Rights of Way: Restoring the Record

To Enthuse, Enable, and Empower the research of rights of way
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The Government has announced (26 Dec 2024) that Path Extinguishment Day is to be abolished, when Parliamentary time allows. The press release says,

England has thousands of miles of unrecorded rights of way which are well used by walkers, cyclists and equestrians, but aren’t officially recorded or protected.
These paths are some of the oldest inscriptions on our landscapes – a tangible record of people’s movements over the centuries, with many paths and roads we use today dating back hundreds or thousands of years. For many walkers, the knowledge that you’re on an ancient path trodden by generations of our ancestors is one of walking’s great pleasures.
However, local authorities have struggled under the burden of recording historic rights of way, which are estimated to stretch over 40,000 miles, by the 2031 cut-off date introduced by the last government. The government’s move to reverse that decision means these paths will no longer be lost to the public.

If you'd like to help with the ‘thousands of miles of unrecorded paths’, why not read the book that highlights the most common forms of evidence?

Until the Act of Parliament to repeal the legislation, it remains in place, and could be reversed by a change in DEFRA Secretary of State.

Listen to this 4 minute BBC piece where the issue of unrecorded paths is discussed. (From Radio 4, 9 July 2019)

Less than 5 years left before unrecorded and under-recorded paths are extinguished!

Want to check historic rights on a track but don’t know where to start?
Need to find extra evidence before a public inquiry?
Worried about your first visit to an archive office?
Experienced, but just want to check which Act authorised which activities?

Then you need Rights of Way: Restoring the Record, the research guide by Sarah Bucks and Phil Wadey.

For each of the most commonly used documentary evidence types, this book explains where the evidence can be found, why it is of value to proving or disproving highway status, and how to set out an application for a definitive map modification order.

There are notes on archive offices and helpful hints and time-saving tips on how to carry out the research.

It explains in detail how to initiate the legal process and, step by step, how to follow it through to an order being made.

It includes a long list of the Acts and Schedules which make up the legal background to current rights of way law.

This book is an essential guide for the novice, and an invaluable reference book for the more experienced.

It will appeal to user groups, local authority rights of way practitioners, land agents, land owners and property lawyers, as well as local historians and those interested in their part of the countryside.

Find out how to buy.