If you need a walking project that’s right on your doorstep, take a look at a campaign called Don’t Lose Your Way. Run by campaigners from the Ramblers, it’s a bid to ensure commonly-used footpaths and rights of way are fully documented and secured in law. Here’s the story.
WHY DOES IT MATTER?
The footpath network of England and Wales has developed over centuries. Many of the paths we use today date back to medieval times, and even earlier. But here’s the thing: the Ramblers have uncovered over 49,000 miles of potential rights of way that aren’t documented on the official record known as the Definitive Map.
Some are in regular use, while some may be fading away; inaccessible or impassable. But whatever state they are in, if they’re not recorded, their historic rights may be lost and we’ll never be able to add them to the map for future generations to enjoy.
In February 2022, the UK government announced their intention to remove a deadline of 2026 to save these paths in England, an announcement that the Welsh government had made back in 2019. The removal of the deadline, when it goes ahead, will give us more time to save the most important and useful paths, ensuring they’re added back to the map and protected for future generations.
Whilst the deadline is set to be abolished, we still need to save thousands of miles of lost paths.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Back in 2020 we searched all of England and Wales and found over 49,000 miles of paths that could be lost forever. We did this by asking all walkers to compare current and historic maps to find missing paths. Thousands of people got involved and we searched the whole country in just 6 weeks, uncovering thousands of miles of potentially missing paths along the way.
We’re now prioritising the most important paths, the ones that add the most benefit to the footpath network, and that are the most useful. Identifying lost paths is just the start of a long process to put them back on the map, and we now need to prioritise, research, and apply for the paths to be restored.
Help The Ramblers save these paths before it is too late. Join the movement, donate, or volunteer at ramblers.org.uk/dlyw
