Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2020 August 29

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August 29

UK Ordnance Survey maps and Public Paths

The UK has footpaths, Bridlepaths and Byways that are public rights of way. They are marked on Ordnance Survey maps (although they are not legal representations of the RoW).

However occasionally you come across a marked path that just stops in the middle of nowhere! Anyone know what the public is expected to do there? Do they have to turn around and go back? An example (with the marker moved west a bit to show the path ending) https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=e1e1129c-1566-4946-a00e-52e0cc273eab&cp=52.145858~-0.011656&lvl=16&style=s&v=2&sV=2&form=S00027

-- SGBailey (talk) 07:41, 29 August 2020 (UTC)

It is a public access road to what earlier was a private property, Rectory Farm, now part of the National Trust’s Wimpole Hall estate.^[1] That it does not just end randomly but on a farmhouse can be seen on OpenStreetMap as well as Google Maps Satellite View.  --Lambiam 10:53, 29 August 2020 (UTC)

L, your post refers to the path to the west of the puzzling one. -- SGBailey (talk) 07:44, 30 August 2020 (UTC)

Do you mean what is identified here as a bridleway? (The sidebar says "bicycle: yes", but the Google Maps Satellite View does not look encouraging for this mode of transportation.)  --Lambiam 09:55, 30 August 2020 (UTC)

Yes - it just stops without anywhere apparent to go, whether on bike, horse or foot. It is just odd. -- SGBailey (talk) 12:24, 1 September 2020 (UTC)

It can be any number of reasons. The recording and maintenance of rights of way has been incredibly inconsistent over the years, and over time the original purpose of the route changes, or the path simply no longer exists. But, you don't necessarily need to be on a right of way to access or cross land. Access rights vary in different parts of the UK, in Scotland there is a presumption of access in most cases while in England and Wales they are far more limited. Check these links for more details. Access Rights in England and Wales. Land access in Scotland. --Vitalis196 (talk) 12:05, 29 August 2020 (UTC)

In Blythburgh, Suffolk (eastwards from where the A12 meets the River Blyth) you have a public footpath on what used to be a land reclamation embankment. A storm washed the middle of the embankment away and it was never rebuilt. So you can walk out into the marshes on an embankment on a public footpath, but the sign warns that it leads nowhere. I imagine with global warming the number of cases like it could increase. It actually is marked as a continuous path on OS maps as if it continues to be passable, but the land shapes make it clear there is no solid land there. Blythwood (talk) 16:28, 2 September 2020 (UTC)

This government source (regarding HS2) has the following to say about dead-end public rights of way in general (my emphasis):
2.5.5 - "Whilst there is no doubt about the status of a public right of way shown on the Definitive Map, the fact that a route is not shown does not mean that a public right of way does not exist."
2.5.8 - "It is [...] unusual for a 'deadend' route to exist, with exceptions for cases such as public rights of way leading to the coast or a river crossing (even though the bridge ,ford or ferry may have long since disappeared)."
2.5.9 - "However, the Definitive Maps are full of anomalies where 'deadend' public rights of way stop for no apparent reason. This frequently occurs at parish boundaries, where adjacent parish councils took a different approach to what they considered to be a public right of way when the Definitive Maps were being first drafted. It may also occur where a public right of way joins a green lane or what appears to be a private access which is actually public road but is not shown as such on the Ordnance Survey mapping."
2.5.10 - "The possibility always needs to be considered that an apparently 'deadend' route may continue as an unrecorded public right of way and where encountered the situation shall be clarified with the surveying authority."
PaleCloudedWhite (talk) 19:46, 2 September 2020 (UTC)

Having looked at large-scale mapping of the specific area highlighted by the OP, it is apparent that the 'dead-end' RoW in question is within the parish of Orwell, but runs alongside the parish boundary between Orwell and Harlton, so, in light of my comment above, it seems plausible that at the point on the OS map where the RoW is shown as 'disappearing', it actually crosses into Harlton parish but for some reason was not acknowledged by Harlton Parish Council when they drew up their Definitive Map. PaleCloudedWhite (talk) 20:56, 2 September 2020 (UTC)

Further digging suggests that an alternative explanation could be (I'm indulging in a bit of OR) that the 'deadend' RoW joins a green lane at the point where it (the Row) seems to disappear, but that the green lane has been ploughed up and is therefore not discernible. According to the HS2 source linked above, "A public right of way is a type of highway that is not a road. A highway can either be a road or a public right of way, never both" - so if the green lane was regarded as a road, it wouldn't have been recorded as a RoW. But the ridgeway track obviously used to stretch to the main road, as stated by this British History Online source about Orwell parish, which states that "The north-east boundary [of the parish] follows a chalk ridge along which a ridgeway, the Mare Way, runs from the main road across the tops of Fox Hill, Thorn Hill, and Sharp Hill" (my bolding). PaleCloudedWhite (talk) 07:16, 3 September 2020 (UTC)