www.ramblers.org.uk

Chapter 6 : Evidence of rights of way status

Links and downloads referred to in the text of Chapter 6

Page    
141 User evidence form download [file BBE08]
152 London Gazette online archive link
157 History of local government areas prior to 1974 link
160 Advice Note 4: Advice on the definition of ‘cross road’ (Planning Inspectorate, 1999) download
160 Advice Note 11 : Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 - The meaning of ‘private carriage road’ - Dunlop v Secretary of State for the Environment (Planning Inspectorate, 2001) download
160 Advice Note 14 : Legal memory (the evidential value of ancient documents) (Planning Inspectorate, 2003) download
160 Definitive map orders: consistency guidelines (Planning Inspectorate, 2005) link
160 Draftsmans, plan and field examiners instructions 1905-06 (Ordnance Survey) link
160 Enclosure Awards (The National Archives) link
160 Enclosure records for historians by Steven Hollowell (Phillimore, 2000) link
160 English Local History - A Note For Beginners (The National Archives) link
160 Land: Requisitioned Land (The National Archives) link
160 Maps for family and local history : the records of the Tithe, Valuation Office and National Farm Surveys of England and Wales, 1836 -1943 (The National Archives, 2004) link
160 Maps for historians by Paul Hindle (Phillimore, 1998) link
160 Numbering of County Series maps (Ordnance Survey) link
160 Ordnance Survey maps: a concise guide for historians by Richard Oliver (Charles Close Society, 2005) link
160 Ordnance Survey Records (The National Archives) link
160 Practice Guidance Note 5: Investigating the status and existence of public rights of way (Rights of Way Review Committee, revised December 2007) link
160 Public Rights of Way (The National Archives) link
160 Roads and Tracks for Historians by Paul Hindle (Phillimore, 2001) link
160 The Enclosure Maps of England and Wales, 1595-1918 by Roger Kain, John Chapman and Richard Oliver (Cambridge University Press, 2004) link
160 The Rights of Way Act 1932 (with special reference to the functions of local authorities thereunder) : its history and meaning by Sir Lawrence Chubb (Commons, Open Spaces and Footpaths Preservation Society, 1938) download [file BBE02]
161 The Tithe Maps of England and Wales : a cartographic analysis and county-by-county catalogue by Roger Kain and Richard Oliver (Cambridge University Press, 1995) link
161 The Tithe Surveys of England and Wales by Roger Kain and Hugh Prince (Cambridge University Press, 2006) link
161 Tithe Records (The National Archives) link
161 Tithe surveys for historians by Roger Kain and Hugh Prince (Phillimore, 2000) link
161 Valuation Office Records: The Finance (1909-1910) Act (The National Archives) link

Supplement to the text of Chapter 6

Page    
141 6.1 Totality of evidence. In R (Ridley) v Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (2009) Walker J said ‘As a matter of logic and common sense, it is perfectly plausible that an accumulation of material pieces of evidence may lead to a conclusion that while none of them, of itself, actually points to a particular result, taken as whole they do.’ link to judgment
141 6.1 Circumstances may arise in which an inspector or the court has to determine which of two conflicting, or apparently conflicting, items of evidence should prevail. For example, in Parker v Nottinghamshire CC and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (2009) an order was made adding a restricted byway to the definitive map on the ground of the depiction of the way in an enclosure award [see 6.3.2] made under the Inclosure Act 1771. In 1783 the Trent Navigation Act [see 6.3.3] conferred powers on a navigation [i.e., canal] company to ‘set out …use…and maintain Paths and Ways for haling, towing by men or horses any Boats, Barges or Vessels using the said Navigation’. The Act provided that owners through whose land the path was to pass should have a right to use the path as a ‘footpath, bridleway or driftway for their cattle and that no other person may use the same.’ Adjacent landowners objected to the modification order on the ground that this provision, and in particular the words ‘and no other’, restricting those entitled to use the way precluded the existence of public rights over the route. The court held that the Act created private rights of way over the path (for the benefit of canal users and adjoining landowners.) The existence of private rights did not preclude the existence of public rights (in the instant case, rights of a different nature) over the same route. The order was therefore confirmed. [Semble, if the public rights were extinguished, the private rights created by the Act would not be affected.]

link to judgment 

link to decision letter (North Muskham RB 7)

145 and 160 6.3.1 Sections 4 and 5 of the Consistency Guidelines (see above list) have been revised by the Planning Inspectorate.  
150 and 160 6.3.6 The sections of the Consistency Guidelines (see above list) dealing with the Finance Act has been revised by the Planning Inspectorate. Section 11 has been extended to cover also Farm Survey records and records of wartime closures.  
158 6.3.12 footnote 15 The advice to authorities is now, for authorities in England, in Defra circular 1/08, paragraph 4.42. download
158 6.3.12 footnote 16, the 1992 regulations have been replaced by the Street Works (Registers, Notices, Directions and Designations) (England) Regulations 2007 and the Street Works (Registers, Notices, Directions and Designations) (Wales) Regulations 2008. These require registers to be indexed, to comply with BS 766 Part 1 and, by no later than 1st April 2009, to be based on a geographical information system. The Department for Transport has published new and revised guidance on street works, which includes guidance on the registers.  

download English regulations 

download Welsh regulations 

link to DfT website for guidance