North Essex and Saffron Walden Bridleways Group

January 2008: Members have a once in a riding lifetime chance until June to bring into existence rights of way that are no longer recognised as riding routes.

They are routes that were ridden at some time in the past in recent times, or even hundreds of years ago - but may now be wrongly classified as footpaths or simply forgotten.

Unless these routes are claimed now there is a strong likelihood they will be lost for all time as there is a cutoff date for review.

Uttlesford district is the focus for the next round of hearings conducted by Essex County Council that will decide which routes are reclassified as bridleways or byways.

It is part of the council's definitive map review and anyone is free to lodge a claim for recognition of a route.

But claims will have to be lodged before June 2008 to be considered and there may well not be another review before the cut off date - in 2026.

So if you know of - or suspect - a route that was regularly ridden we need to hear from you.

We then need to follow a strict process in gathering evidence and submitting it formally to the council as a collection of witness statements.

There are a number of different criteria to be met to qualify.

• If we can demonstrate a route was ridden over a period of 20 years then it will qualify. We do not necessarily need to prove that it was ridden for each of the 20 years but that it was ridden regularly and evidence can come from rider and non riders alike. The exception to this is if the route was ridden with the permission of the landowner, that is then known as a permissive route, and fails to qualify.
  However if only some riders ride it with permission and others rode it without the landowner's permission, as is often the case, then it could still qualify.
• If we believe a route was ridden at any time in the past but cannot produce witnesses we can rely on historical evidence to make our case. This could involve finding evidence for example that a stagecoach route from Cambridge to London followed a particular route. We can rely on old maps, including tithe maps and parish records.
• We can combine the 20 year old claim basis with the historical data to strengthen our case further.

What are our chances of success?

Claims in Rochdale are close to completion and the Essex Bridleways Association, representing members in that area, claimed 20 routes, won 12, lost 5 and is awaiting adjudication on the remaining three.

Our first claim is Beechy Ride (see the Beechy path) where we already have as many as 20 potential witnesses, most of whom rode the ride from Saffron Walden County High School on ponies that trekked the route as part of the school farm club. We will be posting details about this claim soon on this site.

Also see our How To Claim page for more advice.

So far we have claimed three routes: Beechy Lane; Hophouse Farm, presently a footpath, running from Hempstead Wood to Pollards Cross Hempstead; and a route, presently a footpath, on a longer route running from Wendens Ambo to Arkesden. From Hill Farm Arkesden it connects at right angles with the bridleway from Wicken Bonhunt before it joins the byway from Claverend to Newport.

We intend to divide up the parishes and establish working parties on each of them and then coordinate the submissions with a Lost Ways committee.

We need your help as it is local knowledge that will produce the evidence.

If you would like to volunteer please email northessexbridlepaths@yahoo.co.uk or phone Garron Baines on 01799 541079.

We are also looking for someone with legal knowledge who can help shape our claims.