I woke up this morning thinking about the OP;
Do forum readers agree that there is anger around country paths?
Might be sad but I think it was triggered off by thinking about 'Downton Gorge' mentioned here;
http://www.walkingforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=30667.0Thanks Altirando for reminding me of it, I am pondering it as a suitable walk today and as it is a trespass I run the risk of triggering off some anger, which reminded me of a farmer who stood in front of me literally trembling with suppressed anger.
I had been exploring an area west of Welshpool, some years ago, we had covered most of the hills around Meifod and the sections of the Vyrnwy that had produced interesting circular routes. My attention was drawn to an area were RoWs converged on a crossing of the river Vyrnwy but no bridge was marked and there wasn't a ford. I planned a circular route leading to Cilmawr, were the map shows a convergence of bridleway and footpath. The start of the actual approach to the river crossing point was at Lower Gwern-y-Cil, where walked into a farmyard that was clearly a RoW on the map but no way marks.
We were given a rather hard look by a young woman driving a car out of the lane as we approached and an elderly farmer appeared out of the house as we were passing. We naturally stopped to talk and to his question where we were going I told him we were following the footpath and some general polite chat.
I tend laugh quite alot and did have interject a laugh into the conversation, I suppose in an attempt to keep the meeting light hearted, but at some point I noticed Mrs BWW taking over the conversation. Now this lady is a very experienced nurse, attuned to body language, this drew my attention to the fact that the farmer was literally trembling with suppressed rage and due to his age going dangerously white in the face. We assume that my laughter was interpreted as a laugh at himself, the confrontation was calmed down. However the underlying problem was the farmer thought that by walking a route that no one else had used in a long time we were opening up the RoW.
He was a good farmer, as we walked across his land I noticed his hedges, tight thorn hedges managed to keep cattle in, cut in the spring so that the thorn spreads sideways producing a lattice of thorn across the surface of the hedge and not a single weed plant such as nut or elder in the hedges. I realised that if there were not stiles at the field boundaries we were going to have to retrace our steps and walk back through that farmer's yard with out tails between our legs.
However that old right of way led across the farm to every gateway and when we came to the boundary hedge the line of way led to an Oak tree with post and rails. This taught me something about RoW's, we arrived at Cilmawr to meet a farmer who was totally different, he was very friendly and of a similar age. He had retired and his land was being let out to a neighbour. His building had been turned into good quality holiday lets but as his daughter's marriage had failed she was living there.
Now the river crossing, there used to be a bridge, during the 1962-3 winter the build up of ice and snow from that long winter had swept the bridge away during the thaw, this farmer showed us a framed photo of the bridge. So we did not make a crossing of the River Vyrnwy and carried on with the planned circular route I had originally planned.
Had we managed to cross the river the right of way (never used) would have lead through an intensive dairy farm and that farmer I was told would have gone 'loopy' if he had found us using the path.
If the bridge was ever rebuilt or a crossing made to make those RoW usable, I believe the river crossing at Cilmawr would be an important feature in a cross Wales route as it would make a pure countryside walk from Welshpool to Llanfyllin possible.
Any one taking interest in this might find it interesting to link it with my thoughts on the Maginnis Bridge expressed here;
http://www.walkingforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=30662.0