Hello everyone and welcome to a special guest episode of the history of England, all about

rights of way and commons. This is a bit of an indulgence I have to be honest with you. It is

about history to a large extent. How is it that England and Wales come to have an extensive

network of rights of way crossing over private land? What lies behind the practice

strange to the moderners of private property over which nonetheless the public have rights?

On the other hand it's a bit of an indulgence because frankly it's also about promoting the

need for greater access to the countryside and for preserving those rights that exist now. So

you will hear an interview between me and Kate Ashbrook from one of the oldest of institutions

formed to protect those rights, the open spaces society. Before I let you loose there are a

couple of things I wanted to say upfront. Passionate though I am about the value of public access

rights to our countryside and passionate as I am to see those common rights extended, I very much

accept that landowners, particularly farmers, face a lot of challenges. My argument is the greater

access will also embed a sense of partnership between landowner and visitor, much less of the

them and ours mentality and greater respect for the countryside which will lead us to treat it better.

But it is important to emphasise that one needs to get too preachy, that it is a two way thing.

If landowners must give greater access so must the rest of us treat it with respect. Now there is

a newly revised countryside code I'm sure you'll all be excited to learn and that urge you all

to read it. You can download it from the History of England website on the post for this episode.

Finally then if you would like to know more about the work of the Open Spaces Society and support

their work please go to their website www.osss.org.uk. There is loads of information actually about

access rights within that website and there is a link to it from my website. So, onward.

Hello everyone. Today we have a chance to talk about a subject, dear to my heart, the way the

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