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For 2023 (and 2024 ...) - we are now fully retired from IT training.
We have made many, many friends over 25 years of teaching about Python, Tcl, Perl, PHP, Lua, Java, C and C++ - and MySQL, Linux and Solaris/SunOS too. Our training notes are now very much out of date, but due to upward compatability most of our examples remain operational and even relevant ad you are welcome to make us if them "as seen" and at your own risk.

Lisa and I (Graham) now live in what was our training centre in Melksham - happy to meet with former delegates here - but do check ahead before coming round. We are far from inactive - rather, enjoying the times that we are retired but still healthy enough in mind and body to be active!

I am also active in many other area and still look after a lot of web sites - you can find an index ((here))
Footpath, Bridleway, Byway, Road used as Public Path

It's often a surprise to me which posts generate informed and useful additional feedback, comment, information, and so forth. My recent post about a public footpath, and what is allowed on there, was one that rather took off on Facebook. [link - original article]

Phil writes: I am certain that pushing a cycle on a public footpath is allowed, but riding a bike is not...

Robin writes: Perhaps you are allowed to carry your horse through. I think you need to distinguish between a private footpath with permission to use, communal access, right of way, and bridleway.Public right of way, ancient right of way, ancient public right of way, public footpath, roadway, motorway, waterway, highway, byway - this could ramble on. In some of these the landowner has to keep the path in good condition, may or may not be able to charge or restrict access, may not even be required to provide a paved area instead of simple unobstructed access, and god knows how any of that applies to someone not obliged to pave a public right of way who does so, then grumbles about liability for damage.

Nigel tweets: Not exactly matching yr q re cycle, but it's legal (case law) to wheel a cycle on footway, (pavement) so suggests same for footpath.

OK ... I limited my initial comments to "public footpath" because this would get to a really complex set of "if" and "but" and "except" statements if I tried to go wider, and would have provided more questions than answers.


To my understanding, a public footpath is the lowest (least rights allowed) form of access that's provided in the law by right to people.

• Landowners may provide - if they wish - a permissive path, choosing to let the public cross or walk on their land. I may have read somewhere that if such a permissive path is available every day for 40 years without any restriction, it becomes a public right of way - not sure on exactly how that works, but you find occasional things like a path that's closed on Christmas day - presumably to stop them becoming public. These "permissive paths" are a form of private footpath with permission to use.

• Communal access. Where the right to use a path, owned by one person or group, exists if you're (example) the owner of another property nearby of a member of the group. Paths at the end of a terrace of houses that allow access around the back are a good example.

• Bridleway adds the right to ride a horse. And (maybe) to herd sheep and other animals along.

• Byway adds further the right to take a motor vehicle, but does not add any duty of maintainance onto the landowner.

Let's leave the catalogue there - we're getting well away from public footpath.


Have you ever found a footpath in the countryside has been ploughed up or has a crop growing on it?

Another interesting question as to "what is the landowner oblidged to do"?". I understand there are different designations for different paths - some have to be restored to passable condition within a certail time, and others may be allowed to simply be "refound". Normal walking maps don't tell you which are which ... but this distinction may help to explain why some paths seem to be specially cut through crops and others are "push through" jobs, and why some ploughed fields have a strip carefully left / reset for the footpath where others don't. I used to think it was down to whther the landowner was public-friendly, but apparently there's more to it than that.

Open Access Land.

Under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (CROW), the public can walk freely on mapped areas of mountain, moor, heath, downland and registered common land without having to stick to paths. See [here]. The new rights came into effect across all of England on 31 October 2005. In our immediate area, the maps show them to include Norrington Common, Broughton Gifford Common, and some land between the B3107 and the river Avon just to the west of Melksham.


Images all from my Whaddon walk - see [here] for more pictures.
(written 2011-04-04)

 
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
Z531 - Cycling and Walking
  [1640] Walking on The Wiltshire Downs - (2008-05-12)
  [1802] Motorcycles welcome at Well House Manor - (2008-09-19)
  [2253] Walks in and around Melksham, Wiltshire - (2009-06-21)
  [2490] Friendly Hotel in Melksham, near Bath - (2009-11-02)
  [2666] Random thoughts on Melksham Town Planning and development - (2010-03-08)
  [2704] A walk within without - Melksham Without - (2010-04-02)
  [2707] A walk on the Kennet and Avon - (2010-04-04)
  [2709] Old trackways and routes near Melksham - (2010-04-05)
  [2858] The healthy option - away from the private car - (2010-07-07)
  [2958] What do these road markings mean? Could Confusion Kill? - (2010-09-17)
  [3023] Autumn walk from Bowerhill - (2010-10-31)
  [3216] Images of a Spring Walk - (2011-03-27)
  [3228] What can you take on a public footpath? Pram? Wheelbarrow? Dog? Shopping Trolley? Horse? Cycle? - (2011-04-03)
  [3376] Kennet and Avon - Walk from Bedwyn to Pewsey. TransWilts day out. - (2011-08-01)
  [3579] Transport in Cambridgeshire - seen by an outside observer. What can Wiltshire learn? - (2012-01-15)
  [3580] Melksham Area - buses, trains, cycles, and roads. Meeting, 17.1.2012 - (2012-01-15)
  [3689] Can I cycle or ride my mobility scooter on the pavement? - (2012-04-07)
  [3771] Fine evening, country walk from Melksham - pictures - (2012-06-21)
  [3904] Want to help us improve transport in Wiltshire? Here is how! - (2012-10-26)
  [3938] A long overdue meeting - a steeping stone towards coordinate transport user inputs - (2012-12-02)
  [4022] A request for all of Melksham transport groups to work integrated - (2013-03-01)

Z301 - Current Affairs
  [33] 10 Years of experience - (2004-08-30)
  [377] A Strengthened City - (2005-07-14)
  [614] News in Ireland - (2006-02-20)
  [1214] New Serieses for the summer on TV - (2007-06-02)
  [1275] Incident in Melksham - (2007-07-24)
  [1960] Christmas Survivors - (2008-12-25)
  [1987] One Cheer for Local Democracy - Asda in Melksham - (2009-01-11)
  [2112] Whatever next ... the joys of being an employer - (2009-04-01)
  [2128] Wiltshire - where everybody matters - (2009-04-13)
  [2289] pre-Inaugural briefing - Melksham Community Area Partnership - (2009-07-15)
  [2508] Community Area Partnership - inaugural AGM - (2009-11-20)
  [2514] The road show has been - where now? - (2009-11-27)
  [2574] Summary of Wiltshire Core Strategy responses - (2010-01-13)
  [2602] East of Melksham - Building Work Starts - (2010-01-28)
  [2776] Regional Spatial Strategy and the next 20 years - Whence Wiltshire under the new government? - (2010-05-22)
  [2852] Atworth Village Fete - on the Melksham Community Area Partnership stand - (2010-07-04)
  [2904] Melksham Area Board meeting of last week - (2010-08-04)
  [2982] Travel, Transport and Tourism - A vision for Melksham, 2026 - (2010-10-03)
  [2995] A river in Melksham is not just for boaters. - (2010-10-11)
  [3028] VAT rise in January - it is really up 14% not just 2.5% - (2010-11-03)
  [3030] Liquorice allsorts and Dolly Mixtures - (2010-11-05)
  [3126] Car Parking in Melksham - thoughts on the proposed scheme, and wider thoughts too - (2011-01-09)
  [3183] Redevelopment on the banks of the Avon in Melksham - (2011-02-25)
  [3265] Alternative Vote (AV) - cutting the crap - (2011-04-25)
  [3282] The future of canal management and charities - Kennet and Avon Canal bias - (2011-05-08)
  [3347] The Anthony trial - Orange County, Florida. Thoughts on conclusion - (2011-07-06)
  [3357] Business, priorities, and volunteering - (2011-07-14)
  [3385] Do university courses teach the right things for life at work later on? - (2011-08-10)
  [3467] Charities v Charitable. The cost of collecting your donation. - (2011-10-06)
  [3646] Exploring Melksham with a film maker - (2012-03-09)
  [3720] Melksham ATC - freedom of the town - (2012-05-05)
  [4429] Wind Turbines - beauty or menace? - (2015-02-17)
  [4599] Happy Christmas - and a Christmas thought - (2015-12-24)
  [4637] People matter - but there is a tradeoff between different people in there - (2016-02-01)
  [4691] Real life PHP application using our course training MVC example - (2016-06-05)


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Around and about Melksham in more pictures
Some other Articles
How we make our programming courses both time and cost effective
Your program - you just provide the filling in the sandwich
C / C++ Course Lunch - sitting out at the West End
Around and about Melksham in more pictures
Footpath, Bridleway, Byway, Road used as Public Path
Whaddon - near us and yet so remote from us
Coincidence, or naturally repeating event?
Her favourite store
A busy morning for railway announcements
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This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at http://www.wellho.net/horse/ - the diary and writings of Graham Ellis. Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via our main site for current courses, prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth" cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.

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