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Walk along the Solent prior to AGM, 21 November 2009 Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009

New Forest Ramblers and Ramblers' trustee Kate Ashbrook (centre) enjoyed a walk and some birdwatching along the Solent before the Group's Annual General Meeting at Boldre Village Hall on Saturday, 21 November.  The Ramblers are celebrating the passage of the new Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 which will in time create a walking trail right round the coast of England and will, the Ramblers hope, resolve most of the access issues on Hampshire's south coast.  To Kate's right, John Thackray, the Group's Access Officer says, "Hampshire County Council with the New Forest National Park Authority and the New Forest Access Forum are already working with Natural England to lay the groundwork and a first pilot project is being planned nearby at Weymouth."   

40th Anniversary Celebrations                 

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the founding of our group, members put on a week of walks and social events.  Starting with a morning walk and an afternoon treasure hunt with sausage sizzle on Saturday 29th August, Sunday’s 12-mile walk was followed by repeating the original walk starting from Lymington on Bank Holiday Monday.  

A cream tea walk and an evening walk along the sea wall, with supper at a local pub, were interspersed by longer walks each day, taken from the first book of walks published by the group in 1992.  A luncheon party, attended by 60 people including several original members on Saturday 5th September, was followed in the evening by a well-attended Barn Dance, both held at Sway Village Hall.Anniversary Cake for children's tea-party, 6 September 2009

The week ended with a breakfast walk from Longslade Bottom and a walk and party in Sway for families with young children, who walk once a month.

Total attendance throughout the week’s 14 events was in excess of 350 people, many attending more than half - a very satisfactory outcome for all who worked so hard.

Stream Crossings in and around the New Forest

Difficult stream crossingFor several years members of the New Forest Group have complained about a number of “dodgy” stream crossings on Crown Lands and elsewhere in the Forest, but very little has been done to improve any of them.  Many footpaths are shown on the Ordnance Survey maps and they have been open to the public “from time immemorial”.  Most of the ground in the Forest is soft and boggy by nature, so Ramblers expect to have to wear boots to walk all year round in reasonable comfort, but that should be sufficient for most weather conditions.  Sadly it isn't, especially in valley bottoms where there are often few or no places to cross a stream or a bog safely. 

Marshy groundThe situation has deteriorated slowly but steadily over the last ten and more years, as horse-riding has increased and the Forestry Commission has been dissuaded from remedying erosion by conservation interests.

We don't want to see any further proliferation of gravel tracks, but several stream and bog crossings need urgent attention.  Often the measures needed are minor works, like putting a pipe, or sometimes two, in the stream bed with the bank of earth and gravel over it.  With this in mind, a preliminary list of locations where improvements are needed has been drawn up.  (Click here to view the list.)  All walkers are invited to take digital photographs of impassable stream crossings with the date and location (grid reference) and send it to the e-mail address below.Treacherous bog

Site visits to a handful of specimen sites with representatives of the Environment Agency, the National Park Authority and the Forestry Commission have been made to discuss their statutory and non-statutory requirements, and Natural England plus the Verderers will also have an important say.  Hence it isn't going to be an easy matter to get the necessary permissions, bearing in mind the very strong conservation regulations applicable.  Of course, Ramblers are conservation-minded, and preserving an air of wildness and potential adventure is important to us, so we don't want to convert the Forest into a suburban park as some have wrongly suggested.  However, at present, the condition of some footpaths is deplorable.

Let us have your photographs and your views please to John Thackray:  e-mail je@thackray.org  4 Elm Avenue, Christchurch BH23 2HJ  (Sorry, phone calls won’t help on this subject.)

Hampshire footpaths

Can you think of anywhere that the footpath network could be improved in the New Forest area?   It could be any improvement, such as where a new link could improve accessibility to an area, or where a route along a road could be replaced by a track in adjacent land.

If you have any suggestions please contact our Footpaths Secretary by clicking here.

Stile near Warwickslade Bridge beside the A35A35 stiles

For those planning a walk which crosses the A35 between Bank and Wilverley Post, the following information on stiles and gates could be useful.  Click here for the Ordnance Survey map of the area, and click here for details of exact location.  To view a photo of each stile, please click here.


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