Section 1. History
1.1: General
Douglas Coombs B.A., Ph.D.
An outline of the history of highway use, maintenance and management until the end of
the nineteenth century, tracing the transition from the traditional duties of the local
community to the modern pattern of professional highway administration.
Ann Holt M.A.
Pressure for the protection and enhancement of access to the countryside began in
earnest a century ago, and the present century has seen the enactment of a series of
legislative provisions designed to achieve these aims. The history of many of the statutes
is inevitably one of compromise between the various interests involved, principally
landowners and recreational users but, latterly, also between different user groups and
the need for conservation. Ambitious legislative provisions have sometimes had to be
modified in the light of experience and administrative practicality, and the effectiveness
of the enforcement of this branch of the law remains uneven.
Ann Holt M.A.
The controversial provisions of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act
1949 only reached the statute book after prolonged public and private debate. The
availability of ministerial papers at the Public Records Office at Kew enables the way in
which that debate progressed to be to some extent reconstructed. The classic confrontation
between the perceived interests of the agricultural lobby, and of those who seek access to
open space, is amply demonstrated; and the governmental processes by which compromise is
reached, explained.
Ann Holt M.A
A noticeable feature of the fifty-year period between 1900-1950 is the extent to which
the legitimacy of the law of trespass was questioned. Otherwise law-abiding citizens were
prepared, publicly, to commend trespass to others, engage in it themselves and boast about
having done so.
John Sugden Ph.D., C.Eng., MICE, MCIT, Assistant Director Planning and
Transport, Cleveland County Council
The central theme, in this consideration of the evolution of highways and highways
authorities over the past two centuries, is the development of the highway authority as an
organisation, and the corresponding development of highway law. However, the law is not
the arbitrary starting point which sets the way people live; rather the law is developed
to fit in with technical and social changes. Thus it is proposed to set the changes to the
organisation of highways very firmly within the context of the changing needs of society.
Ann Holt M.A.
The failure to frame a national policy, under which the future status of all roads,
including green lanes, could be rationally determined, was the prime cause for the ad hoc
legislative development of the concept of RUPPs.
Ann Holt M.A
A survey of local authorities has produced little evidence of any use by them of the
permissive provision for access to open country afforded by the National Parks and Access
to the Countryside Act 1949 and the Countryside Act 1968. In the light of this, those now
campaigning for the 'right to roam' are seeking a more positive legislative foundation for
such access.
Mivhael Turner, Professor of Economic History, University of Hull
The use of inclosure maps and awards and related historical documents is not new in
the litigious process, both in rights of way issues and other matters. To this end the
RWLR has carried articles illustrating the value of such documents, especially in the
rights of way context. These articles include references to the distinction made in
inclosures between private and public ownership and rights. Yet there is probably still
room for an extended discussion of the historical background to parliamentary inclosure in
England and a simple guide to the documentation that was generated. That is the purpose of
this article.
Professor Emeritus Keith Davies, J.P., M.A., LL.M., Barrister.
In England today disputes over the lawfulness of the use of compulsory purchase powers
are tried in the High Court, and disputes over compensation in the Lands Tribunal. A jury
is not involved, although that was not always so. In the United States the position is
less clear, and depends upon a proper interpretation of the Constitution in the light of
English common law at that time.
Ann Holt, M.A.
Changes in the attitude to public footpaths in England in the period 1750-1835 are
considered here. Three general Highway Acts were passed during this period. The first,
passed in 1773, simplified the procedure for diverting highways; the second, passed in
1815, simplified the procedure for stopping-up any highway which was judged to be
‘unnecessary'. The Highway Act 1835 reflected misgivings about the way in which the
new procedures had been used. The influences considered here include social changes, when
those who could afford to moved in increasing numbers to the countryside near urban areas;
the conversion of farm land to parks attached to private houses; and the emergence of the
earliest organisations devoted to protecting public footpaths.
David Braham Q.C.
Many of Pepys’s journeys were ‘by water’, and his travels included the
voyage of the Naseby in 1660 when that ship brought Charles II from the Hague on his
restoration to the throne, but this article focuses on entries in the Diary (January
1660-May 1669) which tell us something about travel on the English roads.
Ann Holt, M.A.
The 2001 Foot and Mouth epidemic has implications for public rights of way. This
article reviews the history of the epidemic, including the measures taken to control the
epidemic and their impact on the rural economy and on those who use rural public paths.
The epidemic evoked the comment:
“It has been a revelation to people in many areas of the countryside to realise the
sheer value that walkers and hikers contribute to the local economy”.
Those who are responsible for the preparation of rights of way improvement plans and for
the funding of improvements need to remember this revelation.
Alan Woods, B.Sc., Ph.D., MCIWEM
The relationship between agriculture and countryside access is complicated and deeply
interwoven. Against the background of the current crisis in farming, and the prospect of
further substantial change in agricultural policy and on the ground in the next five
years, this article assesses:
• how agricultural policy has developed in recent decades and how it has gradually
come to reflect concerns over access at domestic and European Union levels;
• the state of agriculture, and the factors behind the current crisis, including the
recent outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease and its implications; and
• emerging policies for the farming industry and their potential future impact on the
relationship between agriculture and countryside access.
The article, which focuses on the situation in England, aims to promote:
• better understanding of how the economic fortunes of agriculture have been and are
changing;
• awareness of the implications for countryside access of the adjustment currently
underway in farming;
• recognition that, increasingly, the interests of access are closely linked to those
of agriculture.
Tom Williamson, M.A.(Cantab), Ph.D., Reader in Landscape History University of East
Anglia
Earlier articles have covered the changes which led to parliamentary inclosure and the
procedure which led up to the making of inclosure awards. The impact of inclosure on the
landscapes of England, including the roads in the areas affected by parliamentary
inclosure, is addressed here.
Helena Cave-Penney, B.A., M.Sc., Assistant County Archaeologist, Wiltshire
County Council
The surviving evidence of early highways and the management of early roads as
archaeological features is discussed, with particular reference to early roads in
Wiltshire.
Ann Holt, M.A.
This article reviews the initial impact of the National Parks and Access to the
Countryside Act 1949 (“the 1949 Act”)and explores how various groups of users
set about trying to realise the full potential of the provisions relating to public rights
of way. The task was huge; every public right of way, and the nature of the rights
pertaining to it, existing over the whole of the land surface of rural England and Wales
needed to be surveyed and any disputes as to their existence or character settled before
they could be recorded in ‘definitive’ maps and statements.
Christopher Jessel, M.A. (Oxon), Solicitor, Consultant, Farrer & Co.
When Britain was part of the Roman Empire, it shared in the Empire’s civilisation
and laws. The Romans had a mature law of highways and although it was subject to local
variations the law known in the rest of the Empire was used in the provinces of Britain.
The society and laws of the Anglo-Saxons were simpler but they too had laws which affected
the use of roads and other ways.
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