Path Wars!

Beware Path Thieves! The battle for access rages on...

Veteran rambling activist, and CP member Rob Hargreaves explains that the battle to defend access rights in the countryside and open areas around our towns has never been more pressing.

There is a common misapprehension that the battle to win public access to open spaces in Britain was won, and settled for all time, by the Mass Trespass on Kinder Scout. If only that were true. For although events on Kinder Scout in April 1932 amount to what is arguably the most successful example of direct action ever seen in the United Kingdom, the fight against the enemies of public access is never-ending.

Those who also naively believe that access issues were resolved by the creation of National Parks, and latterly by Tony Blair’s Countryside and Rights of Way Act also need to think again. Although the Ramblers Association signed up to the Act, claiming that they had won ‘the right to roam’, footpaths and rights of way - especially those off the beaten tourist track - are still being subjected to relentless attack. It is also worth noting that in 1932 official rambling organisations, wishing to distance themselves from working-class discontent, disassociated themselves with the Kinder protest. It was left to members of the British Workers Sports Federation, set up by the Communist Party of Great Britain, to take the initiative.

Kinder Mass Trespass, 24 April, 1932: YCL member Benny Rothman, 5th from left. He and five others were arrested and gaoled.

For all the razzmataz, the CRoWA of 2000, created new problems for walkers in access areas, even though they are no longer required to stick to a path. In point of fact, the vast majority of walkers really want to be on a path anyway, where the trod is clear and free of peat hags and ankle-turning tussocks. In addition, since CRoWA, landowners have sought to define their ownership more restrictively, resulting in hundreds of miles of new, unsightly barbed-wire fences rolling across moorland landscape at the perimeters of access land. Far more important in opening up the countryside, at least in England and Wales, was the decision by the Ordinance Survey in the late 1940’s to show established rights of way - footpaths, bridleways - with distinctive marking; the by-now familiar broken red dots and dashes on a 1:50,000 map.

But in spite of this, today, a real battle - a sort of guerrilla warfare - is being conducted, not in the rolling acres of access areas, or our mountainous national parks, but close to towns and cities where centuries-old paths are being blocked by landowners who think they can get away with it. Their methods range from crudely fixing strands of barbed wire across a stile, through to taking a sledgehammer to destroy steps set in a stone wall; they think nothing of removing waymarks, and if challenged are likely to tell you: ‘There is no footpath here anymore’. They themselves, of course, have made sure of that. More subtle tactics involve ploughing up paths across fields, growing nettle beds around stiles, driving cattle into the corners of fields where stiles are located, and leaving menacing dogs on the loose. It is true that paths can be legally diverted and shut, or simply neglected, but in my experience the great majority of cases involve wilful and unlawful acts.

Blocked path near Bolton, June 22, 2021, not far from Winter Hill, scene of mass trespass in 1896.

Some local authorities are pretty hot on enforcement; others, because of austerity cuts in staff, are simply overwhelmed by the scale of the problem. Lancashire County Council has a ‘waiting list’ of more than 350 complaints to investigate. The Ramblers Association recently reported a torrent of complaints from walkers coming upon paths blocked on spurious grounds of ‘covid shielding’. No wonder, landowners think it’s worth taking a chance.

But why do they do it? Simples. A successful theft from the public domain can make them thousands of pounds in enhanced property values. On top of that they don’t like sharing the view or the fresh air around their properties with itinerant ‘townies’. And now they are organising. A newly formed pressure group called ‘Intrusive Footpaths’ recently met with a government minister to discuss new laws which would re-define rights of way, limiting public footpaths to selected areas - ‘ walkers’ reservations’ in other words. Needless to say, ‘BigLaw’ is often involved in applications to have footpaths diverted away from their properties.

It’s all right talking about the achievements of national parks, and the special provisions which protect their beauty and public access. The majority of people do not live in national parks and it is wrong that their rights are being trampled because they are not seen as ‘special’.

Blocked path, renovated farmhouse near Bury, May 2020.

When, on 5 September there is (covid-permitting) a great gathering near Bolton to commemorate the Winter Hill Mass Trespassers in 1896, we should remember that it was many years later that their objectives were achieved. Unfortunately, public rights of way are under attack as never before, and we are in for a long drawn-out battle to preserve them.