Today, Brian, Derek and Matt surveyed walk number 4 in the booklet of 9 walks that Matt is putting together for the Biddulph Ramblers. We are hopeful of positive engagement with Biddulph Council in the publication of this booklet, following our meeting with them on 3rd February. We want to make these walks more accessible to the general public than they are at the moment.
The walk we surveyed today is the most problematic of the 9 walks. Three main issues are summarised here and for each we have asked for Staffordshire County Council advice about what practical choices can be made so we can advertise this walk with confidence.
Firstly, this is a map of the walk, starting from Timbersbrook car park and proceeding in a clockwise direction:
Issue One: Between Biddulph Town 93 and Biddulph Town 94
There is a one-third of a mile stretch of field (RED on the map below), which is commonly used as a footpath, which is neither on OS mapping nor on the definitive map. There are two ROW paths running NW – SE, Biddulph Town 93 and Biddulph Town 94, and this stretch of field runs between the two. Indeed, there are old Staffordshire waymarker discs at either side pointing towards this stretch of field, suggesting a right of way. By going clockwise, the walk takes in this stretch of field, and then goes along Biddulph Town 94 towards Dial Lane.
The question is would we be OK to advertise this section of the walk where the legality of it is uncertain? Is there any other information about this stretch to indicate it has been walked at least 20 years?
Issue Two: Biddulph Town 99
A rarely used footpath (RED on the map below), two-thirds of a mile long. Our route runs South to North. On the map three stiles are marked by BLUE crosses, all of which on the ROW OS footpath are in need of serious attention. The first one is where the landowner has filled in the stile gap with loose big stones, about 4 foot high, so the only way over it is to clamber over the stones. From the top a way marker disc is visible pointing Northwards to the next stile. Further along that next stile is tucked into the corner and is completely overgrown by brambles and anyone walking will divert to a gap further along the wall where the wall has collapsed. Further along there is the remnants of a stile under overhang tree growth that goes from E to W from one field into another before we then get to the stile that takes us into a short stretch of woodland.
As we stood in front of the first stile the farmer shouted for us not to go that way and directed us simply to take the farm track to the N and then W and then go into and across the field directly to the woods – as indicated by the blue curved line. Not altogether obvious without way-markers in place, unless one was a competent map reader wanting to avoid the OS route.
Our question is this. Wouldn’t it be much simpler to seek permission from the landowner to have some permissive path waymarked, rather than spend time sorting out the three stiles?? The farmer was keen to divert us.
Issue Three. Biddulph Town 93
From Dial Lane we head NW back to Timbersbrook along Biddulph Town 93. The stile from Dial Lane is located on the map below by the BLUE blob marker. This is to the W of both the OS ROW path and another commonly used path as indicated by the black dashes, the access to which are blocked by a padlocked gate. When Derek walked this last year someone from the property opposite the stile told him that the landowners had put in the stile without permission some while ago so as to move the entry point away from their property. The stile step needs repairing and this was reported on the PROW Staffordshire website, including what the neighbour had said about the legality.
Again, like Issue One, would we be OK in advertising this section of the walk where the legality of it is uncertain? The presumption is that the landowners are happy for this diverted route to remain.
Other issues with walk 4:
We did add some extra waymarker discs on our way round.
On his initial walk Matt made a full list of PROW issues – as per the Table below.
