The COVID-19 pandemic has brought renewed attention to the public’s access to outdoor spaces. Many people rediscovered their local paths and recognised the importance of access to nature and cultural heritage for their health and wellbeing. A survey conducted by Natural England in October 2020 found that ‘forty two per cent of adults said visiting green and natural spaces has been even more important to their wellbeing since coronavirus’. Questions of access and movement continue to be highly contemporary: Defra announced in February 2022 that they would be repealing the 2026 deadline to record historic paths in England. 

The AHRC have awarded £1m of funding to ‘In All Our Footsteps: Tracking, Mapping and Experiencing Rights of Way in Post-War Britain’, a project which will explore the mapping, development, use, and experience of twentieth and twenty-first century rights of way. This project is led by Professor Glen O’Hara in collaboration with Dr Clare Hickman, Dr Abbi Flint, and Dr Tom Breen, who will each discuss some of the findings of their research so far.