PRoWlers’ Progress – 10th July 2024

Welcome to Episode 4 of the PRoWlers’ Progress.

This week we start off with a short “Did you know?” piece that Ricky and Jonny asked me to include. 

Now it must be stated that Ricky and Jonny are not lawyers and in fact, P3 Wardens (although wise with knowledge and understanding and therefore able to offer help and guidance in ancient path lore) have no additional legal powers above any other citizen.  Only Devon Council wardens have such privilege.  So, armed with that information, read on…

When is a path not a path?  Now that’s an interesting one. 

Did you know?

Paths and Bridleways are shown on the OS maps, but the definitive map (held by Devon County Council) is the only legally binding document. The definitive map cannot be purchased but you can view it at the Rights of Way office at Great Moor House, Exeter during office hours and by appointment only.

You can also view a “working version” of the map online, but this could be out of date and is not definitive or legally binding.  Weird huh!  Look in the Local Information menu on this website for a link to the working map.

In most cases, walkers do follow the definitive map, but sometimes they deviate from the path.

An example of this is FP41 heading due north from the school towards Knights Lane.  Most walkers use the “gate to gate” route, which is not the definitive path.  The correct path is to walk along the eastern hedge boundary, then only deviate when approaching the gate at the Knights Farm end.

Here is an extract from the working map showing the definitive route – marked with the purple dashes.

Image of footpath 41 route south of Knights Farm

The red dotted line shows the “gate to gate” route.

Now, I hear you ask “does it matter?”.  Well, if you are not walking on the definitive path, you could be considered to be trespassing. Some landowners might object, others may not.  Of course, landowners can help by keeping the definitive path mown and clear and it should be noted that this path has been recently mown to highlight the route.

We might show you some other deviations in future episodes – you’ll have to wait and see.

All I can say is that the PRoWlers encourage you to follow the definitive path wherever possible.

Now down to today’s prowling action…

Footpath 41 – Northward from behind Holly Farm towards Birchill.

This path lies east of several properties and farms.  This path is regularly used, but Ricky and Jonny had reports that some of the gates were difficult to open without wrestling with the PRoWler’s nemesis – the dreaded brambles.  For this job, they needed to park the prowler-mobile somewhere reasonably close as they had tools to carry; This turned out to be on a friendly neighbour’s driveway – thank you Steve and Rita.

Image of overgrown field gate
One of several gates that were almost lost to the brambles

There are several gates along this path, and they all needed extensive cutting back and strimming.  They deployed their tools of choice along the route to uncover gate catches and way markers, consigning the brambles to the great bramble-heaven in the sky.  They reached what was thought to be the parish boundary, turned around and sang a happy little ditty as they trekked back to the prowler-mobile for a cuppa-rosie-lee.  (See footnote)

Image of Ricky enjoying a cuppa
There’s nothing like a cuppa

After that short break, they returned to Bridleway 38 to finish what they started a couple of weeks ago.

Bridleway 38 – The long bridleway up to Beacon Hill, enclosed by hedges on both sides for most of the way. A return visit to complete a gate related task. We call this “The Metal Gate Adventure”.

Again, parking and carrying equipment is the challenge especially when both Ricky and Jonny have “hurty legs”.  So, this time Jonny phoned Sue who lives close by the gate and she happily let them park-up outside her place on the beacon.  Thank you Sue (and Ken).

The metal gate towards the north end had lost the bottom hinge completely.  Ricky and Jonny had been shopping and bought a new gate mounted hinge ring.  Unfortunately, the diameter of the bolt was bigger than the existing holes in the gate – so some drilling was required.

Jonny owns a step drill bit.  This is a conically shaped bit that can be used to ream out an existing hole to a new diameter.  And… it worked. I’m not sure who was more surprised; Ricky, Jonny, the assembled badger audience or the cows grazing in the adjacent field.

They threaded the new hinge bolt and re-hung the gate – definitely a 2-prowler job.  They then used their trusty spanners on the new adjustment nuts to level the gate so that it closed nicely.

Finally, after noticing the opener was broken, they fitted a new thingy to fix it.  They agreed the proper name was probably “staple”, but thingy was easier to remember. This is now a gate fit for a king (on horseback or otherwise).  The finishing touch was to add a new Bridleway Marker to the post. This was a very satisfying job and both Ricky and Jonny were delighted (You should have seen their little faces all lit-up with smiles!).

Here are some photos of the Metal Gate Adventure. Click one to zoom in.

On walking back to the prowler-mobile, they also identified that the final wooden gate onto Beacon Hill had dropped and was very difficult to open and close.  This time, they didn’t have the tools they needed, but will revisit in the future. Only then, will they declare the bridleway “ready for horses”.

So we’ve reached the end of today’s episode. Thank you for reading.

How much fun can two prowlers have when they’re out prowling?  Stay tuned for Episode 5 in a week or so to find out more.


Foot(path?)note (See what I did there?  Oh! Never mind)

At the north end of FP41, on the eastern edge there is a gate through the hedge that then leads to the back of Dirks.  From Ricky’s and Jonny’s maps, it’s not entirely clear if this gate is in parish or not.  That’s one of the reasons they’ve reached out to the adjacent parish’s footpath warden to see if they can learn the truth.  It’s all new to the PRoWlers – learning as they prowl!