Ramblers' Association logo and link to website

THE  RAMBLERS' ASSOCIATION

Walkers on the Hangers' Way, August 2004

Working
for
Walkers
 

NEW  FOREST GROUP 


 

Home
About Us
News
Walks
Programme
Books
Past Walks
Links

Stream Crossings in and around the New Forest 

For 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.  The situation has deteriorated slowly but steadily over the last ten and more years as horseriding 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.  Presentations of selected problem areas will be made to the National Park Authority’s New Forest Access Forum at the beginning of June, so please hurry and get your reports and photographs in by mid-May at the latest.

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.  Difficult stream crossing

Let us have your photographs and your views please.

John Thackray:  e-mail je@thackray.org    4 Elm Avenue, Christchurch BH23 2HJ

(Sorry, phone calls won’t help on this subject.)
 

Walking the Wessex Heights

This Spring, we started out from Maiden Castle on the linear walk “Walking the Wessex Heights”, from Marjorie Kerr's book of that name.  We will be completing the final sections next year.

If you want a copy of the book - it has circular walks in sections for all stages -  please see details on the Books webpage.
 

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.

A35 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.
Stile near Warwickslade Bridge

The New Forest as National Park - please click here to read the press release.

 


The Ramblers' Association

Contact us

© New Forest Group of The Ramblers' Assoc. 2004

Site last updated 21.06.08

Hosted by Hantsweb