The Ramblers’ Association is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales. Company Number: 4458492. Registered Charity in England and Wales Number 1093577,

Registered Charity in Scotland, Number: SCO39799. Registered Office: 2nd floor, Camelford House, 87-90 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TW

Tortoise and the Hare - and the Rambler! Volunteering for Don't Lose Your Way.

Over the coming 5 years, a steady and slow task presents itself: reviewing old evidence of rights of way, towards recovering footpaths and bridleways that have been lost to the record. I hope you can help in North Devon. It is a fairly straight-forward affair.

The problem dates back to the 1950s, when parish councils were asked to submit their routes to a central "Definitive Map". Alas at that time many were simply not put forward.

When one compares an OS map from earlier in the century to one from the latter part, one quickly sees routes that have disappeared.

Many rural councillors were landowners at the time, and this may have caused some paths not to be submitted. But "Once a highway, always a highway" - so runs the maxim, established in 1860 when rights of way law was first developing. Under present law, we can still recover those paths.

This law approaches a crunch point however, and we need your help. On 1st January 2026, historic evidence for rights of way will become legally ineffective, and any routes shown by them will be lost to the record.

This is why we need to review our patch now, before it's too late. The task isn't complicated. You can be guided through the process. At this stage, we simply need eyes on maps - many of which are online. Building a case for a path is built on such reviews, and in Northern Devon we have around 100 parishes to look at.

But we will get there. Those with a healthy respect for the tortoise of the tale, please contact the Devon DLYW Co-ordinator at devondlyw@outlook.com and together we can work to bring the paths of our parish-es back to their prime. I look forward to hearing back.

Devon Co-ordinator, Don't Lose Your Way campaign.

Due to the impact of Covid-19 we have decided not

to proceed with a face-to-face

Devon Area Annual General

Meeting in 2021.

Instead, we are holding the meeting by Zoom at

2pm on Saturday

13th February 2021. To obtain login details for the meeting, please email:-

secretary.devonramblers@gmail.com

The agenda and all reports will be posted

on the Area website

www.ramblers.org.uk/devon by the end of January.

Hi everyone, the purpose of this newsletter is to let you know what was discussed at the latest committee meeting on 21st January, to promote the 2021 Devon Area Ramblers AGM on 13 th February and to inform you of some other bits of news such as the “Don’t Lose Your Way” article.

Devon Area Ramblers Annual General Meeting is taking place on 13th February by Zoom. All members are welcome and can sign up for the meeting by sending an email to: secretary.devonramblers@gmail.com The agenda and all reports are posted on the Area website.

Devon Area Committee is looking for new officers, particularly Media Secretary, Web Co-ordinator, Footpath Secretary and Minutes Secretary. Please contact David Hinchliffe at the above email address if you are interested in finding out more. Devon Area Council meets three times a year usually at Bovey Tracey. Meetings last approximately two to three hours and involve a cuppa and a chat, as well as covering the necessary business of managing the Area. It’s a great way to network with members of other Devon groups, share ideas and experiences and contribute to the making and advance of Area policy and campaigns. Currently, of course, all meetings are taking place by zoom.

If you think you may be interested in Devon Area meetings but not as an Officer, then our North Devon Group is looking for two (or more) representatives, who could attend the meetings on the group’s behalf and then feed back to the North Devon Committee. Travel expenses to meetings are refunded by North Devon Ramblers. Please contact Joan for more information.

Committee Meeting news.

New committee members.

We welcomed our new committee members – Janice as Group Secretary and Maggi as Publicity Officer. It’s great to have some new people on board with new ideas to share. Of course, we still need more committee members to come forward as soon as possible for the Chairperson, Treasurer, and IT support roles.

Chris Catlin.

Chris Catlin has decided to step down from the committee after many years. Chris is one of the few early members of North Devon Ramblers still involved with the group and led her first group walk in July 1980. She and Roger have led numerous walks in subsequent years. Chris has always supported other walk leaders and ramblers and shared her local knowledge, especially of Exmoor. For twenty years between 1985 and 2005 Chris served as Walks Programme Secretary, (no mean feat, as her successors can confirm) and since then as a Committee member. She has always supported the group in so many ways, including helping to organise social events and group holidays. We would like to express our sincere thanks to Chris and hope she will continue to enjoy a different level of involvement, as a group member, for many years.

We hope to be able to celebrate Chris’s long service when our walking returns to ‘normal’.

Walks Programme.

As the printed walks programme is currently suspended, we thought it was a good opportunity to discuss the various suggestions we have received in recent months, regarding any changes we may wish to make to our programmes, when Covid restrictions are lifted. Are there any changes you’d like to see? Perhaps a 4 monthly programme? Or online only and save on printing and postage costs? Maybe encouraging more “pop-up” walks? (Outside of Covid restrictions, walks could be added to the online programme at short notice). We will have to consider the amount of work involved for the Walks Programme Secretary and volunteers involved with production and distribution, together with any increased printing and postage costs. It would be

great to get some more views on this, so if you have any thoughts or ideas, please let Gill know as we shall

discuss this again at our next committee meeting in April.

It’s also worth adding, ‘More walk and event offers equals a better programme for all.’

Newsletters

Our recent newsletters have been well received and we’ve had some good positive feedback about them. Thank you! We had a discussion about having a regular newsletter and decided to trial one three monthly, timed just after our quarterly committee meetings so we can keep everyone aware of discussions, decisions, and news like this. We also have the option of a “pop-up” newsletter if and when needed – especially during these Covid times when walks can start up or stop at short notice. Again – what do you think? Is this a good idea? Do you have any thoughts of what a regular newsletter could include? Please let us know.

Our next committee meeting is planned for Thursday the 15th of April (by Zoom).

If you would like to ask any questions or have any items for the agenda,

please contact Janice by the 6th of April.

Goal-posts shifting all the time. Your patience and consideration will be greatly appreciated in these difficult times. We’re making it up as we go along at the moment, so there will be some things we could do better or change as we go, and new government restrictions can change everything! Thank-you!

A few words from your Chairman (Joan two hats)

With my first hat on, I would like to say that I hope you are all keeping well and managing to occupy yourself in this third, tedious lock-down. Perhaps you have already had your first vaccination or, like Mike and I, are eagerly awaiting the call. Hopefully, we can all look forward to a Spring and Summer with more freedom and some sunshine to dry up the continual mud on our paths. I know that some of you are getting out and walking for your daily exercise, perhaps with family or a friend. Despite the weather, being well wrapped up and out of doors brings both physical and mental benefit. Maggi continues to upload your inspiring walking photos on our Facebook page, so keep them coming in please! If you are not currently able to go out and about, we send our best wishes and hope that your situation will improve very soon. For those of you who are walking, don’t forget to save your walk experiences as Gill is eager to get a ‘rolling programme’ up and running as soon as Government guidance allows, and it is safe to do so. Let us hope that it won’t be too many months before we can recommence our monthly coffee mornings and other social activities.

My second hat is that of the group’s Torridge Footpath Officer. Many of you are aware of the amount of useful information for walkers on various websites, not least the ‘Ramblers Routes’, available only to members on the Ramblers website. Another useful tool in a walkers’ toolbox is the Devon County Council Public Rights of Way page. You can find this at www.devon.gov.uk/prow I know that some of you already use the Interactive map there, to identify footpath numbers by parish, in order to report to myself or Jon. It would be great if you also use the ‘Report a problem’ section to add an extra strand to the complaint procedure. If you do, you will receive an acknowledgement, complaint number and update when the work is done. Another useful tab to click on is the ‘Path News’, which will tell you about rights of way that are temporarily closed and for how long. This may be because of development work, path maintenance or special events. If you have any rights of way problems or queries do contact Jon or me and we will do our best to help. Accurate information as to the site of a problem (preferably a grid reference) and a photo or photos makes it easier to identify the problem when complaining to the local, DCC Footpath Wardens.

Joan Long

COVID CORNER Nothing has changed at the moment.

Please keep looking at the website for

any changes to the regulations.

Many people are now getting their

first vaccination.

That’s good news!

If anyone has a query or concern or

just want another voice to talk to,

please contact any one of the

committee members. Take care!

Taken any interesting photos

while out on your daily

exercise? Send them to

Maggi and they may just

feature on our Facebook

page. Brighten everyone’s

day up with your photos!

Brilliant Opportunity! WALK LEADER TRAINING COURSES

Did you get the recent Walks Leader newsletter from

Central Office? If so, there’s a video and a link to the

on-line Walk leader Training Course.

If you didn't get the e-mail OR you’re a member who

would like to find out more about the training course and

want to have a bit of fun completing it then please

contact Gill who can forward you the newsletter.

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