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This is one of my favorite web sites as well. Petes Walks.

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I redid this post because I deleted the old one due to the photobucket problem (my own fault) so I want this web site to be on the group for reference. Its a great place to see a lot of country besides my local Bedfordshire.

Footpaths spread out everywhere. maybe they began as shepherds trails, or where people walked into a village from places out in the countryside, cutting through woods and streams. later when farming became more extensive and hedgerows were planted and maintained they set up a unique system of stiles and places to cross into fields. Farmers maintained them. Later I believe (tell me if I am wrong) the council would upkeep in part the local pathways. My dad was on the council at the time and I assume that was one reason he was aware of keeping them open. I really dont know, although he kept himself aware of most things around him.

The Hurlers on Bodmin Moor



magnificent views and free............what could be better than that? Here in Michigan there are no such privaleges as walking on private land. When I grew up we took for granted that we could play in a field, chase rabbits where ever they ran and cross any land without permission. We did no harm and there was no reason to stop us.

Coastal pathways

You're right, E, walking was pretty much the only way to go. We didn't have a car until just before I left home, our town was only about 10,000, no bus service of any kind, so if you didn't walk you didn't get anywhere. As a younger kid we lived on a 3½ mile long beach on which I must have clocked up 100s of miles during the four years we lived there. Later, when we moved to town, we were right on the edge, so I walked to and from school and played in the fields and the lanes around us. Walk, walk, walk, never thought anything about it but had tremendous fun. Your picture looks just like what we used to call Bluebell Woods that we used to play in, except for the seat and the track. There were neither seats nor track, other than footpaths, in our wood.

Liked your explanation of rights-of-way. Here is a website that explains these ancient rights further.

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ooh thank you Taffy I will keep that site in my favorites. I love the pictures. We did a post on styles and I might go back and redo that one at some point. There are some great looking ones.
Maybe the fact that we worked everywhere made us healthy. I seldom had a cold as a child. Caught the flu though.
We had plenty of fresh air and exercize. My kids were the same because they were raised the same way. English babies always looked fat and rosey. Not pasty faced and pale.
We too had a bluebell woods and no seat there either.
We walked to school. We could wait for a bus but generally the conductor would let adults on first, to go to work and if there was room kids could get on but by the time we got a bus we were frozen and it was quicker to walk. I would say it was about 1 mile from my house so no big deal. Sometimes we would cut across the fields and sometimes I dream about that. I love to dream because I often revisit places long forgotten.

These were just wonderful posts. Thank you so much for the information, and the pictures of course, always. I have often read of footpaths as I read so much "British" based fiction, but never really understood what it meant. Walking is what we all should be doing. America is just so darn big I think they just jumped at the chance to have cars!

I did some hiking in England in Dorset on the footpaths - through pastures and fields. It is a wonderful thing but I did get stung by stinging nettles...we do not have nettles in Arizona...

Haha Hippygirl. My son Jason was about 8 maybe when we took the kids home for a holiday. The one and only holiday we could manage. Anyway we were exploring an old abandoned church yard and the path went through a patch of stinging nettles. Jason found out that they sting.....I of course didn't think anything of it. Anyway, he screamed at the top of his lungs and had the little spots all over his arms and legs. Well you just find a dock leaf and rub that on and it takes away the sting. Dock leaves always grow by stinging nettles. Just a little old folk medicine that kids grow up knowing.
I found we have some form of stinging nettle in Michigan, found out that they dont have dock leaves here haha........no idea how we got the nettles as they grew in an old wheel barrow that I planted flowers in. I suspect they came in a packet of seeds. I was pulling them out and found just how much they stung. My hands were on fire.

In addition to Taffy's link which is all about ancient routes if you want to know more about walking in the UK, google "Freedom to roam" or "Rights to roam". The laws in Scotland differ from those in England and Wales. The "Freedom to roam" in England and Wales was brought in only recently. In England and Wales you could have been prosecuted for trespassing, but there never was a law of trespass in Scotland.

I once read a book where the novel was set in Scotland, and in the third chapter, the author had written that the gamekeeper charged a walker with trespass. I closed the book and never read another word because the author had not done his homework.

In Scotland, we've always had the right to roam on land in private ownership and respect for the ownership was always upheld by the walker.

In some parts of the Lake District (north-west England) some footpaths have had to be closed temporarily because of wear and tear by the number of feet which have eroded them.

Yes I do believe it Was/is an unwritten rule that you respect the land that you walked across. I know as kids we were very careful not to damage crops and had a natural respect for the places we went and played. If we crossed a cow field it was at our own peril and I have been chased by a few cows in my day. Actually I think they just wondered where I was going in such a hurry and were following me rather than chasing me......of course I would not have tested that theory.

I've been chased by a few cows in my day too...!!!

And a couple of bitches as well.

Umm not of the canine variety? I was once chased by a dog.......I was walking home and this big black dog (with a band aid on its nose) came running out of a nearby gate........it was barking its head off and coming right at me, I started to run and it was gaining on me still barking. I fell over on my knees and then flat out and it ran right over me. I mean it probably meant to go around me but well, it crashed with me and I felt its claws gain momentum on my back as I lay prostrate. It did not even stop...........must have seen a cat or something up the road, I was not its intended target apparently, some things just remain in your memory forever. I will always remember its band aid..........