Campaign Details
Daventry & Borough Hill Country Parks
Following the successful diversion of the path through the
Golf Course (see below) the Area is now campaigning on three fronts to
further improve links to and between these Country parks.
1) A track runs from the side of the reservoir in Daventry Country Park to the B4036 Daventry to A5 road. We would like to see a linking footpath across the short distance between this road and the minor road from Daventry - Norton where it would meet with the start of the diverted path to Borough Hill.
2) There is an existing footpath on the ground linking a housing estate with Borough Hill. We would like to see this footpath become an official Right of Way and improved.
3) A bridleway which runs to the south of Borough Hill and
has no official connection with the country park. It used to run over
Borough Hill, but it was diverted to the south in 1940 because of security - the
BBC's Daventry transmitter was here. We would like to see either the
bridleway returned to its original route, or a footpath link from its present
route into Borough Hill.
Daventry Country Park (July2007) Photo © Will Lovell
July 2007: The above campaign was the subject of one of the Area Rally days this year. Forty ramblers gathered on Borough Hill for an excellent circular walk of five miles with superb views between the two public parks. We used two of the above paths and passed the third. We stopped for a coffee break at the café in Daventry Country Park, where Des Garrahan, Footpath Campaigns Officer from RA Central Off ice gave a short address. Des noted that the RA is traditionally concerned with the historic path network - and rightly so, but the project today develops the network for the 21st century, linking car parks, housing estates and country parks, allowing people to walk two or three or five miles from their own doorstep.
The event was well covered by the Press, and will strengthen our case with the authorities to carry out the improvements we seek.
Borough Hill Country Park (July 2007) Photo © Will Lovell
Lilford Park
This campaign to make a track in Lilford Park a public footpath was the second event of the 2007 Area Rally, and is linked to our 'Safe Crossings' Campaign - further details below. If the track was open to the public, the Nene Way could come this way, thus avoiding the busy A605 and the path would also give a direct link between Oundle & Wadenhoe and between the country parks at Barnwell & Brigstock.
November 2007: Negotiations are ongoing between all the relevant parties.
The following article appeared in a recent issue of Walk, and is reproduced with permission:
Ramblers call for
secret path to be recognised 02/07/2007
The chairman of the Ramblers' Association, Kate Ashbrook, joined the association's activists in Northamptonshire on Saturday (30 June) to call for a secret footpath, between Lilford and Barnwell, to be put on the official map of public paths.
Although the path has been used by the public for many years, it has not been recognised officially as a public route and so is not shown on Ordnance Survey maps, which most people use for walking.
Said Kate: 'This lovely path provides a peaceful route for walkers and would be a much safer alternative to the promoted Nene Way, avoiding two crossings of the lethal A605 road. Most people are nervous about doing the wrong thing and so they won't walk this path until it is shown on the Ordnance Survey maps.
'We shall write to the landowner, the Merchant Venturers, to ask if they will dedicate the route as a public highway, since it has been enjoyed by the public for many years. If they refuse, we shall ask Northamptonshire County Council to add the path to the definitive map (the official map of public rights of way), and we shall provide evidence of its use and history to justify this action.(1)
'The route is only 500 metres, along the edge of the fields, but it provides a vital link in the network. Without it we have two dead-end routes which are of little value to walkers. We want to help people from nearby communities, as well as visitors, to enjoy the superlative paths and views this lovely county offers.
'The Ramblers are working for the public at large to improve conditions for walkers everywhere,' Kate concluded.
NOTE (1): A route may be added to the definitive map of public rights of way, held by the county or unitary council, if (a) the public has used the route without permission or being stopped for 20 years, or (b) there is historical evidence that it was once a public highway, and it has never been closed, or (c) there is a combination of the two.
Chelveston Airfield - Phase I
Footpaths over Chelveston Airfield on the Bedfordshire -
Northamptonshire border are open to public use for the first time in 60 years
after a lengthy Ramblers' campaign. The paths were closed in 1940 when a
WW2 airfield was constructed. Rights of Way were extinguished by statutory
orders between 1947 and 1959 when it became a nuclear bomber base, and stayed
closed, because of an array of military radio aerials, when most of the concrete
was dug up and replaced with grassland.
Ramblers researched evidence of former paths and lobbied
the County Councils, however, reinstatement of paths over disused parts of the
airfield was refused by Defence Estates (MoD), but they promised to reconsider
restoration if the airfield became redundant. Ramblers heard it was for
sale in 2004 and informed the Councils. They successfully negotiated the return
of 6km of paths on the airfield and 2½km of paths linking the airfield to
Chelveston village. As a result of this, in Bedfordshire a further 4km of
dead-end paths now become through routes.
Above: The Opening Party at South Gate. Photo © Will Lovell
The airfield was then sold, with the Footpaths in place, to a businessman who had the paths closed via Traffic Restriction Orders on 'health and safety' fears. An MoD report showed these to be unwarranted. The Councils rejected an attempt to sweep paths off the airfield via section 116 of the Highways Act, and forced the re-opening of the paths - but only after the landowner had fenced them all in with 2-metre high steel mesh. The locks finally came off the airfield gates on 17 October 2006, a year later than scheduled.
Over twenty people gathered at the south gate on Thursday 19th October 2006 to celebrate the reinstatement of the paths on the airfield and in Bedfordshire. After press photos and speeches we walked all the airfield paths. We had no difficulty - every route is fenced, so what should be a wonderful open area with uninterrupted views over 750 acres is thus diminished.
Above: The Chelveston – Yelden bridleway. Note the fences!! Photo © Will Lovell
A few days later about 200 residents from the surrounding villages gathered to protest about all the fences and the businessman's plans to industrialise the countryside: the start of Phase II of the Chelveston campaign. Watch this space!!
Daventry Golf Course
This was a campaign to get an alternative footpath to the truncated one across the golf course, this would then allow people to walk from the Country Park to Borough Hill. After a site meeting in April 2000 agreement was reached and Orders placed to extinguish the old and create a new footpath. Following consultations all objections were either resolved or withdrawn by August 2002 and the new path was imminent. However, the Golf Club then declined to sign the creation order causing another delay. In June 2005 the orders were finally confirmed, and the path is now open. It starts on the Daventry - Norton road and runs up the eastern edge of the golf course.
Safe Crossings Campaign
This is an ongoing campaign, which was launched in April 2003 to get safe crossings put in where footpaths and bridleways have been bisected by roads, in particular, fast duel-carriageways and roads, such as the A43, A45, A14 and A605.
The initial campaign, which is still ongoing, was to deal with the crossing on the A45 close to the Wilby Roundabout which severs a footpath from Wilby to Doddington.
Our Area Rally in 2005 highlighted the fact the Nene Way crosses the busy A605 (a Red Route) twice and campaigned for the existing track through Lilford Park to be made into a right of way. If the track was open to the public, the Nene Way could come this way: Saving 2 crossings of the A605, 2¾ miles of road walking of which 1¾ miles has no footway.
As well as the Nene Way, this path would give a direct link between Oundle and Wadenhoe and between the country parks at Barnwell and Brigstock.
There are, however, over 100 crossings within Northamptonshire which need to be improved.
Our earlier successes of the A14 footbridge and the crossing controlled by traffic lights at Towcester being only two of many such crossings that need to be made safer.
A14 Footbridges
When the A14 was constructed a total of 37 Public Rights of Way (PROW) in Northamptonshire were severed. This bridge, at Twywell, erected relatively soon after the road opened was the first to be built.
Photo © Bob Coles
During 2005 a 1 mile detour has been agreed at Clipston / Haselbech to allow walkers to get across the road there.
Wouldn't a bridge or even an underpass be a much better idea?
Work finally started in November 2005 to erect the second footbridge in our Area over the A14 at Burton Latimer. The cost of this work is likely to be £1 million - had the bridge been built when the road was originally constructed the cost then would have been about £185,000! This 63 metre long bridge (Blackbridge) was put in place just before Christmas and officially opened on 9th March 2006, thus linking the communities of Burton Latimer and Cranford again.
Photo © Courtesy of the Highways Agency
Paths to Nowhere
When Pitsford Reservoir was built in 1955, seven
PROW were truncated. These paths actually end up to 100 metres from the
water's edge, because the paths were extinguished before the Water Authority
decided on the final amount of land to be flooded.
The Ramblers' Association, Northamptonshire Area
are asking the County Council to link these paths to the existing Reservoir
Perimeter Path so as to create a circular walk both the North and South of the
Causeway. Currently it is only possible to walk around the southern part of the
Reservoir. The northern section being a Site of Special Scientific Interest (S.S.S.I.)
and only open to Anglers and Permit Holders. The link path should, of course,
take into account the special designation of the northern section, but it would
in turn help to promote one of the Ramblers' Association's objectives of the
enjoyment of the countryside for all.
Photo © Bob Coles
Nov 2005: A meeting was arranged with Holcot Parish Council with a view to getting 2 of these paths reconnected.
July 2006: This ongoing
campaign to link the
severed paths in the area around the north section of Pitsford Water was the subject of one of the Area
Rally Walks on Sunday 2nd. We were delighted to be
joined by several people from the RA Central Office including Kate Ashbrook, RA
Chair. The perimeter track around north Pitsford Water is wide,
grassy and frequently shaded by trees - ideal on this hot July Sunday. Bob Coles
had again persuaded the press to attend, and after the photo-shoot led a walk
around the perimeter, pointing out the many former inter-village paths severed
when the reservoir was built.
Connecting the paths would have many advantages including a footpath from Holcot
to Walgrave which will avoid the busy and dangerous road. It is scandalous that
walkers are still excluded 50 years after the reservoir was built, at a time
when the public can walk water board land in many parts of the country including
Suffolk, Yorkshire, the Peak District and the Lakes. We are taking the case for
public access to the Rights of Way department and to County Councillors.
Photo © Bob Coles
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