I often wonder how ancient are these footpaths that traverse the arable fields and speculate on them being all that’s left of public rights of way after the 18th and 19th century Enclosure Acts stole so much from us peasants! ‘Use them or lose them’ is how best to describe their status and during these daily walks, I am finding plenty to use and to be fair, in my South Yorkshire locale they are well sign-posted and kept clearly visible.
Further reading:
A short history of Enclosure in Britain
Joining Alive & Trekking for this week's Which Way Photo Challenge -
PoetryPix 
a pathway through what seems barren to the promise of a future of forest, water, and life. I spent a brief time reading the article about enclosure…brought to mind the historical conflict between cattle and sheep ranchers, barb wire, and water rights… in Colorado it is against the law to collect rainfall as even the rain has been deemed “enclosed.”
you have conjured some of my favourite films there – ‘Shane’ ‘Open Range’ & ‘Lonely are the brave’
the notion that rainfall belongs to anyone is frankly appalling
I really wish they were well sign-posted and kept clear here in Cornwall. Most around here are covered in brambles and nettles, or you climb a stile into a field and have no idea where the actual path is supposed to be (that is if you even dare climb into a field full of cattle).
i have been on those kinds of paths Jude and worse of all a stile that crossed into a very irate Charolais bull’s field (snorting, stamping his feet, head down) but if they are not dairy bulls they are legal as long as they have females with them (worst of all to bring out the macho in the bull I would have thought)
https://www.fwi.co.uk/business/compliance/farming-near-footpaths-the-law-for-arable-farmers
This is such a strange path… it almost looks like it was airbrushed on photoshop! 😉
I love how it fades to the horizon.
I promise it’s real – although I will check again today to make sure it was not all a dream 😉
A ha ha… could be you know! 😉
Beautiful. Would be so lovely to roam there. Thanks for sharing.
with these Which Way challenges we get to see each others pathways! thank you for continuing to host
It’s cool, eh? And thanks, happy to do so.
so much history and thought for this path …
interesting how a simple path can lead to so much!