OFS Volunteers Progress

When Liz Adams took over the chairmanship of our committee one of her aims was that OFS should make a contribution to the improvement of the footpaths that we are lucky enough to enjoy. As a first step and to re-establish our links with the County Council Countryside Department, Peter Ewart put into the walking programme two working parties on the d'Arcy Dalton Way, one in early October 2010 and the second at the end of February 2011. These were to be exploratory missions in order to establish what work was needed, what we could manage to do and how we could feed back our findings to the County Council.

A broken stile near Radcote A broken stile near Radcote Photo: Peter Ewart

Tackling the first 7.5 mile section revealed our lack of experience, and clearly we were at the bottom of a steep learning curve, with another 57 miles of the d'Arcy Dalton Way still to be walked!

John Eyre established an effective working relationship with the Chiltern Society, who very kindly advised us how their work parties were organized and several of us joined their light clearance working party to gain firsthand experience. With their mentoring we learned the value to be gained from a detailed survey before any clearance work is tackled.

This has allowed us to plan the works we can do and identify those which we can't. These will be passed on to OCC and high on this list will be any safety related issues that we may find, such as the many horrible stiles and unsafe bridges.

A defective bridge A defective bridge Photo: Peter Ewart

It was clear after our first work party effort that although this was successfully completed, the 57 miles that remained could not be tackled in such a piecemeal fashion, even so a report was made to OCC and most of these problems have been resolved. The Volunteer Sub-Committee decided to identify members who might be asked to become Rights of Way Improvement Volunteers, and fortunately some accepted the challenge. I am sorry if we missed trying to press-gang you, it is not too late and your Society needs you! So please contact anyone on the committee to rectify our error!

At the committee meeting in December 2010 Peter tabled a letter received from OCC thanking OFS for their efforts for the first work party and our report. He also reported on the Rights of Way Monitoring Group (RWMG) meeting which met in November. Following this Liz took a brave (unilateral) decision that the team of volunteers would tackle a comprehensive survey of the whole of the remaining length of the d'Arcy Dalton Way with the aim of presenting a report to the OCC by the end of March 2011.

The route was divided into 12 sections of between 5 & 7 miles in length, generally starting and finishing at a village. The key to this was the greatly enlarged "Tracklog" maps of each stage. Small teams then surveyed a particular section using this map upon which they carefully recorded the relevant information using a common template. This included the grid reference of all stiles, gates and bridges noting their condition using a standard format. The whole survey was completed on time!!!! A hearty well-done is due to all our survey teams.

Peter was able to report this achievement at the next RWMG meeting held in April after which a format for the submission of our survey was agreed with Hugh Potter, Senior Field Officer of the Countryside Service. This was to be in three parts: small scale Tracklogs section maps showing the problems in each section and an overall summary highlighting the safety and the other issues needing more immediate attention.

Whilst the d'Arcy Dalton way was in fact in good condition overall, we did report that a high proportion of stiles (27 out of 90) were not acceptable. The Society has already funded the replacement of 5 of these with kissing gates, between Hook Norton and Epwell. In contrast out of 27 bridges only 3 require maintenance work.

Many freestanding way mark posts were damaged, some have succumbed to rot or impact damage and are in need of replacement. There are a significant number of finger post problems and way marking in some villages is deficient. All of these points have been passed on to OCC for their attention.

Defective way marks Defective way marks Photo: Liz Adams

In early June Peter and Jim Parke met Hugh Potter in order to hand over OFS's findings and it is pleasing to report that he was very complimentary about the scale and quality of the work carried out by the OFS survey teams. As a result, we will be working with his department to produce more surveys and to undertake any light clearance work that may be needed this season, so watch this space for request for more volunteers.

The Way Ahead

  1. Complete the dDW way marking by mid September 2011.
  2. Survey teams to monitor progress made on the items raised with OCC, whilst the way marking is being undertaken. This information will be reported to the ROWMG meeting in October 2011.
  3. Survey teams will re-walk sections of the dDW by the end of March 2012 reporting any further progress made and noting any condition problems that may have arisen. These findings will be reported to the ROWMG meeting to be held in April 2012.
  4. To commence full surveys of the 8 circular walks that accompany the dDW route described in Nick Moon's book in the summer of 2012.
Peter Ewart and James Parke