Jack Cornish
Programme manager, Ramblers’ Don’t Lose Your Way campaign
In 2020 the Ramblers organised thousands of people in a search for lost paths, comparing current maps of England and Wales with two historic maps from 120 years ago. The whole of England and Wales was mapped in just six weeks, and now needs registering. dontloseyourway.ramblers.org.uk
“Last year, we identified 49,000 miles of potential rights of way that are missing from the map across England and Wales. The next step is to whittle them down, prioritising the ones that will bring the most benefit and excluding routes that have been legally extinguished, diverted or are unclaimable because there’s a reservoir, airport or something there now.
“To put a route back on the map, an application has to be made to the local authority, so we’ll also be developing training and guidance to support volunteers in researching those routes. Each application needs to prove two things: the route the path took historically and that the public used it in the past. This requires quite detailed research including maps, parish records, diaries or old photographs… there’s no restriction on the type of proof provided.
“Each application for an individual volunteer takes about 20+ hours and is a project they’ll work on over a couple of months or half a year. We’d love people to come forward and help to research a route in their area. We’ll be giving them all the tools they need to do that, and making much more of the historical map evidence available.
“The applications all need to be in by 1 January 2026, when they’ll be banked and are safe. That may sound like a long time off, but when you consider the hundreds of years of history behind some of these routes and the work involved, it’s actually a very small window.
“We’re not adding new rights of way, we’re recording things that should already exist. But if nothing changes, on that date the rights of way will be extinguished. It’s very unlikely that a government after that date would be able to go back retrospectively to do anything about it, so this is our one opportunity. We’re pushing to have the cut-off date put back by five years, but as it stands that’s the deadline.
“For me, the importance of registering these paths and rights of way is twofold. There is the very practical aspect of improving access and creating a path network that makes more sense and has better connections. This is especially important if we want to encourage people to walk, decrease traffic and improve access to green spaces.
“Then there’s the point that these paths are part of our history, as much as any castle or hill-fort. In doing the research, you find out who used the paths, why and who owned the land there. It’s important to have these on the map because they’ll be useful routes, but there’s also something about the wider history of our communities.”
“This isn’t just history for history’s sake. It has a real effect on today and in the future.”