{"id":6283,"date":"2012-04-04T23:27:40","date_gmt":"2012-04-04T22:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=6283"},"modified":"2012-04-04T23:27:40","modified_gmt":"2012-04-04T22:27:40","slug":"the-strangest-public-right-of-way-abingdon-footpath-number-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=6283","title":{"rendered":"The Strangest Public Right of Way &#8211; Abingdon Footpath Number 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag12\/12040402.jpg\" alt=\"Abingdon Footpath Number 1\" \/><br \/>\nThe Vale Path Volunteer group was formed to help clear and improve footpaths in the Vale area. They\u00a0have\u00a0undertaken two projects so far.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag12\/12040407.jpg\" alt=\"Abingdon Footpath Number 1\" \/><br \/>\nThe second project\u00a0was\u00a0undertaken on 13th March 2012 and involved\u00a0a footpath that starts near the electricity substation between Maberley Close and Nash Drive.<\/p>\n<p>A month ago\u00a0the path\u00a0was full of vegetation\u00a0but now it is an easy walk over woodchip between garden fences.\u00a0 The path\u00a0follows the path of the old Wilts and Berks canal and so has historical\u00a0if not aesthetic interest.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag12\/12040404.jpg\" alt=\"Abingdon Footpath Number 1\" \/><br \/>\nThe path has\u00a0been completely blocked for a good ten or twelve years and\u00a0along one section people have extended their gardens &#8211; that is until\u00a0the Vale Path Volunteer group hacked their way through the trees and undergrowth to re-establish the footpath &#8211;\u00a0which they call Abingdon No 1 Footpath.<\/p>\n<p>At\u00a0one point the filled in remains of Drayton Lock (corrected thanks to Martin) has been partially built over with\u00a0garden\u00a0staging. At that point you can no longer follow round on\u00a0the original path but must either clamber over the concrete base, using the unofficial steps, or go round\u00a0through gardens.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag12\/12040406.jpg\" alt=\"Abingdon Footpath Number 1\" \/><br \/>\nA little further on &#8211; beyond the houses and lap fences &#8211; is\u00a0a more complete\u00a0WWII bunker. The floor is covered with ashes from bundles of free newspapers that never got delivered back in the early 1990s. They were subsequently set alight.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag12\/12040403.jpg\" alt=\"Abingdon Footpath Number 1\" \/><br \/>\nThe final stretch of this eccentric little footpath, following the path of the old canal, ends up half way along Mill Road. The final section is the most picturesque\u00a0but will very soon get clogged up by brambles and nettles as May and June\u00a0follow April.<\/p>\n<p>Most dog walkers just walk through the field alongside, which has become quite permissive over recent years,\u00a0with it&#8217;s own path by the River Ock, but I will\u00a0walk\u00a0along Footpath Number 1 once in\u00a0a while to help keep the path clear. It\u00a0may not be the most beautiful footpath in Abingdon but it is\u00a0the strangest. Thanks to the Vale Path Volunteer group for their herculean effort in clearing what I thought had been lost for ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Vale Path Volunteer group was formed to help clear and improve footpaths in the Vale area. They\u00a0have\u00a0undertaken two projects so far. The second project\u00a0was\u00a0undertaken on 13th March 2012 and involved\u00a0a footpath that starts near the electricity substation between Maberley Close and Nash Drive. A month ago\u00a0the path\u00a0was full of vegetation\u00a0but now it is an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-club-and-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6283\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}