Monthly Archives: August 2014

The Double Dart picnic

Posted on 29/08/2014 by campaignerkate

Forty years ago today, on 29 August 1974, I joined the Sayer family for the first of many idyllic family excursions.  This was a picnic on the Double Dart (ie the East and West Dart Rivers combined) below Dartmeet, Dartmoor, and the details … Continue reading →

Posted in Dartmoor | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Barbara MacDonald, my feisty friend

Posted on 28/08/2014 by campaignerkate

Today my feisty friend Barbara MacDonald (1912-2002) would have been 102 years old. She fought for Dartmoor’s livestock and landscape, she loved to burst the pompous bureaucratic balloon, and she was a straight talker with a great sense of fun.  I wrote … Continue reading →

Posted in Access, Dartmoor, Dartmoor livestock, wild country | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Live and let live—but not on the bridleway

Posted on 27/08/2014 by campaignerkate

The former Live and Let Live pub on the edge of Booker Common, west of High Wycombe in Bucks, has been extended and converted into a private house, with planning permission for two houses on the adjacent land, which was the pub … Continue reading →

Posted in Access, Bucks, common land, Obstructed path, Public paths | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

England’s coastal access underplayed

Posted on 26/08/2014 by campaignerkate

The Guardian‘s Travel section ran a feature on Saturday 23 August about coastal access in England.  Only it wasn’t about coastal access, it kept referring to the ‘coastal path’.  The standfirst was: ‘Following Wales’s lead, England is opening a national … Continue reading →

Posted in Access, Coastal access, walking | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Growing from the landscape

Posted on 25/08/2014 by campaignerkate

One of the many features which Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) and Henry Moore (1898-1986) share is the way their figures grow out of the landscape. Compton Verney in Warwickshire is a lovely setting for these sculptures.   Its Moore Rodin show is on … Continue reading →

Posted in Art | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

White Cliffs Walking Festival

Posted on 24/08/2014 by campaignerkate

                                …the cliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. So wrote Matthew Arnold in Dover Beach and so they stood last Thursday … Continue reading →

Posted in Access, Coastal access, National trail, Public paths, Ramblers, Walkers Are Welcome Towns, walking | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

A Wiltshire model

Posted on 20/08/2014 by campaignerkate

I might have gone whizzing through the village of Coombe Bissett in Wiltshire last week had I not spotted an enticing sign for coffee at the local shop.  I was on my way to Martin Down a few miles on, … Continue reading →

Posted in Access, Public paths, walking | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

A walk for Joan of Wight

Posted on 14/08/2014 by campaignerkate

Rookley is a small village in the centre of the Isle of Wight.  It is not a tourist hub but it’s a special place for the Isle of Wight Ramblers. Here for many years lived the late Joan Deacon (1936-2012). … Continue reading →

Posted in Access, campaigns, Coastal access, Ramblers, walking | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Kites versus flights

Posted on 13/08/2014 by campaignerkate

We were on top of Ivinghoe Beacon, the eastern outpost of the main Chiltern escarpment in Bucks, on a glorious summer’s afternoon last month.  The boys, grandsons of my partner Chris who were visiting from Australia, got out their small … Continue reading →

Posted in Access, AONB, Bucks, Chilterns, National Trust | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Grouse grouse

Posted on 12/08/2014 by campaignerkate

There’s nothing new about grouse-moor controversy.  This year it’s about the threat of hen harrier persecution by game keepers.  A quarter of a century ago it was about common-land legislation. Twenty-five years ago today, the Open Spaces Society arranged for a … Continue reading →

Posted in Access, Birds, campaigns, common land, Open Spaces Society, parliament, walking | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment