Blog
Spring on The Ridgeway
Well, what a wash-out of a winter we had to put up with! Almost 18 inches of rainfall over the three months, three times as much as in a “normal” year! It is still boggy underfoot in the woodlands, and so many of the valley bottoms, but at least the...
The Deregulation Bill, 2013
The coalition Government is working up a Deregulation Bill, aimed at reducing bureaucracy, and some sections have been included relating to rights of way, etc, which may provide an opportunity to secure new legislation on the subject. At the initiative of our...
The Great Stones Way
There have been no major developments in resolving the current impasse over the route across the Vale of Pewsey. This remains an emotive issue for some local residents, but neither the local Councillors nor the officials at Wiltshire Council have been able to help...
The Ridgeway Trail Partnership
As noted in our last issue, Natural England has announced that it would like to move to a more devolved organisation for the National Trails, with greater involvement of users and local communities. It seems likely that the current joint management structure for The...
Notes on the Herepath
Herepath is an alternative name for sections of The Ridgeway: it is Anglo-Saxon for Army Road. The greatest military activity near the trail in historic times was indeed at that period - the Romans seem to have preferred their own strategic highways. Later this year,...
A Cockney Clerk’s Enchantment
(An article by Maurice Mendoza, first Chairman of the Friends, reprinted from Aspects of The Ridgeway) I was first enchanted by the Ridgeway over forty years ago. I had just started as a clerk in what was then the Ancient Monuments Secretariat of the Office of...
Coal on The Ridgeway
A colourful Ridgeway anecdote recounts its use for the delivery of coal. The source is Highways and Byways of Berkshire (1919). "There are men living in the Vale of White Horse now who remember the days when coal came from South Wales along the Ridgeway by...
Ballooning on the Ridgeway
1) George Graham I'm open to informed contradiction on this, but I believe the first manned flight over The Ridgeway took place on July 16th 1824 at around 19:45. It was the first perhaps the only entirely successful flight of an accident-prone aeronaut, George...
Autumn on the Ridgeway
To the surprise and delight of us all, 2013 presented us with a beautiful summer, with a mini-heat-wave in July, not too hot, but dry and sunny for a golden fortnight. It was a great summer for walking, and for enjoying the views across the Vale and over the...
The Ridgeway and Alfred
(reprinted from Aspects of the Ridgeway) From the hills south of Oxford, from Boars Hill and Wytham, the dark line of the Downs marks the horizon. Between it and the river lies the ancient borderland between Wessex and Mercia. The way that runs along the ridge of the...