on the Landranger Map;





Is the highlighted grey path, just north of Worlds End, another gap in an important line of travel towards Garnons? Does this confirm the routes toward the river crossing at Byford.
The existing 2 miles of PRoW, crossing Letton Lake seems to be less effective as part of a county wide network because it is denied the historical connection to Bridge Sollers.


Is there more? The willingness of the authorities to compile the Definitive map more enthusiastically in areas to the north and west shows an interesting line of travel.



Today it is possible to walk cross country from Staunton on Wye to Kington, Radnorshire. A little under 10 miles, if I were using the 1886 OS maps I could start this route from the ford, which gives crossing of the River Wye close to the real south end of Offa's Dyke.
If these lost ways were part of our access network the country bridge with comfortable walk ways at Bridge Sollers would be a valuable asset to the access network.


How much do landowners know about what makes access work? By reopening lost ways on his estate, could the access network be improved by Harry Cotterell making through routes to the Black Mountains and the Radnor Forest?
Continuity of way is a common factor shared by all the high earning routes, which make valuable income for the rural economies the pass through.

BWW
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barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #64 on: 11:20:47, 18/08/16 »

The page about  lostways, which is part of the landowners policy on Access, might be interpreted by some as a lenghty whinge rather than an intelligent appraisal.

The first example I looked at in this topic demonstrated how three areas without PRoWs interupted existing footpaths which could create a 10 mile linear route. This route I walked last summer, it was easily accessed from Shrewsbury by 2 regular bus services. Within those 3 'X zones' there were ways not recorded as rights of way directly linking up and adding to the those rights of way, which were sadly underused. Why because in their existing context; 'they go nowhere'.

The above first edition OS map, shows ways when people needed to walk (quote HC),
in many areas these routes form the basis of the public rights of way we use today. I have highlighted paths in this map published in 1886, Herefordshire XXXII.NE, green over those ways, which appear on today's Landranger and Explorer maps as PRoWs, and those highlighted in red are some of the routes used for walking, perhaps riding, which were not offered as rights of way, and therefore not included on the Definitive Map.
Does this look like a refusal to fully implement the intention of the 1949 act?
These lost ways could give the basis of good access to a river crossing at Bridge Sollers, they could create a great circular walk including local features of 10 miles or more and they are on a regular bus service out of Hereford.


This is also the map in which one will find Garnons, Harry Cotterell's home.



BWW
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barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #65 on: 12:18:24, 07/09/16 »
An X zone is an area without rights of way,  does this necessarily make it “Private Land” therefore “Keep Out”. The Scottish 2003 Land Reform Act has provided the means to allow the access to evolve into a form which suits a new age. Is it being used as such? Walking in the Galway area on the banks of the Solway Firth I found places where the responsible right of access could have been transformed into valuable circular walks from existing car parks set up to allow visitors to reach historic sites, these attract visitors, but the routes that could give further attraction to those areas do not seem to have been found, because they are not published on the websites giving local routes.
What is the cause of this reticence on the part of those local walkers, who could have published a more adventurous choice of routes? Perhaps walkers have not yet learnt to use this freedom nor used such examples as a tool to forge an understanding between landowner and leisure user.
The Scottish Mountaineering Club used figures in a recent dispute to show walking alone of all the access dependant pursuits puts 10 x the revenue into the Scottish economy compared with the combined income from all field sports. How much more revenue could the English economy generate if the occupiers of our countryside, made more effort to understand the actual framework of the access network and applied that understanding in a proactive way rather than a negative way collectively bundled up in a package labelled 'common sense'.

 
A rather interesting topic started on linear routes versus circular routes, X zones will drive a route out onto the highway and this influences the attraction of an area to a route. The reason for the topic here;
http://www.walkingforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=33096.15
according to the OP, identified as HB, is a survey, which is motivated by tourism.  The opportunities walking offers to increase revenue into the rural community. The CLA has something to say about opportunities in the same document on 'common sense', which seems to resemble Harry Cotterell's 'honest john' style so obviously contradicted by the locality he grew up in and lives in.

 
[/URL]

 
When 'honest john' has been born with a silver spoon and brought up to assume the legacies of his ancestors are true and honourable, accusing those, who disagree with his point of view, in such a way as the opening paragraph of the above page might be thought to be naive were the writer at a pre-GCSE level of education and only in need of further reading on the subject.

 
Sadly it does not tell the captive audience it is intended for how they might play a part in undoing some of the damage to the access network their forbears did and how they might participate in such a way to make the access network benefit others in the rural economy, who have not inherited huge estates.
The area shaded here is largely occupied by such an estate and it would be interesting to be able work out the linear total of access per area of occupation and compare it to the national average.
[/URL]
The example resulting from HB's post shows how an area without access, forces routes away from objectives, which could have great potential today. How did old routes actually get started; did the occupier of the land suddenly say, 'here is a route, please walk along it' or did those needing to go in that direction just start using it?
As I have pointed out to HB in his topic, the landowner is running a very successful “Farm Shop” type retail outlet, using the identity of the area of the Battle of Shrewsbury as a marketing strategy.
If landowners, the lifetime tenants of parts of the English countryside, were informed by their lobbying organisation (CLA) of the communal values of access, would this owner have seen the value of a permissive path along field margins better linking the those rights of way the estate uses in their image portfolio.
The level of PR skills that have gone into promoting the retail outlet can be seen here;
http://www.battlefield1403.com/
And linking the ethos of opportunity as promoted by Landowners collectively and this individual landowner is not so tenuous because it was in the Sparrow Café I became familiar with some of the anti-access strategies devised by CLA's adviser on access in the Land and Business monthly magazine, where old copies are left as coffee table décor.
BWW
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barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #66 on: 13:54:23, 29/09/16 »
I have mentioned the reason for my interest in access was started by being verbally abused, whilst standing firmly on PRoW, by a landowner. Up to that point I would have thought him to be a farmer,  it was my subsequent reading of Land and Business, which made me realise why this individual had been indoctrinated into an attitude, which should have been stamped out in the last century.
L&B is the monthly publication of the Country Landowners' Association, previously mentioned, now several things started to make sense. I terminated my farming career by having the tenancies of the farms I worked bought out, so that a landowner could farm them himself, a neighbour on a much smaller farm was forced out by near bankruptcy a few years later. I was building a business totally unconnected with agriculture, but I heard of my neighbours misfortunes and that his relationship with our common landlord was very acrimonious. To my surprise he became a membership recruiting agent for the CLA, he certainly was unlikely to have a glowing recommendation from the landowner he had tenanted his farm from and he had no other qualifications. Except his family, a long line of professional farmers, many uncles and great uncles, who had successfully bought land from the failing aristocracy of the county between the wars, been successful in the post-war boom and bought farms for their sons.
Landowners were losing the foothold in the house of Lords and the needed membership, which had long been barred to those with professional farming abilities in favour of pedigree. The CLA had been founded in 1913, I think, just pre first World War, when the Liberal Party were about to impose Land Taxes, the bill to bring this about was thwarted by the outbreak of war. The NFU was founded around 1927, the basic reason, the Society of Master Butchers were rigging meat prices and farmers needed to break this strangle hold on a basic farm commodity. By the outbreak of the Second World War, a country traditionally used to importing food had to become self sufficient in food production, the organisation chosen to do this was the younger NFU, chosen by the War Cabinet despite connections between aristocracy and government. My Grandfather, who was a chairman of War Ag, told me in the 1950's of the Nazi connections in aristocratic families, but the real reason was the tenants were the real professionals in Agriculture. It was these farmers who raised the countries agricultural production from under 30% before the war to 100% by the end of the war.
For this reason the NFU continued to be the main negotiating body in post war years with government. An onslaught on this traditional membership amongst farmers became desperate for the CLA with the loss of hereditary peers in the H. of Lords.

 
Another result of those 2 Wars was the 1949 act resulting in the ProW  we enjoy, the between war years had seen every trick in the book being used to thwart attempts to open up the countryside by the landowners in the House of Lords and Clement Attlee's post war government used their majority   to force a form of access. It was not intended to be a shortcut for Lawyers and Estate Agents to byepass doing thorough property searches.

 
It was the intention of Clement Atlee that two generations' suffering should be rewarded by having the freedom of their countryside and this is a point that is not recognised by Harry Cotterell and the CLA. It was a PRoW officer who pointed out to me that many of the anomalies and gaps in the DM were due to the need for Parish Councils to implement the recording of RoWs and the control local landowners have had over these.

 
Why raise these points here? Cause and Effect. The access network earns huge revenues for the rural community and yet the landowners organisation refuse to recognise this by their denial of the part they played in the damaging flaws left the network by undemocratic action by their former members.

 
It is in the very Parish (and adjacent parishes) occupied by the author in chief of the CLA's policy on Access we see the reluctance to record those ways, which today could give access to major access assets.

 
In following up another topic, the intention of Shropshire's Access team to add linear routes to the Shropshire Way, an area with well below average access can be seen to have forced  a detour, which completely destroys the logic of a linear way. It is a shame that the poster DM (2 posts) has not followed up on this attempt to encourage members of the forum to comment on another website, without more input here.

 
Perhaps another reason for HB coming onto this forum and fishing for comment may be connected with Shrewsbury wishing to become a Walker Friendly town, a notch in the tourism tick list, there are some pleasant routes into the town from the surrounding countryside but do they go far enough to really push the Borough of Shrewsbury high up the list as 'walker friendly'. The measure of this can be seen in the surrounding Xzones, this means the town is surrounded be landowners, who have historically shown themselves reluctant to show welcome onto their land. This is reinforced by the historic ways foot traffic used to enter the market town not having been recorded as rights of way on the Definitive Map. Any walker using an Ordnance Survey map might get a sense of this from finding PRoWs, which end at Parish Boundaries, to the advantage of of the Estate where the way should continue through. The limitation of the surrounding access does not allow walkers safe routes to the destinations that should be linked to the town.

 
There is a story, told with relish by some landowners of a land agent, Gordon Miller by name, he acted for at least 7 Estates around the town and was also Chairman of the Atcham and Rural District  Council at the time of the formation of the Definitive Map. The ARDC as I seem to remember it was called completely surrounded the Borough of Shrewsbury and in the interest of his client Estates it is told that Gordon Miller 'stripped out' many of the old paths from inclusion in the DM and so are not PRoW today. If they were there, what would be the impact on today's access network? Is it worth speculating on the value of added continuity of way, a real 'Walker Friendly Town' where the surrounding hospitality matches that hoped for by this title?

 
This post is an example of how the embedded attitude of landowners completely undermines the efforts of the wider community to move forward into the 21st Century. Shrewsbury's intention to become a Walker Friendly town will surely be a poor accolade with 8 estates surrounding, all landscaped into prime countryside, reluctant to share this natural amenity. As a speculative exercise   it might be interesting to explore the possibilities of an access network that could have developed with those old ways in place and as an extra ingredient imagine a mindset of landowners wishing to be inclusive rather than exclusive.

 
In a time when it was not the duty of individuals on public bodies to declare 'other interests', I will place Gordon Miller on the map, he lived in a house on the Attingham Estate owned by Lord Berwick and now National Trust. The adjoining Longner Estate also used his services. So to start by  using this example of a PRoW ending abruptly at a Parish boundary and the loss of continuance being to the advantage of the privacy of the House and Estate in the Parish, where the way ceases. I can also place Gordon Miller, Estate Agent, on this map.

 
[/URL]

 
Arrow 4 places Gordon Miller's home. Arrows 1 points to the anomaly of a PRoW ending at a Parish Boundary and Arrow 2 indicates the other end of a way once shown on earlier OS maps. Arrow 3 indicates the position of an ancient bridge, which no longer exists, which may have indicated that this way took heavier traffic to the ferry, other than the recorded footpath, shown at Arrow 1.
Had this way been on the Definitive Map it is possible that the value of a river crossing, once provided by the ferry, could have been included when the bridge was built for the A5(T). This crossing would put the summit of Haughmond Hill (Trig Point) within 2.3 miles walking distance of the south east of the town.
An interesting possibility might be seen here; 300yds downstream from the ferry a weir is mapped. This is the remains of one of several fish weirs, which can be found along the Severn north and south of the town. I have read that there is a connection with this fish weir, which we as children used to call the Salmon Trap, with the monks of Haughmond Abbey. I think that this weir is unique from the others as it is stone based, others were wood pilings. Should the idea occur to restore the fish weir as part of Shrewsbury's history, the means of crossing the river here, so close to old ways leading to the ferry, might be revived. A fish weir comes with a byelet, and island which creates a narrow channel between the end of the weir and the far bank. A short enough distance for a small bridge, a restored stone weir could have a walkway above so the means of crossing the river in a very attractive rural setting, with a strong historical meaning, on foot and well away from the traffic flow of the town.
This would put Lord Hill's Column in Shrewsbury a 3 mile walk from the trig Point on Haughmond Hill. It creates a second walkable link with the towns nearest and main local walking destination. But it could be a far more useful feature of attraction, there is the remains (segments of PRoWs) of two market day routes, the one using the ferry to reach Shrewsbury 5-6 miles east from Withington and Roddington and another where country folk also walked to Wellington markets. Although these routes have been interrupted sufficient remain to provide a corridor of countryside joining the two market towns. All it needs is the goodwill of those, who have inherited the obstructions, to see the value of allowing these ways to reopened.
A cross Shropshire linear route focused on Shrewsbury and Wellington is 50 – 60 miles, in 1990 a survey on the Pennine Way by Natural England showed it's earning power to be around £8000 per mile per year, for every £5000 of earning power 55 miles will yield £275,000 per annum. Actually the potential earning power of good routes now seems to be much higher, is it a good route; answer, the one I walked is 'yes' if I take out of the equation resentful growers, hostile landowners and obstructions due to being off-piste, on the Wellington – Shrewsbury section. Shrewsbury to the Welshpool is again fraught with unattractive options, where the legacy of Gordon Miller seems have been at work.
 
Question must be, what is the cost of landowners resentment of the 1949 Act and their obstruction in the compilation of the Definitive Map. West of Shrewsbury there is a huge X zone, largely centred on an Estate I know was one of Gordon Millers. It forced the Severn Way north of the river to a long stretch of tarmac, it also hides one of the best river crossings of the Severn, which is another anomaly and a story for another day.
« Last Edit: 14:01:28, 29/09/16 by barewirewalker »
BWW
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barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #67 on: 14:41:34, 23/10/16 »
This is the 1900 OS map of footpaths approaching the Preston Ferry, it's cartography is clearer than the 1st edition 1860's but the path layout is much the same. No OS maps before the 1860's so I cannot speculate how the ferry was reached before the canal was built and altered the landscape.
[/URL]
The green dotted lines are routes that are PRoW's  today and the red dots show routes left off the DM.
 The fact that there are links from either end of the tunnel, suggests that some foot traffic opted for the ferry rather than wait during the slow legging through the tunnel (tunnel without footpath) and the longer approach to the canal's terminus.
A few days ago I walked this part of the river Severn and took this photo of the Ferry House,

 I suspect it is the same house and buildings as mapped on the original survey and this would seem to suggest the estate had built a house and building for a fairly high status family in those days and this would seem to show that the ferry provided a high income to maintain the rents this property would need to yield to the estate.
Where did the flow of foot traffic come from to supply a high regular income and does this give a hint that footpaths shown on old maps are more than short cuts of yesteryear and old ways to work.
A non existent ferry may not seem to be a good reason to keep open such old ways but when a new road provides a new river crossing within a short distance from the old, not to have planned these into the new network seems to be an incredible waste of assets.
When the organisation claiming, to further the interests of the owners of land, fosters an anti public access attitude it means that landowners will bury evidence of historic access and benefits this may have bought to them, rather than offering this sort of evidence at the development stage. In this case the ownership has been in the same family passed from father to son and new development could be in the pipeline as there is a move to re-open the canal.
A further loss of public asset can be seen here;
[/URL]
This valuable asset, built by Great Western Railways, has lain unused since the creation of the Definitive Map (perhaps longer) and will no doubt continue to do so. The lostway which gives a route from the ferry north giving a way through the railway embankment does not give any useful access because two different estates own land on either side of the railway. Despite both families having a long interest in horses and equestrian businesses on either side the obvious asset as a bridleway has never seen this access point used.
 It has always in my lifetime been fenced of on both sides.
BWW
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barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #68 on: 11:05:56, 07/12/16 »
Identifying a destination is not as obvious as it may seem. Old OS maps do show footpaths, which are obviously not for public use, but these are not as readily found as the landowner press coverage on access likes to assume. I remember all the cottages on the farm I grew up on having substantial toilet facilities at the far end of their gardens, looking at 6'' to the mile OS maps it is possible to find the same dotted lines used to show routes of several miles long and also the find much shorter routes shown from a building to a smaller building.  


A 'shortcut cut of yesteryear' or 'way to work' is probably identified by a relative brevity of length, compare a new map with an old map and fill in the gaps and a broader picture seems to emerge.


The map in the previous post shows relative short distances of path to a destination 'The Ferry', in this map, where purple overlay shows lostways, green highlights today's Rights of Way and key objectives marked red.



The consequences of these lostways can start to be identified, by more than a mile of a major cross country route "The Severn Way" being diverted onto a busy B road, which was once the A5, and was the place where Lady Berwick the last hereditary owner of Attingham Hall was killed in a road accident. The route various forum members have followed to effect an East 2 West trans-Shropshire passage is sandwiched between a ten foot high red-brick wall and speeding traffic.


This topic set out looking at Areas without 'Off Road' access and how they affect our modern day access and how the network can allow us to translate it into the routes we would like to follow. The land behind the high red brick wall is owned by the National Trust, many go to Attingham Park to walk within an enclosed area, which is 'Parkland', but the National Trust also owns several thousand acres of farmland, which during the 2nd WW was used as an airfield. The Atcham or Norton Airfield was returned to agricultural use shortly after the war but the old footpaths across it where not reinstated. Another X Zone and partially administered by the National Trust.


On another outdoor forum a year or so ago I asked if lostways were important. The only answer I got from a member with much mountaineering experience as well a lowland walking was they are an unnecessary distraction. That forum no longer exists though it was connected with the publications marketed for walkers. Are lostways, which can be identified by looking for them in large areas devoid of off road access, a red herring?


The Potential routes these lost ways offer, which I have walked with Mrs BWW, are very attractive alternatives. We walked them completely unnoticed by the relevant landowners (or their minions) and without doing any damage to the countryside.


But more important is their strategic worth, which I believe makes the surrounding and interconnecting network more effective.
BWW
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histman

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #69 on: 00:43:47, 16/12/16 »
Thanks BWW for continuing to post on this topic, it's one that I keep returning to.

The reference to Gordon Miller, a Land Agent, is very interesting and not one that I had considered. Many paths and bridleways around here were not added to the Definitive Map in the 1950s due to the actions of very influential local landowners who were often the chairmen of the local Parish Councils and filled in the returns.

The old map of Cotterell's patch with the green and red annotation is very powerful.  Can you post or email me a version with more resolution as I have recently joined a local LAF sub-committee on Unrecorded Ways and would like to share it with them. By the way how did you annotate this old map? Online or on paper then scanned?

Thanks again. histman
« Last Edit: 16:29:49, 16/12/16 by histman »

barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #70 on: 12:43:02, 21/12/16 »
Hi Histman,
Thankyou for your continued interest, it is most supportive.


I am working on more examples concerning the effect Gordon Miller had on Shropshires access map. No one has yet even tried to tackle the economic consequences of these lostways and geography of Shrewsbury's relationship with the surrounding countryside is a prime example.


Ironically a number of farmers, who know me and my walking interests try to tease me with their knowledge of Gordon Miller and yet these facts makes no impact on the County Council.


Interested that you are now on an Access Forum, I did over my 2yrs nearly 5, but can no longer make my views known in that place.


I have PM'ed you and there is a drop box link to download a .jpeg version of the highlighted map, 4.8MB so I hope it shows enough detail.

BWW
Their Land is in Our Country.

barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #71 on: 09:52:56, 04/01/17 »
The next map I am working on is directly connected with Gordon Miller. It was on a walk, when I was exploring the approaches to the Maginnes Bridge, I met a farmer, I have known since by teens, as young farmers we had spent much time together. I had spotted the strategic importance of east to west access of this bridge, which is an anomaly. It has rights of way to it from both sides but no right of way over the bridge itself. It is in Wales, within the Powys CC but right on the border so probably not considered a burning issue but it is the only non highway river crossing in many miles upstream or downstream.
I was climbing over a gate, it was a very hot day and I had been forced off route by overgrown hedges, when a brand new range rover pulls up within my restricted vision caused by my cap slipping down over my eyes. The Range Rovers off side window opens about 2 feet from my nose and Mike H leans across and says 'hello'.
I chose to finish my walk and catch up with some local gossip, during which we discussed Gordon Miller. It is not so much what he told me, but the way he told me, because Mike's father had been active in local politics at the time. The information he gave was Gordons Miller's connection with the Loton Estate, Sir Richard Leighton the current owner's father would have been alive then. He acted as estate agent and large amount of footpaths were left off the area west of Loton Park, which appears to be the reason why the Severn Way is forced so far away from the river, when its natural route should have been to follow the 60m contour line south of the river between Coedway and Ford.
Over the years as a member of this forum, members have posted about east to west walks through the heart of Shropshire, focused on Shrewsbury, all have taken the Severn Way as their route. This does not give the best quality of way, had some of the old ways been in place as RoW's they would have had better choices on how and where to reach the Welsh border. This does not reflect well on the 'Hospitality' offered by the county of Shropshire. It probably costs the county in lost revenue and it's rate payers lost opportunities.





This exclusion zone is really several side by side but it is the east to west connectivity that makes the 3000 or so acres it occupies so strategically negative on such an extensive area to the west and east.


Three bridges over the River Severn highlighted in red, Coedway is east of the confluence of the River Vyrnwy but gives access to Pant/Lanymynech, the Llandrinio bridge to Llansantffraid, Vyrnwy and beyond but the Maginnis bridge is the GEM. But you reading this are walkers so I will leave you to find out why.


The footpath approach to the Maginnis Bridge from Loton is highlighted in green.
BWW
Their Land is in Our Country.

barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #72 on: 12:11:08, 13/01/17 »
The trivialization of the access network by such phrases as 'shortcuts of yesteryear' has appeared in articles and comments by landowners, when describing incidents relating to access.  
It was the patterns of an overall picture in this instance that first drew my mind to trying to understand the difference between a section of footpath and a 'way'.
Add to the continuity of a series of so called shortcuts, a purpose, then a way seems to emerge.


The OS have continued to show old footpaths in the above area to this day as 'grey paths' once mapped, as can be seen in older editions and often described as 'FP'. The proviso that they may not necessarily be rights of way is printed on the bottom of each map, but the purpose of way appears to be the same as other 'ways', which have the same destination, and have been designated 'Rights of Way' by adjacent parishes.


In the 1910 edition of the OS map for this area I have highlighted the B4393 in brown as the River Severn in blue to give a boundary to this area.

The Ways which seem to show continuity of way, but are not today RoWs, are highlighted in red and RoWs green.


The main Purpose of way would appear to be the ferry at Shrawardine and extends all the way back to Alberbury. The disused railway had a station on the N side of the river, but there are signs of a loading platform in the Little Shrawardine side, perhaps for milk, which would have been produced on the farms in this area.


So the old routes this area a pretty complete from the East and non existent from the West. Had these old ways been included on the Definitive Map, how valuable would the complete way from Shrewsbury to the Breiddens have been or could be?
BWW
Their Land is in Our Country.

histman

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #73 on: 15:00:05, 14/01/17 »
My research into how paths were added to the Definitive Map [DM] in the 1950s (in South Derbyshire and NW Leicestershire) seems to show that parishes that had Parish Councils fared better than those with Parish Meetings (no elected councillors). This was because Parish Meetings were usually dominated by the local lord of the manor (though many Parish Councils were also run by landowners).

In a parish I have been studying, Catton in Derbyshire, the chairman of the Parish Meeting was also the local squire and owner of Catton Hall (now used for pop concerts and outdoor events). According to him practically no paths existed near the Hall and those that did weren't used or were "workmen's" routes.

In the map below paths in red (on old OS maps as FPs) weren't added to the DM and those in green were; the yellow line shows the parish boundary. Dryden's Walk is still shown on the OS Explorer map but doesn't exist on the ground. An attempt was made to add it to the DM in the 1960s by a member of the Open Spaces Society but a note on the correspondence (by a Clerk at County Hall, Matlock) states "leave it for a rainy day".



http://www.23hq.com/histman/photo/27942656/original [nofollow]
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In your example, BWW, perhaps Alderbury with Cardeston parish had a Parish Meeting in the 1950s; only a trip to the local records office would reveal this.

Looking at the 1910 map in your post it looks like a footpath on the north side of the River Severn used the railway bridge to cross to Little Shawardine as well as the ferry. Such a shame that there is no path today from Little Shawardine to meet the other existing path to the old ferry site along the south bank which is now a dead-end.

Referring back to a previous post I am still trying to work out why Maginnis bridge was a GEM! Please enlighten us :-)

Thanks for all your hard work on this fascinating topic.
« Last Edit: 15:12:13, 14/01/17 by histman »

ninthace

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #74 on: 21:29:52, 15/01/17 »
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