The Battle for Broxhead Common
the bw gate half open. note position of the new field gate compared with previous gate posts to which the rails have now been attached
The Case for Hampshire County Council – PART 109
- About 50 yards further along from the ‘three ways’, where BW 4 forms a junction with BW47, there is another large field gate through which one must pass before BW4 continues along the headland of an open field. At least this one would swing but if you couldn’t keep hold of it, usually too far back. This meant it needed to be retrieved by turning the horse 1800 and pulling or pushing it shut depending on which side the approach was.
- Once through this gate, the path was a wide headland path across part of the unauthorised enclosure of the the 80 acres whereupon it reached another 5-foot metal field gate. This one was a terminator. Although only five foot wide it was yet another weighty iron monster that when opened, would drop off its catch. It meant that riders would inevitably have to dismount to open and close it, a heavy and painful task.
- We would have to wait until the 1992 Public Inquiry into the diversions or BW’s 4 and 46 for Brigadier D. A. Barker-Wyatt C.B.E. to leave instructions for a more modern replacement.
PI Feb 1992 Broxhead, Barker-Wyatt06072019 - What we could not understand was why the Hampshire County Council could not be more helpful with these rather basic rights of way problems and why it seemed as if whatever the purported landowner wanted, he got.
- That situation hadn’t changed in the intervening years until in 2007 when out riding one day, I found it was getting worse. To my concern this section of BW4 was being enclosed.
BW4 Broxhead Common
Next time: to be continued: