The Battle for Broxhead Common
BW54 MIDDLE
The Case for Hampshire County Council – PART 107
- The path from here through the woods is reasonably wide and pleasant if a little worn in the middle. Until 2007 there was no dead hedging or wire fences to either side. It was open woodland.
- It is the path which makes the link between the bridleways on the common to the C102 Picketts Hill. It had been downgraded to a footpath in the 1965 Quinquennial Review of the Definitive Map because, it is said, the Forestry Commission had objected to it passing their tree nursery as a bridleway.
- We eventually got it back after a pertinent decision by Planning Inspector D. T. Bryant for a Creation Order in 1997. It had taken more than twenty years!
- After a couple of hundred yards, it takes a sharp bend to the right. Water has eroded the path here, where it meets a section of the old highway to Lindford and FP3.
- From this point the path is wide and sandy with mossy sides but in 2007 they started fencing off the paths as can be seen in the pictures. Even the old highway to Lindford has not been spared. It has completely changed the feeling of open countryside.
- About 100 or so yards further along, the bridleway is obstructed by yet more gates. At this point they form a junction between the three bridleways numbered 54, 4, and 46, where they proved to be both unnecessary and difficult.
Broxhead 077
Broxhead 082
Next time: the next set of obstructions to the bridleway.