Public rights of way in Essex

The In All Our Footsteps project is researching regions across England and Wales to better understand how public rights of way developed in different areas. One of these study areas is Essex, a county which contains some of the most heavily urbanised districts in the country (Harlow, Castle Point, and Basildon, all with population densities over 1600 per km²) as well as some of the most rural districts (Uttlesford and Maldon, both under 180 per km²).

Essex contains 6422km of public rights of way across its 307 parishes and eight unparished areas. There are four types of public right of way:

• footpaths (for walkers, mobility scooters, and powered wheelchairs);

• bridleways (for walkers, mobility scooters, powered wheelchairs, horse-riders, and cyclists);

• restricted byways (for walkers, mobility scooters, powered wheelchairs, horse-riders, cyclists, and non-mechanically propelled vehicles);

• and byways open to all traffic (BOATs) (for all classes of traffic).

Overall, there are 575m of public rights of way for every square km in Essex. As you can see, footpaths are the most common type, accounting for 83.3% of all public rights of way in Essex. Bridleways are the second most common, with 12.8%. The Flitch Way, created from an old railway line from Bishops Stortford to Braintree, is particularly prominent. Restricted byways account for just 0.2%, and BOATs make up the remaining 3.7%.

Public rights of way	Percentage in Essex
Footpaths	83.3%
Bridleways	12.8%
Restricted byways	0.2%
Byways open to all traffic	3.7%

Distribution

Public rights of way are unevenly distributed across the county. Footpaths appear in every single parish and unparished area in Essex. You will be able to find a bridleway where you can ride a horse or cycle in 20 out of 25 parishes in Essex. You can find BOATs for all classes of traffic in 11 out of 25 parishes. The rarest form of public right of way is the restricted byways which can only be found in one and a half out of 25 parishes.

Density

The longest individual footpath can be found in Barling Magna, a 14km path alongside the River Roach and Potton Creek. Several 1m footpaths exist across Essex. A 1m footpath in Little Clacton adjoins ‘Dead Lane’ and is split by the A133. The other 1m footpaths are on or near parish boundaries: the 1m footpath in Great Burstead and South Green is alongside a footpath in Billericay; and the 1m footpath in Margaretting adjoins footpaths in Writtle and Highwood. Loughton has five footpaths of 1m which form part of several longer footpath in the neighbouring parish of Buckhurst Hill.

Manningtree, the smallest parish in Essex, has the shortest length of footpaths with only 140m. Harlow, one of the largest areas, has the greatest length of footpaths, with 65.2km. The density of these footpaths (mapped) shows some interesting patterns. Footpaths tend to be denser in the north and west of the county, corresponding closely to more sparsely populated areas.

Good Easter has the densest network of footpaths, and the surrounding area has the densest concentration of footpaths anywhere in the county.

Foulness has the sparsest network of footpaths, in part because of its relative abundance of bridleways and BOATs, as well as the fact that the parish includes the Maplin Sands mudflats. Littlebury, in the north west, has the second-sparsest network, principally as it has so many bridleways.

Bridleways exist in almost all areas of the county. Those without are usually in the east, especially in the districts of Colchester (41%), Maldon (32%), Tendring (25%), and Braintree (23%). Perhaps these areas of lower-lying lands did not give rise to the need for many bridleways.

Brentwood has the longest length of bridleways at 25km. This also includes the longest bridleway in Essex, a 4.1km circular path in Weald Park created in 2013. Broxted has the shortest length of bridleways, with a single bridleway of only 1m at the edge of wood adjacent to the parish of Little Easton.

Strethall has the densest network of bridleways, owing in part to being one of the smallest parishes in Essex. Great Notley, East Donyland, and Wicken Bonhunt also follow this pattern. Farnham, a middle-sized parish, has one of the densest networks, forming a larger area north of Bishop’s Stortford which has a particular concentration of bridleways.

With it’s 1m bridleway, the sparsest parish is unsurprisingly Broxted. Burnham-on-Crouch follows with a 69m bridleway leading across the Crouch and Roach estuaries. This area of the Dengie Peninsula has very few bridleways, likely a result of its especially sparse population.

Restricted byways are very limited in scope. The few parishes which do contain restricted byways typically have one or two which average 40m in length. The longest is a 1.2km restricted byway in Chappel, which also has the highest concentration of restricted byways, two of which were upgraded from bridleways in 2015. The shortest individual restricted byway is a 7m route in Stebbing. Waltham Abbey, being one of the largest parishes, has the sparsest network.

Many have names, such as Pennsylvania Lane in Tiptree, Leapers Lane in Great Hallingbury, or Holyoak Lane in Hawkwell. Most of the named restricted byways are located near urban areas and provide access to wildlife corridors like Jack’s Lane in the new development of Little Canfield in Takeley.

There is a clear east-west divide for BOATs, as most are in the west of Essex. Much like bridleways, there may not have been a need for BOATs on these lower-lying lands. The most notable exception to this is the Broomway in Foulness, commonly dubbed ‘the most dangerous path in Britain’, which is formed of a 3.7km bridleway and 4.2km BOAT. Conversely, Hullbridge and Rochford both have 1m BOATs which are continuations of BOATs in other parishes. In North Weald Bassett there is a 42m BOAT which has been dissected by the A414.

Blackmore, Hook End and Wyatts Green (yes, that is an individual parish) has the sparsest network of BOATs, made up of a 43m BOAT around the green in Blackmore which is also on the list of streets and appears indistinguishable from surrounding highways. Chickney, with an individual BOAT of 2km, has the densest network in Essex. In fact, this area surrounding Debden in the north-west of the county has the highest concentration of BOATs in the county.

Summary

This detailed analysis of the county has illustrated how the public right of way network differs across Essex, but further research is required to understand why the paths coalesced into the network we see today. This has highlighted some important patterns which require further research. For example:

• Is there a clear correlation between population density and the number of footpaths?

• Do lower-lying lands give rise to fewer bridleways?

• Why are there so few restricted byways?

• Why is there a concentration of BOATs in the west of Essex?

Hopefully, future research will uncover the answers to these questions and help inform policy work in this area.

The 6422km of public rights of way in Essex are not created equal. Different types dominate in particular regions. The distribution and density of public rights of way varies greatly due to a whole spectrum of environmental, social, and historical factors. The work of the In All Our Footsteps team explores these disparities in the context of the meaning of these paths in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Look out for future research on Cheshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire, and Powys, some of the other regions we are focusing upon.