Author Topic: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?  (Read 33090 times)

histman

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #75 on: 10:27:15, 16/01/17 »
Thanks for the link to the Cumbrian path decision.
Pretty sure there'll be an appeal when/if the order is made.

The "alternative energy holding company" Roxlena mentioned in the report seems to be a rather "shadowy" organisation.

barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #76 on: 11:59:23, 17/01/17 »
Thanks to Histman for this, The Catton examples is very interesting and shows up another anomaly. Those involved in the recovery of 'Lostways' seem to be overly concentrating on the actual way, this is natural as the legal recovery is very precise. My interest has been for a more general overview, which is the scale of the corruption of the definitive map and the actual pattern of a complete access network, so I can understand how it should be.
I toyed with the idea of highlighting the civil parishes in the first example on page 1.
The real damage Gordon Miller did was to the Borough of Shrewsbury, who at this moment in time are trying to gain status as a 'walker friendly town'. His position as chairman of the Shrewsbury and Atcham Rural District Council, coincided with 7 Estates he managed as a land agent, surrounding the town. The protection from Rights of Way he thought he was giving to his clients now directly compromises this new initiative the Borough is trying to make to enhance the tourism trade.
To bring this corruption more to light finding the history of these parish meetings etc. may come later or someone else may pick up on it.
Back to Catton, the original excuse by the landowner 'old ways to work' ignores the fact that 200 years ago the formative time, which the early surveys by the OS which captured the basis of the access network we use today. The Manors, Halls and grand houses, the HQ's of the surround estates were the prime employers and the center of commerce for the area.
The continuity of way shown by the footpaths, served more than employers going work and the estate house was a hub of social and commercial activity. The legacy of continuity of way of several miles of distance cannot be ignored because it may now focus on a building and grounds, which time has changed its purpose and position in social and commercial order.
The fundamental misunderstanding in the landowners policy is they do not recognise that they are the reason we have to have Rights of Way. As Ninthace brings to our attention the corporate and individual identity of landowner interest, which opposes the re-establishment of access on principle, this is largely due to the policy of the CLA, which cannot admit to the corruption of the definitive map as so obviously shown in the example of Garnons.


I do not know the local geography of Catton, maybe it has some similarities with Loton Park, the east to west continuity of way would become effective if the need of an modern access network allowed the connection through the area of old parkland bringing together continuity of way of two or more historical approaches to these one time hubs of community activity.


Histman wants to know why I think the Maginnis Bridge is a Gem. It is an ugly bridge, a section of ex WD Bailey bridge by the look of it concreted over, but is is the approaches on both sides which set it apart from the other alternatives of crossing the River Severn. A better understanding of Linear Walking would help understand it's importance, but it was day linear walks, which drew my attention to this anomalous bridge, and the certainty that a very fine LDP could be hidden in the path if could create if we had the Scottish access rights.


Perhaps a separate topic on the Maginnis Bridge, have been turning up some photos.
BWW
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barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #77 on: 11:42:22, 29/01/17 »
I don't think I will spend anymore time on the Ford - Alberbury X zone at the moment, apart to just wonder why Gordon Miller left these particular ways off the definitive map. I don't suppose there is anyone alive today who might know, unless I get the chance to have a chat with Sir Michael Leighton, in a garrulous mood. I suspect Gordon Miller engineered the sale of a number farms for Sir Richard Leighton so that he could continue a lifestyle that was threatened in the 1920's, if this was the case, it is more than possible he retained the shooting rights over those farms. Does not seem likely, if it was for pheasant shooting but if the estate had a reputation for it's partridge shooting this alters this line of thought to highly likely. The partridge coveys have probably been reduced by post war agricultural practice, this could have been entirely different in the period up to WW1.
There are large open fields of flat land either side of the Alberbury Road, good ground for partridges, if these were driven north the would land on a north facing slope or the Severn flood plane raising the likelyhood of their return to the warm ground they were driven from. Did Gordon Miller think that the 'good life' of Edwardian pre-war would return and that the Loton Park lifestyle would recover despite the loss of their land.
The old ways mainly centered on access to the station, which became active again during WW2 may not offer a direct link from Ford to Coedway (and the Breiddens) but if they were there today walkers may well have been using them and the value of the 60m contour more apparent. As well as the historical importance of the Motte & Bailey, Ferry, Ford, Fish Weir and remains of the Grandmontine Abbey & Priory.


I find little comparative historical interest on the north side of the river where the Severn Way has been forced along tarmac highway on the Flood Plain.


To sum up the X zone blocks two active access areas being joined. Is clearly defined to the North by the River and the South the Alberbury Road, which is a busy trunk route into Wales, fully extended into its boundary margins with no appreciable verge. Yet it has a history of very active access, which could have been tailored to meet 20th and 21st century use.


Since starting this particular part of this topic my interest has stayed off to two other areas;
Exploring a bridge at Apley which allows a private crossing of the River Severn raises the question of the validity of Formalized Estated being Private Areas.
Another area with no access and no historical access being mapped since the OS started in the 19th Century, not being the subject of scrutiny, when destinations, which fall into the interest category of modern day walking and tourism, which could be made accessible.
« Last Edit: 11:45:56, 29/01/17 by barewirewalker »
BWW
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barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #78 on: 12:35:10, 07/02/17 »
I started this topic to try to get an understanding of how areas of our countryside without off-road access affect the overall access network, in my previous post I stirred a memory of another topic. This was started by a fabulous walk Mrs BWW and I enjoyed visiting and viewing the largest Mere of the Cheshire / Shropshire Meres. Trouble is it is bang in the middle of 'so called' private land to coin a 'trumpism'.
http://www.walkingforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=24803.0
The Scottish right of access was born out of the need to reach destinations/features, a campaign of trespass preceded the 2003 Land Reform Act, as I understand it, and you have only to spend a bit of time on this forum in the Scottish section to find out how popular reaching particular features is, they are Munros. The result of this very wise bit of legislation is the commercial out performing of walking as a tourism attraction against the sum of annual national earnings of all field sports combined, by ten times.
Is having a major natural feature locked away inside a "Private Estate" costing other businesses income, who might be able to benefit from it? In the context of route design how important are these features? The can provide 'destinations' for routes, which lie outside of the X zone created by these areas of formalized parkland created for a totally different social order in Regency and Georgian times. Then they were created for leisure and today they may well be contributing to the destruction of our country hospitality suites. Village pubs disappearing all the time, how many of those little blue pint pots on our OS maps are actually serving a refreshing pint, when you successfully map read your way to it.


In the Alberbury X zone Loton Park blocks off the linking together of good lengths of continuous way where the truly and faithfully filled in Definitive Map routes on the Welsh side, border only a few hundred yards from Loton Park, could have been linked to a continuity of way lost by maladministration.


Continuity of way between natural features and destinations has earning power for the national economy, so its seems logical that those areas without access are not just not contributing but are costing. Just looking at the earning power of those ways, which have been measured, it would imply that these figures could be in the Millions if not 10's of Millions per county.
BWW
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barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #79 on: 12:50:05, 20/02/17 »
Last summer I took this picture from the south parapet of the north of two road bridges over the River Roden, which lie about 2 miles apart;

In between these road bridges there is a footbridge, which carries the Shropshire Way along it's meandering course around Shropshire. A bridge over a river of this size is no mean construction, yet it appears to have no purpose other than to allow the Shropshire Way to leave a road joining Shawbury to Roden and regain countryside, which would have been better served by the natural terrain on the River Roden's east bank.
Did this bridge once join two communities together, did it serve as a way to work for farm workers or was it a 'Shortcut of Yesteryear' originally forged from a tree falling across the river. There is a Chapel at Poynton, part now forming the end of a farm building and seems to have been constructed from similar masonry found in the ruins of Haughmond Abbey, over two and a half miles away?
Is this bridge a valuable item of infrastructure in the asset column of Shropshire's Countryside account?
1). It is deep in heart of countryside.
2). Attractively positioned.


It does somehow it seems to be a bridge without purpose.
It is also situated between two X zones.

High lighted in green are public footpaths, which give a continuity of way from the west, where there was a ferry crossing the River Severn at Uffington, east to Haughton, where it ceases. The same direction of travel reappears at the footbridge at Poynton, being strengthened by a spur from High Ercall, continues through Walton and ends at Osbaston.


The Red highlighted line shows as the crow flies direction to Newport, Shropshire.
A different picture appears when a the 1880 and then the 1990 OS map is bought into the equation, Poynton FB is in yellow highlight;

Is this a relevant Lostway?
Does it provide a reason for the existence of a quaintly position footbridge?
Because nearly a mile and a quarter of continuous footpath appears to give  direction, purpose and destination to over 5 miles of way.




 
BWW
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Andies

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #80 on: 14:48:14, 21/02/17 »
As always very interesting BWW. I think the more anyone looks at maps the more obvious it becomes that there are so many lost ways, and even more so when you look at older maps. Most people realise that the indication of say a footpath on older OS maps does not mean it is necessarily a ROW now, but so often it is obvious from examination of maps, and indeed on the ground, that these were ROW that were in use. Sadly the failings of the recording of these onto the definitive map has resulted in many lost ways.

My own research has been limited to a few local villages in Suffolk and it quickly becomes apparent that there are more than enough in most villages. I have a particular interest in the village of Great Barton in Suffolk where there are many such lost ways. I have it on first hand evidence that the Parish Council in the late 1970's, when they had an opportunity to address which ROW's should be on the definitive map, took the view just to record those that people still used! This of course served the interests of some more than others!

Many footpaths admittedly rarely used by then in the vicinity of the church were lost, and in any event were also ploughed out, and access points sometimes blocked, albeit many of the old routes do still exist as farm tracks etc... It was all very self fulfilling, nobody uses the footpaths, well they're no longer there to use, they're not on the definitive map so it's a trespass etc...all gone and hopefully forgotten!

It seems to me that it will take an a very determined individual or organisation to get any of these lost ways reinstated. From what I can see most people don't seem bothered enough to do anything, and the system isn't easy for the lone individual to pursue matters. The 2026 deadline looms and then I suppose they really will be lost ways forever. Suffolk ROW Department struggle to even put up replacement signposts within a few years, they're clearly under resourced, and simply cannot effectively deal with lost ways even if they wanted to.

Great Barton does have a particular claim to fame in the context of ROW's as a footpath in the village is the subject of the "Andrews' Case" concerning the Inclosure Acts and the setting out of footpaths therein. This case and various follow ups was brought by John Andrews of the Ramblers Association. The ruling in the appeal on this means that at least one additional footpath may make in onto the definitive map, but it goes without saying that the landowners aren't happy, but hopefully there is little they can now do to stop this actually eventually happening? I was lucky enough to discuss the Case with John Andrews, who is well known especially for his work in Suffolk, and indeed elsewhere. I suspect he is responsible for recovering more lost ways than anyone.

I also think that the Andrews Case is going to be more effective in getting some lost ways back onto the maps, than individual cases, as so often the last 50 years have seen the decline in use of footpaths, the death of most people that ever did use them (so no witnesses to give evidence of use), and of course the removal of evidence on the ground. In comparison it's surprising how confident landowners are that no one has ever walked a route over the past 150 years, and that there was never a footpath on the ground, and if there was it was just for farmworkers!

I fear lost ways are something of a lost cause overall. A few will try to reinstate them, but unless someone such as the Ramblers really get on board with the issue, nothing will really happen before 2026. As someone many miles from substantial areas of access land I rely on the ROW network week in week out to enable me to get out and walk. Perhaps the most sensible answer is changing the access rules for England to give us more, but I cannot see that happening anytime soon. Perhaps I should write to the CLA and express my views :D :D

barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #81 on: 13:08:37, 23/02/17 »
Thanks Andies for your contribution, your fear that lostways are a lost cause is mine also. The cutoff date, I suspect was a political expedient to ensure the 2000 CRoW act passed through the House of Lords, no thought of their value, because this was unknown territory, a completely arbitrary decision based on no study at all.
Can interest purely from trying to understand how a more complete access network might be, help?  This interest is helping me understand how walking works as a pastime and has bought to my attention more about the structure a routes than purely following green dots on a map.


If by writing my observations here may provide those more active in the pursuit of reestablishing lost ways with additional ideas can do no harm. It also gives me ideas were I might next like to walk.


There is within your post an interesting point;
Quote
I have it on first hand evidence that the Parish Council in the late 1970's, when they had an opportunity to address which ROW's should be on the definitive map, took the view just to record those that people still used!
Based on an Act passed on 1949. The time delay it took to enact the will of Parliament is an added pointer to the maladministration of the creation of the Definitive Map.
Quote
Perhaps the most sensible answer is changing the access rules for England to give us more,


Funny you and Harry Cotterrel were in agreement here in one of his articles as vice president of the the CLA, sadly he changed his tune when as president he published the landowner's policy on access.


Perhaps you should write to them :D :D 
BWW
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Andies

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #82 on: 15:36:51, 23/02/17 »
I agree with all that you say BWW. Despite my interest in lost ways I suspect I will never actually take the lead in trying to get one reinstated unless I find myself with more time on my hands than I currently do. But like you the study of maps and the apparent "black holes" thereon has led me to explore areas in a way that I previously wouldn't have. As a consequence of this it has encouraged me to stray from "the righteous way"; a wonderful term from some of your previous postings, and one that I really like  O0

It is probably not surprising that you referred to my comment about the Great Barton Parish Council of the time only recording ROW that they considered to still be used. When I spoke to John Andrews he also found this interesting, and if my memory serves me correctly he said this approach had not been uncommon on Parish Councils at that time, and had in fact stemmed from direction given by the old West Suffolk County Council!

He also referred to many parishes in Suffolk that hadn't actually had a single ROW recorded initially, although his efforts had clearly addressed this in very many cases. The sad thing to me is that in so many cases there were clearly ROW in existence up until 50 to 75 years ago, and often more recently, but the changing face of rural life in particular has meant these are now lost. Routes marked on OS maps were obviously used but this does not provide sufficient evidence of a ROW, and so much of it seems to come down to the provision of other evidence. I cannot believe that the OS recorded a footpath on a map if there wasn't actually one in existence on the ground. What it was used for may be another matter!

Given that there seems to be considerable emphasis placed on having evidence of the use of a route when such claims for lost ways are made, I have for a while been thinking that I might usefully maintain some appropriate records of my own use of such routes, should the need ever arise to support such a claim in the future. Whether evidence that I actually walked such a claimed route a couple of times would actually help is of course another matter, but it does give me considerable satisfaction to have actually walked along these routes regardless of their current official status  :)

I have recently compiled a review of all the current ROW in Great Barton and detailed all of the existing problems with regard to broken and missing signage, blocked routes, and other issues. A total of 19 issues  :(  I had previously reported most of these to Suffolk's ROW Department two years previously, and despite reminding them, nothing had happened. I have subsequently also now reported these via the Ramblers Pathwatch facility. The Parish Council have now discussed these issues and been in contact with the ROW Department who have assured the PC that all matters will be addressed within one month! So perhaps this is a better way of approaching existing issues, and I hope especially as there is the outstanding issue of the modification order for a new footpath resulting from the Andrews' Case, that interest in the villages ROW have been awakened. Whether this will extend to other lost ways is another matter!
 

barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #83 on: 09:49:15, 26/02/17 »
Again Andies thanks for your interest, I applaud the work and effort you have put into access around Gt Barton. I suppose 5 yrs on a LAF is a reasonable contribution of effort by some standards but the chair of the LAF I was a member of seemed to think I was slacking by not being out there>>>>repairing stlies and cutting brush. He is a hereditary landowner and born to ordering the lower classes into the activities they should be getting on with.


Again I applaud those who take on campaigning for individual lost ways, ramblers or horse riders, but I somehow think I am a lone voice, when I make the connection between the commercial value of the access network and it's potential to create revenue for rural communities, a point completely ignored by the CLA in there self congratulatory Policy on Access.


In coming upon the evidence that has prompted this line of thinking, it is the collective of lostways as shown by areas without access and this would be  a dangerous path for an individual to pursue. I believe when an individual starts the process of reestablishing a lost way there is a commitment to cost. So if a multiple of cases were started the risk of having costs awarded against the originator of the claim is multiplied. This risk highlights the weakness of the placing multiple or even one claim on the The Register of Formal Application, which preserves the possible reclaiming of a lostway after 2026.


As you have shown it is with the old Shire County Councils that some of the original fault lies that, so is it up to individuals to bear the cost of forging a national asset that could be earning rural communities £10,000s even £100,000s per mile, which are the quantities shown by continuous ways that have already published figures.



BWW
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Andies

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #84 on: 12:31:30, 03/03/17 »
Thank you for your kind words BWW. Whilst Great Barton Parish Council did thank me for my efforts in respect to the villages' ROW, I suspect the next few weeks will determine how successful getting the PC involved will have been in rectifying the many issues that Suffolk ROW Department have failed to address, despite my individual efforts in the past. Notwithstanding the time since I originally reported most of these issues to the ROW Department (2 to 3 years in most cases!), the ROW Department response seemed to have more to do with telling the Parish Clerk that I should really report these direct rather than via the Parish Council! I also hoped that going through the Parish Council might generate some interest in the villages' ROW on their part, but this doesn't appear to have been the case. Many Parish Council's do at least have a footpath officer but not Great Barton. That said they cannot even fill the vacancies on the Parish Council.

One interesting thing (well I think so!) is that the on going housing development from Bury St Edmunds that is set to now march virtually up to Great Barton Church in the next few years,  should see the establishment, according to some plans I have seen, of some new ROW. In one case a "new" ROW would actually run along the exact line of one of the most obviously historical "lost ways". Perhaps strangely the economics and requirements of housing development may actually help save an otherwise lost way? I suspect the former landowners will have no objection to this "new" ROW once the land is sold for development but would not be so keen if someone put in a claim for the lost way prior to this!

I am interested in what you say about the value of the ROW network and have been giving this a bit of thought. I fully get the value this has for our health both physical and mental, but I wonder how easily this value is quantifiable to your typical landowner. A few weeks ago I walked past a line of guns in a neighbouring village (they were actually in part stood on a ROW whilst shooting!), I suspect paying often £1,000 a gun for the days shooting; and I wonder how I would convince a landowner about the value of the ROW across their land in comparison? I suspect given a few other issues on this particular estate with regard to ROW, that this landowner would have preferred I wasn't there at all; disturbing his birds I suspect, and getting in the way of their fun, not that they actually stopped shooting as we walked past. I was actually very nearly hit by a falling partridge and Mrs A didn't like coming into such close contact with the guns.

In areas where there is a clearly more defined tourist industry and walking is prominent in that I can see how the argument can be more easily made for the value of ROW, albeit such areas will often have access land so the same issues perhaps don't apply? I would love to think that a rural Suffolk landowner would see value in the ROW on their land but I think it would be a big ask from what I have seen. We do have a few "trails" running through Suffolk but these are far from being prominent in walking terms, and I just don't think as it stands today that landowners see the value in the ROW network  :(

barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #85 on: 10:51:27, 04/03/17 »
Perhaps this quote from elsewhere on the forum will help with your understanding of shooting in the broader economic picture;
Quote
“Given his previous support for the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, we would have hoped for stronger support.”
He reminded Mr Swinney, who is also Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth in the Scottish Government that many walkers travel a significant distance to access the hills and in 2009 the value to the Scottish economy from walking tourism was estimated to be £533m a year.
The MCofS said, according to Scottish Natural Heritage, the overall contribution to the Scottish economy from all field sports – game shooting, deer stalking and angling – is £136m a year.
Above quote came from topic here;
http://www.walkingforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=26296.msg383077#msg383077
£1000 per day may be a bit dated, £35 to £45 per bird shot seems to be the going rate when I accessed some websites recently. It suggests that there is quite a bit of competition between shoots on the high end to attract guns with big pocket books, whereas many estates run their shoots for private entertainment. The days when these shoots employed full time keepers and underkeepers are long gone, most I come across are part time. A point Marion Shoard makes in her book 'This Land Our Land' is the income generated from access is mostly connected to hospitality employment within the rural community. The lesser Income from field sports goes directly into the pocket of the landowner.
The need to keep people out of the countryside during the laying season of pheasants is no longer relevant to the efficiency of a shoot as these shoots no longer employ the keepers to protect the necessary number of breeding wild birds, they now buy in reared birds and release them in the late summer. The management of these are quite compatible with an access network of 5km/1km.square as can be seen in many parts of the country.


Your point about 'health and well being' was supported, in my experience on a LAF, by a presentation given to us by a member of the area Health authority, and in today's planning it should be seen important that new developments are integrated into the access network. This point represents a hidden 'income' as something like 60% of the NHS treated conditions are related to lack of physical fitness and 30% of the population are clinically unfit.


Three sources of earning power of specific ways have come to my notice namely;
SWCP; Welsh Coastal Path and the Pennine Way.
I divided the distance of these Ways into the figures quoted for the total money they put into their local economies. Look for them and see if you come up with similar figures, I found. The survey for the Pennine Way was done in 1990 and shows a figure of £8000/ mile, if my maths is right.
All have a common denominator of 'Continuity of Way' over a distance;
Is there a value for continuity of way and is it related to the other factors and properties these routes have in common?
Quality of Way.
Connectivity of Destinations.
Interpretation of Geography.
Three headings which come to mind if you are going to start to measure marketability. None of these factors are even remotely suggested in the CLA's shallow policy on access named 'a common sense approach'. Sadly the Rambler's do not seem to challenge the occupiers of our countryside on an intellectual level, which might inform us users how poorly we have been served by the interpretation of the 1949 Act and it's subsequent development.


I hope to continue to look for and at actual examples and see what can be learnt from them.
« Last Edit: 10:58:58, 04/03/17 by barewirewalker »
BWW
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barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #86 on: 18:10:13, 28/03/17 »
This is the bridge highlighted in the yellow circle in the previous map, it is 1 1/3 miles upstream from a busy roadbridge on the B5062, this links High Ercall with Shrewsbury. Surely 100 or more years ago people walking would use the road, not then carrying the weight of traffic of today.

So why was a bridge built here, another road bridge crosses the River Roden a mile upstream. Clearly from the network of footpaths recorded as rights of way both bridges were used as part of cross country pedestrian ways yet a bridge has been here since the 1880's. The continuous way highlighted on the 1900 OS map, shows the bridge could have made possible foot travel from beyond Walton all the way to the ferry at Uffington, a focus of travel that leads to the old centre of commerce in Shrewsbury. Before the industrial expansion of the town in the east, the livestock market had been in Raven's Meadow, the site of the Shrewsbury Livestock Auction till the early 1960's. Cattle and sheep could not be transported across the river and the road to Castle Foregate is the likely route. Imagine the groups of cattle and sheep travelling along the roads on market day, taking up the full width of the highway and their continuous passage cutting up the verges turning them to mud. Would the cross country pathways, offering a parallel route, be more acceptable to women, wearing long skirts and carrying baskets of marketable products such as eggs and cheeses? This phenomenon of an alternative line of parallel foot travel to the line of highway, which has become today's road network, reoccurs all around Shrewsbury. Do other market towns show similar networks?
So the line of missing path, between Poynton and Haughton, shown on the 1900 edition of the OS map gives more credibility to the existence of the bridge, which is also shown on the 1880 survey.





The anomaly here is; Why was a mile of footpath left off the definitive map, which seems to be the main reason for having a bridge. Footpaths from both High Ercall and Walton feed into the line of travel, which shows a continuity of way to a historical crossing point of the River Severn at Uffington the location of a ford and a ferry. The extended line of travel to the historic centre of Shrewsbury has enroute, the site of the Haughmond Abbey and Shrewsbury Abbey. Nowadays the ferry does not exist, so what is the point resurrecting an apparent medieval line of travel in the 21st century. Apart from the suggestion that it should have been included on the Definitive Map, this way links directly into a 'modern day greenway' right into the greenspace in the centre of the town, the Quarry, by the course of the 19th century canal and the river bank path.
Continuity of way can be found on old maps, but today's highway often interrupts these old lines of travel, but where they provide continuous lines of travel through countryside they have both social and economic value. This is dismissed by the CLA in their suggested policy for access, which I think is discredited by examples such as this, because it seems to show a lack of study. Reading the only article, I could find, on lostways on the Open Space Society's website much stress is put on proving a way has been walked in the last twenty years and these ways are probably tracks. This example is purely field margins and has been fenced off for so many years that reinstatement is highly unlikely without the good will of the landowners/occupiers. This unlikely as long as one of their main lobby groups still has it's thinking entrenched in the 18th century. The CLA likes to say that this country has the best countryside access network in the world but they cannot admit to the ideas that might make it better.
Shropshire County Council Leisure services seem to have tried to show some of the Shropshire Way as Linear routes, the trouble is the format of the Shropshire Way is a circular route, which conflicts with one of the basic geographical properties of the county. Shropshire was historically the largest inland county (pre Telford), as a Shire county, it's county town is near dead centre with the main river passing through it and the county occupies space between the Welsh Border and the Industrial Midlands. Does this Geography and more add up to a need to recognise, as part of a modern network, cross county linear routes? Would this be in the interest of harnessing the growing part leisure walking has to play in tourism?


Is this an example, where the admission by landowners of the 'Corruption of the Definitive Map', could broaden their understanding of the social and economic advantages of access?





The purple highlight is a tracing I have done over a near continuous line of footpaths, possible more continuous than parts of the Shropshire Way, on 1;50k scale OS maps. The northerly curve to the east shows a line around a low lying peat area, now mostly drained. There is then a beautiful stretch passing through a series of riverside meadows, in a shallow valley carved out by the River Meese.
The first break in the continuity of way from the east is the site of the WW2 airfield, which has suffered loss of access by reinstatement not being done after military use ceased. Historically some of this was apparent short cuts to roads, which are now are unsuitable for foot traffic but to have provided the ways to avoid this would have been minimal had the old paths been reinstated.


I think there are 3 holdings, over which this old way goes, did the occupant of one of these influence the decision to not include this way as a RoW. No great shooting estate owned property here. I think CWS farms may have owned the centre block of this land and milk production would then have been the main agricultural production, herds have gone from all the surrounding holdings. Should the local authority be held to account and explain why it was not included as a Right of Way or should it be left to a member of the public to troll through countless historical documents, in the hope that somewhere, someone recorded the minutes of a meeting. Would this show that self interest of the then occupier was the cause or would it show how inefficiently the intentions of the 1949 were carried out? In this instance none of the whinging reasons, which the CLA claims affecting the landowners by current access and the threat of re-establishing a historical route could apply. In fact it could bring business, should some of the large old farm houses choose to diversify with B&B.
« Last Edit: 10:40:30, 29/03/17 by barewirewalker »
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barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #87 on: 12:35:55, 11/04/17 »
A couples of days ago I walked across the WW2 airfield X zone shown by the east break in the potential route shown on the previous map. Also shown as a grey stain fourth map back on this topic. I don't think I could have caused any commercial occupier of that land any inconvenience and as I was unchallenged, no sense of invasion of property rights seemed to have been challenged.
I have made some more comments on my trip here;
http://www.walkingforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=22739.msg494517#msg494517


Yesterday I had a little jaunt around an area that was discussed earlier in this topic. It started by another forum member drawing my attention to issues in Herefordshire and ended up here;
http://www.walkingforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=30054.msg472619#msg472619
Which I have described in a post today in Where are folks walking this weekend?. It is about a mile of good footpath, which unfortunately leads to a very busy road with nowhere else to go. The result if this little exploration is a way that puts this footpath to good use and safely. A mile of right of way is worth putting to better use even if comes under the description of a 'shortcut of yesteryear' in landowner parlance. In the X zone, Poynton - Haughton, Shropshire there is a shortcut, really!, across the corner of a field that just leads to a similar road, though it is a B road, but can be equally vicious with traffic needing to be dodged.
It is highlighted here in the pink oval;

Does it serve any purpose, the purpose it did serve, I think is to lessen the distance the folk from Walton and surrounds had to walk to cross the river Roden at Poynton Green bridge, which seems to have been a crossing that was used by quite a lot of footfall, because the other line of approach is the footpath now used by the Shropshire Way and this reaches back well over a mile into a well populated area with lots of footpaths which may well be described as shortcuts. I would look on them as tributaries to this way that seems to become stronger as it crosses the bridge. If we believe this scenario, where did all those people go? To work? All the farms west of the river were relatively small. To the Pub, well there was a pub at Poynton Grange many years ago, called the New Invention, but to be logical this pub is more likely to have been there because of the footfall and other passers by, rather than to have been the destination for the footfall as there were hostelries closer to the the source of the pedestrian traffic.


Perhaps they all used the road, but the old OS maps give us a clue. Where the red arrow is they show footpaths, this gives a parallel route to the lane going west, so a little more time is needed to highlight some more of those old ways on the 1900 OS edition, which so exhausted the compilers of the Definitive Map and left them without the strength to fill them in. Or perhaps it was poor diet after food rationing in the 1950's. HAH! just thought there were rationing footpaths as well :2funny: :2funny:


So the way I read the map, is this seemingly useless bit of right of way tells a story of how much flow of pedestrian traffic there was, that today's highway was in part the way pedestrians went but the overall pedestrian way may well have been much longer than the CLA's assertions that all were shortcuts of yesteryear. When I first started to read their policy on access I was sure that it is intellectually flawed. The underlying weakness is drawing conclusions from popular assumptions without detailed study.

BWW
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barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #88 on: 12:06:13, 27/04/17 »

The importance of Design can be found in almost every facet of day to day life. Is design relative to our access network? Design needs to be a planned and structured study to achieve an end result, but design is also found in random forms, unravelling design in history may solve riddles because when the pattern is found then the forces behind can be better understood and in nature the appearance of incomprehensible patterns often give comprehension, when underlying factors are recognized.
To the map purist marking a map is 'criminal', especially if that map is a public record and I expect that in the later part of the the 20th century this was the most likely way that anyone could have looked at pre-war OS maps.
 The Library of Scotland has made available 'online' a great many historical maps and the 1900 edition of OS 6 inch per mile is a particular snap shot of more than the position of stuff, it also shows where people were walking when to walk was the main form of travel*, if the trails left by our forbears were just shortcuts* from that time the residual pattern would be likely to confirm this.
I have highlighted most of the off road ways, which see to have some degree of connectivity in green. A few yellow highlights are those that would seem to be domestic paths and local shortcuts. The red highlights are roads some lanes others trunk roads, but only those part of the roads that seem to give common cause to the direction of the footpaths.

The length of footpath near a mile long left out of our network today has intrigued me, halfway along it's lenght there appears to have been a dwelling without any track for access, but the dwelling is offset from the line of travel and a short length of path is shown joining the main way, all of which is trodden way. This anomaly is marked (1)  on the map made up from 4 sheets of the 1900 edition OS joined together, a luxury afforded by today's technology and software, which allows the highlighting in virtual reality of these old maps. Since the passing of the 2000 CRoW act the assumption that there is little need to study the very maps that show the pattern or random design of the network on which much of our definitive Map is based on, seems endemic in all who should have an interest in the DM. Is there more to the off road network of ways as shown by the OS mapping started in the 19th century as a secret defense weapon, to counter a possible invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte? 
I have had a certain leaning to the shortcuts theory, shortcuts to church, local village from outlying hamlets/farms, even the ways to work*. The introduction of canals and railways have obviously created additional shortcuts, they also highlight those ways that went before by showing the points old ways were recognized by providing means of crossing.
Those of us, who design our own walks will see a possible route by the ways being highlighted by the green of type of right of way on the 1:25k OS, this often is a combination of tracks and footpaths. If we want to do a circular walk the OS maps give an instant point of focus, the part of the design of the map with green access. The added features and interim destinations that the green access will allow makes up the quality of the route. This is the difference between walking for leisure and having to walk to a destination out of necessity*. By highlighting the predominantly walking ways on the 1900 2nd edition map in green and sections of highway in red and sort of design does appear, which contradicts the notion of shortcuts.
Some of the pedestrian ways of footpaths seems to use the roads for connection to maintain their independent direction. This appears as a continuity of way, which is independent of the road network and over considerable distance. It does not show as mere short cutting to the directions of travel offered by those roads, which have developed into today's highways.
What could this value of additional continuity of way be? Other than to bring access to parts of the countryside not today accessible, the diagonal of the 4 joined sections of map is approximately 7 miles, should we be walking with destination and purpose in mind as our forbears did, in fact be walking linear routes. Perhaps some of us have already been looking for this in our access network.


When I spoke to the owner of the farm at Moortown he told me there used to be a footpath (2) across the fields to the station, Crudgington, an old shortcut, he did not take into account the continuation of this shortcut back to Rowton, Ellerdine, Osbaston and Walton, but these would have been erazed before his living memory by the airfield.


I nearly ignored highlighting the drive to Shirlowe (3) as a greenway until looking at the footpath disappearing off the bottom edge and realised the map below shows a very strong line north to south, though this route is include in the DM.
Why did some paths follow a parallel course to roads and why did the pedestrian traffic not share the roads then? I have previously mentioned my suspicion that foot travel and livestock being driven to market did not mix well and will not repeat those ideas, but being cognisant of the landowners argument that today's walking is for leisure only and the danger presented to the unprotected person on the edge of busy highways it must put some value on the design shown here. The leisure industry is a fast growing factor in the national economy not to be written off lightly*.


More playing with this map could reveal more explanation but it has become a rather top heavy file for my graphics programme and is proving slow to add to the tracings. It has provided me with enough evidence to think that the current thinking on lostways is sadly very shallow from all quarters.


*Line of reasoning in Harry Cotterrel's articles.
« Last Edit: 12:13:24, 27/04/17 by barewirewalker »
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barewirewalker

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Re: Xzones or Black Holes on our maps?
« Reply #89 on: 08:34:52, 13/05/17 »
Finding parallel ways gives new a insight into looking at routes. Before looking at some examples that actualy put me onto them, look back at this lostway;
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it is a section of a download I was able to get from the Library of Scotland website and the scale is 6 inches per mile. These are the largest scale maps most people will get a chance to look at, but the OS printed 25 inch per mile scale maps.
Going back to this mile of lostway, I did mention before that the ground it covers crosses three farms. A few days ago visited one of the farmers and as soon as mentioned the dreaded words of "Rights of Way", he took me into his office for a look at the 25 inch maps, which probably date back to the 1950's. I can remember going into a long defunct printers and stationers in Shrewsbury, called Adnitt and Naunton, to buy sheets of these maps to draw up and record land drain schemes.
Although this farmer is a fair minded and intelligent man, he could not seem to grasp the perspective of my interest, part of this may be due to looking at scales of maps of this detail and not seeing the wider picture. All he wanted to tell me about was a local shortcut, which had been erased from the Definitive map many years ago and the trouble the short piece of current right of way causes his farming activities. To see the pattern, as illustrated in the previous post, 4 OS sheets were joined together, might just show how that little bit of nuisance path once fitted into a much broader picture.
This reminded me of a passage a read in Harry Cotterrels articles stated that landowners are the best people to judge where the public should walk in the countryside, he no doubt has many sheets of 25 in/mile scale OS maps, which show exactly where these old footpaths were on the ground in 2000 acres of Herefordshire. He or one of his close colleagues must have sat in the joint study groups on lostways and have never let on how may pieces of the old network is known to landowners.

The above map has the old route in purple, this route would have to cross the stream coming Poynton Springs, but there is a track crossing this water course. This can be seen clearly on Google Earth. This stream is probably is the boundary between two of the holdings, so it seems that little would need to be done to allow passage between Poynton to Haughton and transform a short length of local, little used right of way into an important cross country linear way.



« Last Edit: 08:47:36, 13/05/17 by barewirewalker »
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Their Land is in Our Country.

 

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