Forgotten Paths
Well over 130,000 miles of public paths criss-cross England and Wales. This network has evolved across the centuries; many of the paths date from medieval times. They link villages, hamlets and roads and all have their own unique history, often reflecting the changing patterns of human interaction with the landscape. Millions of people, in town and country alike, are still using public paths every day.
But miles and miles of our public rights of way network are under threat of closure simply because they have never been legally recorded on a definitive map. At least 20,000 paths are reckoned to be missing from these maps, but it could be many more.
In 1949 Parliament decided that, in order that everyone may know which paths are public rights of way, they should be recorded on a definitive map. Definitive maps for England and Wales were therefore drawn up from 1949 onwards and are legal evidence of the existence of a right of way at the date of the map. All surveying authorities (county councils or unitary authorities with the exception of the Inner London boroughs) should hold a definitive map and update it regularly. Ordnance Survey (OS) uses this information when showing rights of way (ROW) on its maps. But for one reason or another, many rights of way have never been registered on a definitive map and consequently are not ‘proven’ rights of way in a legal sense. We are calling these ‘forgotten paths’, although lots of them are still in regular use and far from ‘forgotten’ by those who use them, whereas many others have disappeared completely over time.
In the short term there may be problems in getting these ‘forgotten paths’ maintained; imagine trying to get an authority to keep a path open and in good condition if there is no legal proof that it is a public right of way!
In the long term, however, the problem is even more serious. The Countryside and Rights of Way (CRoW) Act 2000 has brought in a deadline to have all paths recorded on the definitive map by 2026 – after this date it will simply be too late and any historic paths, ie ones which came into existence before 1949, that are not registered will be extinguished forever.
This means that more than 20,000 paths would be at risk. We need to act now to claim as many forgotten paths as we can before the 2026 deadline.
These pages are based on a booklet, available to download (2Mb PDF)