The Public Footpath across Cornbury Park

Wed 23 Jun 2021, 09:13

Vicky, if you're looking at the version of the Don't Lose Your Way site that overlays the old routes on to the current OS 25 thou map, Patch Riding to Waterman's Lodge is of course a right of way as a bridleway and marked as such by the OS: is that what you mean as a staggered green line? The blue dashed lines are what the DLYW mapping are all about and show where rights of way once (probably, in some cases) existed, but are no longer recognised.

I'm finding them almost as interesting for what isn't there: for instance there is a path out of Cornbury Park through Tower Light Gate which just peters out on Tower Light, but Tower Light itself crosses Patch Riding at about Seven Dials and then has another path on it at Evendon Copse. Similarly the drive out of the Park past Cranehill Lodge stops being an old right of way where the drive becomes defined by a fence and then resumes where it is once again unfenced.

I believe the Wychwood Project was involved in this or did some parallel work a few years back when Flora Gregory was asking us to mark up any routes we used.

Tue 22 Jun 2021, 17:26

Thanks Andrew. Looking at the Ordnance Survey maps from ~100 years ago there are a great number of additional footpaths shown that are now ploughed over or blocked off. I think many of these are on the Don't Lose Your Way maps - is anyone aware of any local groups / unofficial groups involved in this for our area? 

Tue 22 Jun 2021, 14:15

The crowdsourced Don't Lose Your Way map has indeed identified a number of footpaths which clearly existed in Victorian times (shown on the early OS maps) and have mysteriously vanished since, especially within large landed estates such as the three around Charlbury… I saw that Lee Place one too - and in fact there's a gate where the path appears to have gone. The DLYW campaign is I believe trying to rationalise which battles are worth fighting and have the best documentary evidence.

Tue 22 Jun 2021, 10:47 (last edited on Tue 22 Jun 2021, 13:50)

I found a council notice on a footpath in Ascott which states that under sec. 15A (1) of The Commons Act 2006, Lord Rotherwick has stated all lands identified in map (Cornbury Estates Ltd) can NOT be registered as a town or village green and as such has a bearing on any future public rights of way. Ok, it may not effect the existing ones but I bet there are a few routes across the estate that have been used for 200 never mind 20 years. For example, when I first moved here and went for a run with fellow Charlburians; I was taken round a circular route which did not take us out on to the Finstock road (with no path!) but alongside a wooded area close to the crop fields. Having looked at the link Angus B put on here from the ramblers organisation, I can see two things that I have questions about. Firstly, what does the green staggered  line denote? (There is a Patch Riding Track on a green staggered line for example) secondly, the ramblers map appears to show a potentially lost public foot path off of grammar school hill going south east to Lee Place. Is this the case or am I mistaken? Does anyone have anything to say?

Tue 22 Jun 2021, 07:47

This might be of interest...:

 https://www.ramblers.org.uk/get-involved/campaign-with-us/dont-lose-your-way-2026.aspx

Mon 21 Jun 2021, 19:48

Ah, yes; people can make an application to add a footpath to the definitive map if that path has been known to be in general use for a significant period of time (I think 20 years) but is unrecognised by OCC, and they are probably making sure that doesn't happen.  But it won't affect the existing footpaths.

Mon 21 Jun 2021, 19:41 (last edited on Mon 21 Jun 2021, 19:42)

I think it’s this process:

https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/residents/environment-and-planning/countryside/countryside-access/public-rights-way/information-landowners/protection-against-claims

It’s not particularly anything to get worried about – landowners have been doing this since 1980. Blenheim made deposits like this a while back – you can look them up and find out the staggering extent of the land they own!

You can see the Cornbury deposit at https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/prowd/2016 – there’s nothing in there that will be surprising. It’s simply saying “these are where the rights of way are, and there are no others”.

Given the shenanigans with the recent appeal in Dean Grove, I can understand a landowner wanting to do this. Cornbury did of course divert the path around North Lodge a few years back to avoid it going through a garden. They have also offered, now that the new deer fence is up, to replace the kissing gate at Southill which currently makes it difficult to wheel a bike through.

Mon 21 Jun 2021, 18:59 (last edited on Mon 21 Jun 2021, 19:04)

A footpath is a right of way just like a road.  (Note "right")  Highways Act 1980.

Tiresome having to repeat this as the Wilderness organisers have ignored it in the past.  I don't think they do now.  What a bother!

It doesn't matter how deep your pockets are, you can't fiddle about with it, without applying for a Court Order/permission from the Highway Authority.  I suppose OCC. 

Mon 21 Jun 2021, 18:39 (last edited on Mon 21 Jun 2021, 18:39)

The footpath has been long established and, presumably, the owners of the property knew it was there so I don't see an issue with that as such. It does along the very edge of the land. There are other footpaths around which cross even more obviously over people's gardens, such as at Coldron Mill and, but the ultimate one must be in Taston where one footpath takes you into somebody's very tiny garden and besides their greenhouse (from memory - I haven't been back for a long while).

However, what would be nice is to have a short piece of footpath on the other side of the road as that last 100 metres or so on the road is not very pleasant and doesn't feel safe.

It is, of course, possible to cross the Finstock Road lower down the hill and take the footpath that leads into Finstock that way.

I'm also reminded of an episode of Ever Decreasing Circles where Richard Briers obsessive character discovers that the route of a footpath runs through his suburban garden and insists, despite immense inconvenience and to the annoyance of his wife, in reinstating it complete with signpost and stile. It was only when the council forced him to remove the sign because the footpath had been diverted when the estate was developed that peace, of a sort, returned to his household.

Mon 21 Jun 2021, 17:14

There are lots of signs on the footpaths in the area placed by the Cornbury Estate. 

Mon 21 Jun 2021, 16:34

Hi Vicky, I don't know what that might be - nothing on the OCC website about this and any changes would have to go through the county council

Mon 21 Jun 2021, 14:52

I was talking to someone yesterday, who said that they had heard that Cornbury Park Estate had applied for something official, whereby nobody could ever challenge the existing footpaths on the estate. This person said there was a period where the public could make their objections known. I have always strongly objected to the fact that the established route means walking across someone's garden and then on to the Finstock Road. Does anyone know anything about this?