New Footpaths Champion
Richard Marshall has taken on ‘Footpaths’ as his new Society responsibility and has provided the following.
"If Weybridge is not to be throttled by traffic, generated by dependency on cars for all journeys, we need to keep open any paths which provide direct walking routes to town, station, schools etc. Surrey County Council (SCC) has responsibility for paths and for recording them on maps by a certain date. Some private roads are also public footpaths, e.g. across St Georges Hill, but many such old routes for pedestrians need to be witnessed by long-standing users so that SCC is bound to enter them on its maps. We hope to co-ordinate some witnessing from people who can remember the longer history of paths they use. Any member who knows of a valuable footpath which needs to be officially recorded is invited to let us know. This also applies to the sometimes little known ‘short cuts’ which run between roads in built-up areas.
Fortunately, the longer footpaths which are already recognised for leisure-walking or for cycling to work are fairly well marked. A new footpath to Byfleet along the Wey is nearly complete but awaits the railway’s approval for the section near Seven Arches Bridge. Meanwhile, Brooklands Museum has reopened the tunnel under the racetrack near *The Dell which is to be used only for major museum events, so that a walk to the Museum from the station is now shorter and mostly ‘off-road’. More such routes would help save Weybridge from traffic congestion”.
Please contact Richard Marshall, details on the Committee page, if you have suggestions or comments regarding footpaths.* The Dell – (With thanks to John Pulford, Head of Collections & Interpretation at Brooklands Museum, who with the help of volunteer Tony Hutchings has supplied the following information about the tunnel):
“The Paddock Entrance Road tunnel was constructed beneath and at the same time as the Members’ Banking in the winter of 1906-07. It was used by members of the Brooklands Automobile Racing Club both on foot and in their cars, and by those members competing in events as it led them straight to the Paddock. It closed in 1939 when racing ceased and was eventually blocked up, probably during the war. It was also part of a High Speed Reliability Trials circuit when the cars drove through the tunnel, out on to the entrance road, back over the Members’ Bridge and down the Test Hill”.
28th Aug 2008
