The Wansdyke & District Forums

For the walkers. I have lost three rights of way in two years out past the old ruin ground, the vanished village Selwood had us all going round and round about a while back. Some firm has been quietly buying that whole corner up, and now the paths are going. Not closed on paper, all done proper, new stiles, new waymarkers, diversion orders pinned up the regulation twenty-eight days where nobody reads them. But the effect is the same. The paths that went through are gone, and the ones that replaced them go round the long way, along the wire, never across. You are funnelled. Thirty years I have walked here. Somebody does not want feet in the middle of that ground.

yeah ive hit this. went for a cache out that way and the path on the map just isnt there, diverted round the field edge behind a brand new fence, proper money spent on keeping you to the boundary. thought it was just me being useless with the GPS. whats in the middle thats so precious

a diversion order is a diversion order. you apply, you fence it, you put the stile in, done, ive seen fifty. landowner wants his privacy hes entitled, it dont mean theres a secret in the field. youre reading a lot into some new stiles fran.

Maybe. Fifty diversions across the county is one thing, Mech. Three in two years all on one estate all pushing you to the edge is another. I am not saying there is a secret. I am saying somebody is spending real money to keep strangers off the middle of that land, and I would like to know why. That is all.