Why is there so much anger around country paths? | Patrick Barkham
by Patrick Barkham from on (#K2JC)
Many landowners regard footpaths as an unfortunate relic from pre-enclosure days, when peasants swarmed unimpeded across the countryside
When the Ramblers Association recently launched its Big Pathwatch, urging walkers to upload pictures of overgrown footpaths, I considered it a bit silly. Poor hard-pressed councils tasked with footpath maintenance - can't walkers stamp down a few stray nettles? After a stinging wade along the bridleways of Buckinghamshire, however, I'm all for app tale-telling.
It wasn't just fast-growing nettles and brambles but teasels, thistles, young oaks and hogweed as high as a horse. And this 35 miles from London, in the Tory shires, where keen trampers take to the lanes in battalions and steel swing gates have been installed in memory of members of the local U3A group.
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