The Lost Paths by Jack Cornish

This is a terrific and hugely important book, giving the reasons why we should rate our public footpaths and bridleways as having the same historical importance as other ancient sites – something I’ve been advocating for years. Jack Cornish is the first person to make the same case in a mainstream book.

Jack Cornish holds down a job which has the marvellous title of Head of Paths at the Ramblers Association – or The Ramblers as they prefer to call themselves these days. At a time when our right to walk in the countryside is ever threatened and 49,000 miles of paths are missing from the official definitive maps, we badly needed such a comprehensive work detailing how our paths evolved and why we need them now.

Apart from writing this book, Jack has designed and is leading the Don’t Lose Your Way (DLYW) campaign that is working hard with volunteers to get those paths listed – you can help him by volunteering on the DLYW page on The Ramblers website, and see maps of missing paths in your area.

But Jack’s book isn’t just another piece of ramblers’ polemic. It’s a well-written, fascinating, and very detailed history of how the paths we walk came to be created.; showing how paths evolved in varying ways throughout our history, how they were affected by the creation and disuse of roads, railways, and the Enclosure Acts. There’s a lot of history here – we follow in the footsteps of how folk used the paths to go to work, to seek salt, the way wars through the centuries led to both the creation and deletion of paths, the way paths were used for pilgrimages and for church-going, and – very interestingly – the way our built environment, our towns and cities, have impacted on the path network.

Ramblers too get a good mention – we see how protest led to the preservation of access, not just on the usual Kinder Scout, but at Latrigg in the Lake District, Winter Hill in Lancashire and Framlingham in Sussex.

The majority of our footpaths and bridleways have deep roots in our history, and Jack deals with both the past and present in a very readable way. For those of us who’ve harked on about such importance for decades, this book is a very valuable weapon in our armoury. And shows why we not only need to safeguard the paths we have but seek to get on record those 49,000 miles of paths that have been lost or stolen from us.

Thoroughly recommended – a classic in the making.

And please do support the Don’t Lose Your Way campaign at: https://dontloseyourway.ramblers.org.uk/