Bayham Abbey

Since the 1950s the Ramblers has been involved in this campaign – which is to show that rights of way, denied by the current landowners, exist over the Bayham Abbey Estate. Bayham is a large estate on the borders of Kent and East Sussex in the parishes of Pembury, Frant and Lamberhurst. No definitive rights of way are recorded over it, which some people think is not a proper reflection of the historical situation given the number of rights of way elsewhere in the vicinity, and the references on old maps and in old books to paths across Bayham. Until the 1980s the estate had been owned by the Marquesses of Camden for very many years, during which the public apparently had access to certain paths; but the Marquesses of Camden sold up in the 1970s and early 1980s, and the land was sold off in parcels. It was at that time that some of the new landowners began preventing access.

Since the 1950s the Ramblers has been trying to prove the existence of these paths. They attempted to register routes on the definitive map under the procedures of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, but apparently were opposed. Further attempts were made in the 1970s to get the paths recognized. Then in 1990 Mr Jasper Ridley, the historian and biographer and chairman of Tunbridge Wells Ramblers Group, who remembered using the routes as a child in the 1920s and 1930s, made an application, based largely on historical documentation, for the ways to be added to the definitive map. Kent and East Sussex County Councils rejected the application, on the footing that the documentation was insufficiently cogent.

Tunbridge Wells Group made a further application in 1998. This time it was based on evidence of substantial use by the public, carefully collected by local Ramblers volunteers. It took a few years for the County Councils to process the claim; they rejected the new application in 2005, on the footing that in their view the landowners had taken sufficient action to demonstrate that there was no intention on their part to dedicate rights of way. Their decision was partly based on the errant principle set by the Dorset case in the High Court – that it was enough for a landowner to produce evidence unknown to users of the way that he had no intention to dedicate in order to defeat a claim.

So the Ramblers appealed to the Secretary of State. While the appeal was under consideration, the House of Lords (in the Godmanchester and Drain case brought by the Ramblers) unanimously ruled that the Dorset case was wrongly decided. This meant that some of the evidence relied on by the objectors can no longer count. The Secretary of State has ruled that in respect of the two main routes with which the claim is concerned, there is enough evidence to amount to a reasonable allegation that rights of way exist over them, based on 20 years’ use by the public prior to the challenges to the use of the way in the 1970s and 1980s. He has therefore directed the County Councils to make orders adding the two main routes to the definitive map.

The Ramblers awaits with interest the making of the orders. However, it is almost certain that objections will be made, and the case will go to a Public Inquiry. When it does, it will be important for the Ramblers to be legally represented. This is where we need your help - please make a donation of whatever you can afford to support our campaign.

After the intervention of the Secretary of State, we fully expect to win this case, but even if we were to lose, the very act of fighting the case helps to deter the small minority of landowners who do not respect footpath law.

Find out more information about our appeal here