The objects of the Ramblers’ Association include:

“The provision and protection of foot paths and other ways over which the public have a right of way or access on foot, including the prevention of obstruction of public rights of way”.

Definitions
The term “public right of way” means a way over which the public have right to pass and repass. It means broadly the same as the term "highway" but there is a distinction in that the right of way is an abstract thing and the highway is a strip of land. Under common law the right can be:

 a “footpath” over which the right of way is on foot only;

a “bridleway” over which there is a right of way on foot and on horseback, possibly with a right to drive animals;

a “carriageway” over which there is a right of way on foot, on horseback, and in or on a vehicle.

Before the coming into force of the Highway Act 1835 there were no public rights of way which were not highways and all highways were considered to be maintainable by the 'inhabitants at large in the parish'. The common law position was that the inhabitants of a parish were bound to repair the highways unless it could be shown that responsibility for repair had attached instead to an individual or corporate body (by reason of tenure, inclosure or prescription).

The 1835 Act defined the word “highways” to mean “…all roads, bridges (not being county bridges), carriage-ways, cartways, horseways, bridleways, footways, causeways, churchways and pavements…” and provided that any highway in existence at 31 August 1835 was prima facie publicly repairable by the highway authority but also provided that from 1835 onwards any road or occupation road coming into existence only became publicly repairable if 'adopted' under the prescribed statutory procedure. It therefore became possible for roads to come into existence that were privately maintainable.

The repair provisions in s 23 of the Highway Act 1835 did not apply to footpaths and bridleways, which continued to be the responsibility of the ‘inhabitants at large in the parish’. In practice maintenance was carried out by the County Councils in the rural districts and by the Borough and Urban District Councils in urban districts, although by 1947 a number of highway authorities had ceased to maintain footpaths and bridleways, invoking s 23 of the 1835 Act in their support. S 47 of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act resolved the situation by providing that all existing public paths (i.e. footpaths and bridleways), including those that had arisen over private roads or occupation ways were repairable by the inhabitants at large. Section 49 of the Act also provided that section 23 of the Highway Act 1835 (i.e. the adoption provisions) was to apply to all public paths expressly dedicated after the commencement of the 1949 Act, except those which were the subject of a public path agreement.

The reason why footpaths and bridleways were excluded from the repair provisions of the 1835 Act was that they did not fall within the definition of “highway”, which prior to 1835 specifically meant a vehicular and general purpose route.

The first highways
As long ago as the Stone Age trackways were built to enable communities to trade with one another and by 43AD, when the Romans began their conquest of Celtic Britain, some long-distance trade routes had been created, such as the ancient trackway along the North Downs escarpment which became the Pilgrims’ Way from Winchester to Canterbury and The Ridgeway along the chalk hill-tops between Overton Hill near Avebury and Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire, Britain’s oldest road, which is a section of a much longer route in use since Neolithic times.

However, by and large the Roman administration did not use these trackways and instead constructed a network of new roads to connect its new towns and forts, although an exception was Watling Street, which although straightened and paved by the Romans, had been used by the Britons for many hundreds of years and led from Richborough in the south-east by way of a ford of the Thames at present-day Westminster to near Wroxeter, where one section went on to Holyhead and another, by way of Chester, on towards Scotland. 

The first significant new road constructed by the Romans was the Fosse Way, which marked the western frontier of Roman rule in iron-age Britain and ran for 182 miles from Lincoln to Ilchester in Somerset. It may have began as a defensive ditch that was later filled in and converted into a road, because the word “Fosse” is derived from the Latin “fossa” meaning “ditch”. Subsequent military pushes established new frontiers and new front-line roads. Other famous roads built by the Romans include Ermine Street, the Old North Road from London to Lincoln and York and Stane Street from St Albans to Colchester via Welwyn and Bishop’s Stortford. Some of our modern highways still use the same routes as the original Roman road, such as the A6 from Leicester to London and the A5 from St Albans to Wales.

The Roman army also built minor roads to link economic centres, such as the Mendip lead mines and the Nene potteries, with administrative capitals such as Silchester and the coastal ports. Probably between 8,000 and 10,000 miles of roads were constructed during the first hundred years of Roman occupation. They also built a third level of roads at the local level, connecting villas to larger roads and market towns. According to historians no village or farm was more than 7 miles from a purpose-built road.  

Most Roman roads were built in a straight line as they did not have to worry about who owned the land or the effect on the environment. Small hills were cut through and wet ground covered by causeways or timber embankments. The roads were literally highways, raised up on a cambered bank of material dug from roadside ditches. In general there were three layers – a layer of large stones covered by a second layer of smaller stones and a top layer of gravel or small stones. Each layer varied in depth from 2 to 12 inches. The two strips of ground between the cambered bank, or agger, and the boundary ditches were used by pedestrians and animals, and were sometimes lightly metalled. 

Before the 17th century highways were rarely described as roads. An early use of the word "road" occured in 1617 when the route from Rotherham to Whiston was described as "the Auncient Rode way or London way for carryers". Up to that time "way" was universal and persists to this day in combination with "motor", "high", "bridle" or "by" in legal definitions. The word "way" derived from Old Saxon "weg". The word "road" derived from Old English "ridan" meaning "to ride".

Responsibility for the regular repair and maintenance of the main trunk roads, or highways, rested with designated imperial officials, although the cost would probably have been borne by the local civitas authorities whose territory the road crossed. These were large administrative areas based on the existing territories of the conquered Celtic tribes and made use of the established communication links between these tribes. The most important building of the civitas was the Romano-British villa. Most villas were built close to towns, and even closer to the main Roman roads. They fell into disuse after the departure of the Roman legions at the beginning of the 5th century.

Although the Anglo-Saxon invaders preferred to locate their houses and settlements away from the old Romano-British villas, the manorial system which they introduced had originated in the Roman villa system. The manor became the principal unit of local administration and justice and also became responsible for the maintenance of highways and tracks within its territory.

The division of the country into ancient parishes was linked to the manorial system, with ecclesiastical parishes and manors often sharing the same boundaries. Eventually the church replaced the manor court as the rural administrative centre and the power to levy a rate was conferred by the 1601 Act for the Relief of the Poor. During the 19^th century the ancient ecclesiastical parishes became civil parishes which in turn became boroughs.

The unfairness of laying the burden of repair not on the users of the highway, but on the parishes through which it happened to pass, was equalled by the folly of expecting farmers, who had no interest in the matter, to act gratuitously as skilled makers of highways. The result was that a very inadequate number of hard roads had been made or kept up following the departure of the Romans from the island. In the Middle Ages, when there was little commerce and few wheeled vehicles, it mattered little. However, as markets and fairs to which merchants were attracted became established and pilgrimages to the great religious houses increased in frequency, use of the highways revived, bringing with it increased wear on the road surface and the development of the highway robber.

The development of law relating to highways
The Statute of Winchester of 1285 endeavoured to check the activities of the highway robber by placing on the landowner the additional liability of making good to the person robbed the loss he had sustained in his territory. The Act also provided that highways leading from one market town to another should be so opened out that there should not be any "dike, tree or bush wherein a man might lurk to do hurt, within 200 feet on one side and 200 feet on the other side of the road, but it was not to extend to great Oaks or other trees so that they be clear underneath." 

The Act of 1555 (2 & 3 Phillip and Mary c8) - "An Acte for thamendyng of Highe Ways" - made parishes responsible for maintaining the highways in their parishes. The Act used the words "For amending of Highwais being nowe bothe verie noysome & tedious to travell in & dangerous to all Passengers and Cariages;...". In order to carry out the necessary road repairs the larger landowners were required to provide a horse or cart for four days a year, whilst able-bodied parishioners had to give four days "statute labour" a year (increased to six days by the Highways Act 1562).

The following is a 1640 example of the problems which arose when a general purpose way - the "high roade way" - deteriorated to the extent that waggons, etc were tempted to use the narrow horse-causey alongside - "The high roade way from Halifax, Bradford, Leedes and Wakefeild unto the market towne of Selby and the towne of Kingston upon Hull, which causey is two miles in length, and soe extraordinarily broken and decayed with cartes and carriages..." 

A “horse-causey” was a narrow paved section provided for horses, often raised above the level of the adjoining highway - a bit like a bus lane on a modern road. Although it was not the same as a bridleway as now understood, often modern bridleways may have originally been causeys. “The word “causey” was later corrupted to “causeway”. 

In 1642 The magistrates court at Cirencester heard a case in which "Each end of the High Street ... was secured against a horse, with a strong straight boom which our men call Turn pike. A barrier with short metal spikes along the upper surface, placed across a road to stop passage till the toll has been paid." 

The Act of 1662 (13 & 14 Car 2 c6) - "An Act for enlarging and repairing Common Highways" - dealt with responsibility for repair of highways and laid down that no waggons were to be drawn by more than seven horses or with wheels less than 4 inches wide, and no weight carried greater than a ton from October 1st to May 1st, nor 30 cwt. between May 1st and October 1st. 

The Highways Act 1663 was the first turnpike act. The first turnpikes were erected at Wadesmill, north of Ware, Hertfordshire, and at other locations along this road. By 1821 there were 18,000 miles of turnpike roads in England, which by 1830 had increased to 20,000 miles maintained by more than 1,000 turnpike companies but 50 years later only 184 turnpike trusts remained and the last one closed for business in 1895, responsibility for highways having passed to Highway Authorities set up under the Highways and Locomotives Amendment Act 1878. You can still see some sign of the location of these roads where you see tiny houses on the edge of the road. It is there that the man who collected the tolls lived. 

The turnpike system of roads enabled London and other big cities to became well connected by a stagecoach network and in 1830 it took fewer than two days to travel from London to Edinburgh by coach, whereas one year earlier it had taken almost a fortnight. However, the turnpike roads did not cover the whole of the country to a similar standard and were very dangerous because highwaymen used to rob the stagecoaches. Consequently, when the railways arrived people switched from the stagecoaches to faster trains, which were more difficult for highwaymen to stop, and the turnpike trusts gradually became bankrupt.  

The Bridges Act of 1670 (22 Car 2 c12) – “For the better repairing of and amending of the Highways now generally spoiled by the extraordinary and unreasonable lading of Waggons and other Carriages…” – provided that from the 24^th June 1671 “no Travelling Waggon, Wain, Cart or Carriage wherein any Burthens, Goods and Wares are or shall be carried …(were limited to five horses or oxen] ….on any Common or Publick Highway or Road”. 

The Act of 1691 (3 Will and Mary c12) - "An Act for the better repairing and amending of Highways and settling the Rates of Carriage of Goods" – stated XIV “ And bee it enacted by the Authority aforesaid that the Surveyors of the Highwayes shall and are hereby required to make every Cart-way leading to any Markett-Towne provided for minimum widths of eight foot wide att the least, and as neare as may be even and levell.” And XX “And bee it further enacted and declared by the authority aforesaid that noe Horse-Causey or Causey for Horses travelling upon or in ant Publick Highway be less or under Three foot in breadth.” 

The Highways Act 1696-7 (8&9 Will & Mary 16) contained provisions for widening Highways by the power of five JPs in Quarter Sessions to a width not exceeding eight yards. 

An Act of 1753 (26 Geo. ii, c. 30) specified that the wheels of heavy waggons and carts must be nine inches broad, under the penalty of £5 or the forfeiture of one of the horses. To further encourage the use of such wide wheels an amending Act, 28 Geo. ii, c. 17, exempted all such vehicles from toll for three years, while waggons with six-inch wheels were to pay a reduced rate; if the Trustees found this decrease of toll insufficient for their need, they were authorised to raise the rate on all narrower wheeled vehicles by one-fourth. 

An Act of 1765 (5 Geo. III, c. 38) required waggons and carts to have their fore and hind axle-trees of different lengths, so that the two wheels on each side of the waggon should not run in the same track, but should roll a surface of at least sixteen inches in width. 

The Highways Act 1773 (13 Geo 3 c78) amended and consolidated previous legislation and provided “XV And be it further enacted, That the said surveys of the Highways shall …..cause it to be made, supported and maintained every publick Cartway leading to any Market Town, Twenty Feet wide at the least, and every publick Horseway or Driftway, Eight Feet wide at the least, if the Ground between the Fences inclosing the same will admit thereof.” 

A “Driftway” was a way used by strings or “drifts” of four to twenty packhorses which travelled in single file. The minimum width of 8 feet allowed for room to pass another ridden or led horse. 

Ss 19-22 of the 1773 Act also empowered two or more Justices of the Peace in Special Sessions to make orders for the stopping-up or diversion of a highway, the consent of the landowner being necessary in the latter case. The Court of Quarter Sessions was authorised to hear and determine appeals against such Orders, but was not required to confirm an Order where no appeal had been made. Before closing the old section of a diverted Highway two Justices had to certify that the new Highway had been completed, and the Certificate of Completion was then required to be enrolled by the Clerk of the Peace among the Quarter Sessions Records. 

Until 1773 a public highway, that is a road (carriage, cart, or driftway) or a bridle or foot path, could only be stopped up or diverted by obtaining a royal Writ of Ad Quod Damnum which instituted a local inquiry or Inquisition to establish that the proposed change was not detrimental to the Crown or the public. 

The Highways Act 1773 further provided “LIII And whereas in some places it hath been and may be found necessary …..to secure Horse-Causeways and Foot Causeways by posts, blocks or Great Stones …..from being broken up and spoiled with Waggons, Wains, Carts and Carriages…..” 

A General Inclosure Act  of 1801 [41 Geo 3 c109] standardised the arrangements for the legal stopping up or diversion of public roads. The relevant section included the following:- 

“VIII …such Commissioner. ..shall …set out and appoint the Public Carriage Roads and Highways, through such Lands and Grounds intended to be …inclosed, and to divert, turn and stop up, any of the Roads and Tracts, upon and over all or any part of the said Lands and Grounds….so as such Roads and Highways shall be, and remain Thirty Feet wide…”, and 

“”X…..such Commissioner…shall…be required to set out and appoint such private Roads, Bridleways, Footways, Ditches, Drains, Watercourses, Watering Places, Quarries, Bridges, Gates…as they shall think requisite, giving such notice and subject to such Examination as to any private Roads or Paths as are above required in the case of public Roads, and the same shall be …ever thereafter …kept in repair, by and at the expense of the Owners…of the Lands and Grounds directed to be divided and Inclosed…”, and 

“XI ….that after such public and private Roads and Ways shall have been set out…the Grass and Herbage arising thereon shall for ever belong to and be the sole right of the Proprietors of the Lands and Grounds which shall next adjoin the said Roads and Ways on either side thereof, as far as the crown of the Road….” 

Ss 84-91 of the Highways Act 1835 for the first time gave the local inhabitants an all-important part in stopping up and diversion proceedings. The Act transferred from the Justices to the inhabitants assembled at a Vestry meeting the right to initiate the process of diverting or stopping-up of their highways, either on their own motion or following a request from some private person. Later Acts replaced the Parish Vestry Meeting by the Urban or Rural District Council, and the Parish Surveyor of the Highways by the Highway Boards, the District Councils and, since 1930, by County Council; and the Local Government Act of 1894 required the consent of the Parish Council. The provisions of the 1835 Act were repealed by the Highways Act 1959, which instituted new procedures involving the Magistrates Courts on the appropriate Minister of State. 

The Highways Act 1835 also provided:- 

 “SLXXX   And be it further enacted, that the said Surveyor shall and he is hereby required to make, support and maintain, or cause to be made, supported and maintained every public Cartway leading to any Market Town twenty feet wide at the least, and every public Horseway eight Feet wide at the least, and to support and maintain every public footway by the side of any Carriageway or Cartway Three feet at the least, if the Ground between the fences including the same will admit thereof.” 

And SLXXXI of the 1835 Act defined the width of any gate across a public Cartway as a minimum of ten feet, and across any public Horseway as five feet, both clear between the posts. 

The Countryside Act 1968 provided for the erection and maintenance of signposts along footpaths, bridleways and byways. S2 stated “….at every point where a footpath, bridleway or byway leaves a metalled road the highway authority shall ….erect and maintain a signpost:

(a) indicating that the footpath, bridleway or byway is a public footpath, bridleway or byway, and

(b) showing, so far as the highway authority consider convenient and appropriate, where the footpath, bridleway or byway leads, and the distance to any place or places named on the signpost…”

Definitive maps
In September 1947 the Report of the Special Committee on Footpaths and Access to the Countryside (Hobhouse report) was published. It recommended that all rights of way should be surveyed and recorded on maps, the work to be the responsibility of county and county borough councils. The recommendation was put into effect through the enactment of ss 27-38 of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 (NPACA 49). Under these provisions all county councils in England and Wales were given the duty of surveying and mapping all public rights of way in their area, classifying them as bridleways, footpaths or roads used as public paths (RUPPs). The survey had to be undertaken in three stages: draft, provisional and definitive. The showing of a path on the definitive map was conclusive evidence that it was a public right of way at the date the map was prepared. The survey was optional in London and in the county boroughs; county councils were also empowered to exclude built-up areas from the otherwise compulsory survey.

Early hopes of a swift completion of the initial task of surveying and preparing maps were not realised and the compulsory survey in the counties was not finally completed until May 1982 with the publication of the definitive map of North Bedfordshire.

The NPACA 49 also provided for reviews to be carried out once the initial (definitive) maps had been prepared. However, a lack of resources coupled with local government reorganisation in 1974 led to a virtual breakdown of the system by the late 1970s and some definitive maps still reflecting the position at the date of the original survey in the early 1950s.

In London, s 35 provided that the then London County Council (LCC) was not under a duty to undertake a survey, but that it could, if it wished, adopt the survey provisions for any part of its area. The LCC was abolished on 31st March 1965, without having adopted the provisions, and its area, together with parts of the adjoining counties, was taken over by the Greater London Council (GLC), which had no powers in relation to the survey; these were given instead to the 32 newly-created London boroughs. Where these contained territory to which the survey provisions already applied the borough council was required to continue with the procedures. However, where the territory had either formed part of a county borough or had been excluded as being fully developed, the adoption of the provisions remained optional, as it did in the 12 (inner) London boroughs which covered the former LCC area.

The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (WCA 81) replaced the procedure for countrywide surveys and reviews by a system of continuous amendments to the definitive maps existing at 28^th February 1983, and the gradual compilation of definitive maps in all areas (except Inner London) not previously surveyed.

WCA 81 s 55 also provided that in an area where either no survey has begun or where a survey had been abandoned before the end of the period for objections to the draft map, the authority must prepare a new map and statement. It would no longer have the option of excluding built-up areas and only the 12 inner London boroughs and the Isles of Scilly were now excluded from the compulsory survey. Definitive maps would therefore have to be produced for former county boroughs, such as Bath and Plymouth, where the survey had never been adopted, as well as for a great many urban areas previously excluded.

For many years after the passing of the NPACA 49 and WCA 81 there has been concern that there are large numbers of unrecorded rights of way which do not appear on any definitive map. In an attempt to resolve the situation and bring continuing uncertainty about 'lost ways' to an end, ss 53-56 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (CRoW Act 2000) provides that footpaths and bridleways that were in existence on 1^st January 1949 but not recorded on the definitive map by 1st January 2026 will be extinguished. Unrecorded higher rights that may apply to a definitive footpath, bridleway or restricted byway will also be extinguished. This will mean that anyone trying to claim such a right on the basis of pre-1949 evidence will not be able to do so from 2026. There is provision under s 56 (3) for substituting a later cut-off date, which should be no later than 1^st January 2031 except as respects the Isles of Scilly or any area which had been excluded from the survey under ss 27-34 of the NPACA 49.

The cut-off date provisions of the CRoW Act 2000 do not apply “in relation to any way which is, or is part of, a footpath any part of which is an area which, immediately before 1^st April 1965, formed part of the administrative county of London.”