Walking in the countryside today

It might appear that the problems of access to land for walking seen in the inter-war years have largely been overcome. Today large tracts of land are owned by National Trust, and increased access to land has been made possible through the Countryside and

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Rights Of Way (CROW) Act in 2000 which provided access to land “comprising mountain, moor, heath, down, and registered common land, and contains provisions for extending the right to coastal land” 15

. This might seem a huge step forward in opening up land to public access, and is an improvement from the restrictions in place before the Kinder Scout Trespass, but the Act also safeguards provision for landowners to

maintain rights to farmland and provision for safeguarding wildlife (for example with restrictions on access to Sites of Special Scientific Interest).

Access and rights to access remain key issues for the Ramblers’ organisation. The summer issue of Walk magazine (2012) celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Ramblers had major articles on the history of increasing access, beginning with the Kinder Scout trespass, and an article by Roy Hattersley “The land belongs to us”

celebrating the trespass and the public’s right to walk. The latest Ramblers’ campaign is to create access right around the coast of Britain. There is no guarantee that such rights to access are secure. In 2011 arguments about public access again came to the fore as government policies to sell off public forests and woodland threatened to impact on using the countryside for leisure (Watt and Vidal 2011). Currently there are campaigns against the proliferation of wind farms on the grounds that they might spoil the views from National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Many of these sites are on private land but visitors using the National Parks want to have a say over the

countryside as viewed from National Parks16. This is moreover part of the North/South debate with the North being targeted as a suitable place for development because it is more sparsely populated and regarded as “desolate” by at least one Tory peer17

.

Much of the landscape for walking is managed. Thus the National Trust in the Lake District has preserved a landscape which would be familiar to Wordsworth. Sheep graze on the uplands keeping the summits clear of vegetation and there have been few new woods planted. Indeed the so called “wild” moorland that walkers access was and is still managed for grouse shooting, with patches of heather burnt down on rotation every 10 to 15 years to provide the leaves of the bilberries that the young grouse feed

15 _{http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/page-1378, accessed on 1 October 2013} 16 _{http://www.ramblers.org.uk/england/what-we-do/ramblers-position-}

on/windfarms-and-renewable-energy-england.aspx, accessed on 1 October 2013

17 _{Lord Howell, quoted in the Guardian 31 July 2013, speaking in favour of fracking}

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off and flat areas (Leks) for mating displays.18 Far from these being “unspoilt” areas that have been left to develop without intervention, the open landscape of the Cheviots or North Pennines is a landscape that is farmed for sheep or game, and has been maintained in this way for centuries. Current walking practices are often managed too at a group level with group leaders and hierarchies, the monitoring of direction and safety, and the requirement to take part in the collective and sociable side to walking (Edensor 2000 p. 100). Meanwhile guide books, or internet guides indicate the places walkers should visit. There has been a growth in managed trails and long-distance footpaths. In Northumberland in recent years long-distance trails have been created including Hadrian’s Wall, St Cuthbert’s Way, St Oswald’s Way, and in 2013 the

College Valley path in the Cheviots. The Lake District now has a number of clear, stony tracks gouged into the earth that have followed Wainwright’s walks. Efforts to

conserve the landscape have resulted in stone steps and flagstones being set into the ground where people are directed to walk.

This is not to imply that walking in the Pennines or the Lake District cannot be difficult. Given particular adverse weather conditions, these places can be lonely and dangerous for walkers. Mountain rescue teams are regularly called out to rescue those who are lost or injured. There is a tension between the way such areas are marketed as an area for tourists doing short walks, and specialist walkers who will go for longer and potentially more dangerous walks. For example, a family might go on a short walk to a waterfall by one of the lakes, and then take in tea and cakes in a nearby café before visiting a craft centre. A walker seeking “wild”, inaccessible and less popular landscapes would now probably look to the North of Scotland, the Cairngorms, or the Northern Pennines to find wilderness in Britain.

No longer is it enough to don a pair of stout boots, a woolly jumper and jacket to go walking. The present day walker is expected to know about latest waterproof gear, GPS (geographical positioning systems), or the right layers of clothing for different grades of walking. Walking in the countryside has become a specialised engagement with the landscape requiring and promoting its own uniform. Edensor has written of the “fetishizing” of boots and the “status-conscious” decisions about what gear to buy (Edensor 2000 pp. 98-99). Of course, such equipment can be practical and useful: on a

1818 _{Information from National Park Rangers on the Balmoral Estate on guided walk,}

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wet walk in the Cheviots one does not wish to have leaky boots, or a coat that is not made of breathable material. However, walkers have now a certain visual image or uniform and have become consumers of specialist gear.

As well as being an arena for recreation, the natural environment is consistently now promoted by government, and in particular in public health policy, as a space for health, becoming, as shown in the literature review, a “transactional zone” for public health to promote physical activity and mental wellbeing (Brown and Bell 2007). In this can be seen the legacy of the inter-war years’ focus on the countryside as an area for health, activity and wellbeing. Walking in the countryside is still promoted to improve mental and physical health but this has become much more medicalised in government policies. The value of nature and the natural world is conceived of in medical terms as “an

antidote” to ill health or de-stressor. Walking groups have engaged with this agenda. In 2011 The Ramblers took on responsibility for delivering Healthwalks for those who want to get fit in countryside and urban settings. Landscape for walking is here presented in terms of a “green gym” of the “Natural Health Service”19

, a pleasant space where individuals can exercise, rather than considering that they may have any deeper connection to specific places or landscapes.

Despite the campaigning and health policy interest, membership of the Ramblers has fallen over the past 10 years, although the numbers were steady at around 107,000 in November 201420 in their latest figures. Similarly, the YHA has been forced to sell off several of their Youth Hostels because they were no longer economically viable.

Whether this reflects a decrease in the number of walkers overall is difficult to gauge. It might be that the older organisations, such as Ramblers, which had their roots in

working class desire to escape from the cities are no longer appropriate to a younger demographic that has grown up enjoying the amenities a city can offer, such as bars, cinemas, museums, music venues and festivals. On the other hand, visitors to National Parks or the National Trust properties number in the millions and some of these will

19 _{Briefing statement from the Faculty of Public Health in association with Natural}

England http://www.fph.org.uk/uploads/bs_great_outdoors.pdf accessed March 2015

20 _{Minutes of the Board of Trustees meeting, November 2014, accessed February}

2015

http://www.ramblers.org.uk/about-us/how-we-are-run/about-the-board-of- trustees/board-of-trustees-published-minutes.aspx

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walk as part of their visits21. Different sorts of walking organisations are now available including specialist groups e.g. women only groups, health walk groups, under 30s groups. An internet search for walking groups in Northumberland alone in 2015 found a list of 36 walking groups22. These included Ramblers, University of the Third Age and Health walking groups, the Long Distance Walkers Association, the

Northumberland Railway Walks Society, and the Gay Outdoors Club. There were other guided walks organised locally by the National Parks and the National Trust. Walking in the countryside remains a popular activity.