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Lost Walk - New Challenge 27 Nov 2013 Can you restore a circular walk by simply sharing memories? Sue Osborne invites your help.

Can you restore a circular walk by simply sharing memories? Sue Osborne, Chair of the Parish Council Footpaths Committee, thinks so - and invites your urgent help.

FP 206/10, just north of the A40, has a section which is described on the County Council’s Definitive Map and Statement. Unfortunately, it is not actually mapped there, but noted as an anomaly ...

The section is shown as a public right of way on the Ordnance Survey Explorer map and and is clearly marked as part of Oxfordshire Circular Walks on the 1992 map as well. It is also part of a circular walk in a leaflet published by OCC in 1998 (image and download below: point 23-24) and therefore has been walked regularly for many years.

It seems from Gillian Ghosh, the Rights of Way Officer at OCC’s Countryside Service, that we need to apply for a DMMO (Definitive Map Modification Order). This means we must provide evidence from walkers that the path is, and has been, used.

We can provide some evidence straight away. The OS maps are obvious and we have a copy of the circular walks leaflet, plus a good photograph of the path (below) which demonstrates it is well used; but what we need is witness statements from walkers.

The ultimate prize would be to get the circular walk from Eynsham - Church Hanborough - Freeland reinstated. This section is the weakest link.

WITNESS STATEMENTS: Sue says, “We’d like as many people as possible to write in, reporting when they started walking the path, how often they have walked it, and any recollections of parents, grandparents etc who have walked it too. This, plus any photographic or other evidence, can be submitted to show that the footpath has been in public use for at least 20 years. Many thanks to those who have helped already.”

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