Above: Help restore walking rights along this attractive lane leading up to the old disused railway track.
Page update: Click here to support the campaign to create a PRoW.
Things have progressed since my post about the farmers at Plex threatening me with legal and police action if I didn’t remove walk 12 from the website. (Click here to read.)
I’ve received a couple of phone calls. One from a very pleasant police officer who seemed to appreciate my point of view. And another, from someone who prefers to remain anonymous, about his experience of being aggressively confronted by the farmer, a lady, and a couple of their burly farming friends.
I can’t see the situation being easily and amicably resolved, which is a great pity. But there might be a way of restoring our right to use this route if we can show that people have been walking it for more than 20 years.
This would mean we could apply for a ‘Claimed Public Right of Way’. I’m happy to make the application. But I’d need evidence from others to back the claim. This would include…
- Letters/statement from people saying they used it 20+ years
- Photos
- Old aerial photos
- Mapping
- Records offices etc
- Parish meeting notes
I’ve certainly been walking this route for well over 20 years. And I’m sure I’m not alone. So if anyone can help with any of the evidence required – even if it’s just a letter confirming you’ve walked this way for over 20 years – then please do get in touch via the contact page. Or leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you.
Reasonable force?
Applying for the PRoW is going to be a slow process. And even if we can prove it’s been walked for well over 20 years, there’s no guarantee of success.
So since the farmer seems determined to confront walkers, I thought it might be a good idea to discover what our rights are. And what the farmer can and cannot do.
He seems to be insisting that he can use ‘reasonable force’ to prevent anyone walking along that short stretch of lane. Richard on the Goyt Valley Facebook page sent me some information he found in the National Gamekeepers’ magazine…
If a trespasser peaceably enters or is on land, the landholder may request him to leave and, if he refuses, the landholder or his gamekeeper or other representative may remove him from the land using no more force than is reasonably necessary.
“Reasonably necessary” is obviously open to interpretation. So I asked the police for their advice. They told me that trespass is a civil rather than a police matter and that physical force could only be used “…if it’s absolutely necessary to protect property”. And added that any unwanted physical contact by the farmer could be seen as assault.
Walkers using a tarmacked lane – the bottom half of which is already a PRoW – are clearly not threatening anyone’s property.
I’m no legal expert, but I can’t see how he can justify using any amount of force to prevent us walking along a lane we’ve been using for so long. And since any unwanted physical contact could lead to his arrest for assault, I’d say the law is on our side.
It would be interesting to get some professional legal advice on this. But that could be expensive. So if there’s anyone who may be able to help, or knows someone I could contact, please do get in touch.
I’ll update this page if I manage to discover any more information.
Page update: Application now filed
24.8.23: Derbyshire CC has now filed our application to make the route a public right of way on their website (click here to view). I’m fairly confident it will succeed. But if Richard Lomas (the man with his name on all the lorries) is true to his word and fights it through the courts, it could take a long time.
I lived on Bishops Lane as a child that is now some 40 years ago. We walked this road as a family and with the dog.
I walked the route many times from 2004 when I moved to the area. Happy to put my name forward as a witness.
We have been walking along this road for well over 20 years now with our dogs from the disused Cromford and Highpeak railway.
I was born in Burbage in 1955 and frequently walked along the old railway line from childhood onwards. I have been along it more recently (but with some trepidation!). I always think it a great shame that the course of the old C&HPR didn’t make it into one of the trails like other old railway lines in Derbyshire. Do let me know if you need a written letter or anything.
I have lived in Buxton all my life (over 60 years) and I have walked along this route for as long as I can remember – so certainly 50 years.
I’ve walked this route many times and grew up on Level Lane. I’ve never been approached by the farmer but know many that have. I never recall signs saying it is Private until the last few years. It is a shame because no-one intends to do any harm, only to walk past.
I do find it amazing that it’s seen as unacceptable to go for a quiet walk along an old railway line and down a lane used by vehicles, whilst their millionaire neighbours build a helipad and no doubt create more disturbance to them and their animals when landing and taking off than any walker could whilst going for a stroll, along a lane which has clear walled boundaries from their property.
This route is mentioned in my copy of Graham Beech’s “East Cheshire Walks” on page 152. I only have the 4th edition which dates from 2005, but I’ll bet it’s also in the first edition which dates from 1985!
I was born on Bishops Lane in 1950. My mum and dad used to take to Plex farm to see Fella Mitten’s mum! Earlier often went on to the railway line to see the tunnel. There was still rail line. They removed it in about 1960/61 when the bridge over Cat and Fiddle road was removed. I can safely say I’ve walked on the line a lot more than 20 year’s – more like 65!
I have walked over the railway track for over 20 years and so had my parents, Grandparents, Great Grandparents. I was recently spoken to very aggressively by the farmer. I cause no harm, I pick up rubbish that can cause damage to wildlife and the environment.
We lived in Burbage from 1968 to 1974, and regularly walked the old trackbed, Bishops Lane and the the lane linking the two. Fellow Morten was known by my father, and we never experienced any problems using the lane.
There is reference in a book ‘Under Grin Low – A Burbage History’ on page 72 to a memory from Mick Grindley (DOB 1960) to he and his friends driving cars (aged 14) along the old railway track “as far as The Plex” and also on Shay Lodge Lane. “Many of us were self taught drivers along these old tracks.” Would such a printed record help with this matter?
The man with the land and buildings, where you claim there is a right of way. Can you not just admire what he is doing from a distance, many farmers are being treated in this way. But if you gang together like children and all go running with stories to the teacher, namely the local authority. It looks not good. You will all probably feel violated by him telling you to go, But this guy cannot be replaced, and he probably feels violated every time someone walks into his yard or along his driveway. What would happen if the tide turned and some people wanted your drive way as a public right of way? So say you all drive him to his limit, and he brings out his shot gun and kills someone. He then gets locked up, so whos going to feed his horse or his Gritstone sheep? Whos going to look after the walls? Are you lot going to give your time up to feed his cows? You see this guy could sell up tomorrow and could enjoy life with the money. But he chooses to carry on, and put up with the torment a little longer. He may have people that he knows and the stories about the farmers, from the Goyt valley. And the way they were treated badly and sent on there way. So its ok being nostalgic about the farmers in the valley on one hand. Then claiming something from them the next. He probably thinks if i gives you an inch you will take a yard. Which is what normally happens. Lifes to short, and hes helping to put food on your plates. I could say shame on you.