I rarely visit my home village of Lane Bottom. Yesterday I visited someone there, and walked "down t'pasture" as we used to call it, and was dismayed to find that not a single path of those which used to criss-cross the Pig Hole and Fenny Moor farms areas is visible and usable. It seems that as each farm has been reinhabited, and made beautiful, the land which had been pastoral becomes a garden, or a paddock or enclosure. There seems no fully accessible route to the river any more. Pig Hole Mill (Fern Valley) lost its access quite a few years ago. There is no public right of way to enter Fern Valley from P.H.mill, but there was access down the lane and turn left to the river. Also now, the stile which allows one to cross from the 'road' towards the river is being overgrown by a hawthorn hedge, and another path which used to meet it has been swallowed up in a garden and the gate has a spade shoved against it.
If anyone else knows which areas I'm talking about, and thinks we should fight a cause to reclaim the area for walking (not just up and down the road but across and over the river towards Southfield) then could they respond please.
Quinny
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