Kate Ashbrook: 'walkers dicing with death'

The former chairman of the Ramblers joined walkers pressing for a ‘secret path’ to be added to a long-distance route.

Kate Ashbrook was one of more than 60 ramblers who gathered at Barnwell Country Park in Northamptonshire yesterday to make the case for a section of path to be added to the official Nene Way, which runs from western Northamptonshire to Lincolnshire.

The group also included the Ramblers’ director of campaigns and policy Keith Roberts. The walkers want Northamptonshire County Council to add the missing link to the map of official rights of way. The route, through Lilford village, cuts out miles of dangerous walking along busy roads which presently form part of the Nene Way.

Northants Ramblers at the start of the ‘missing link’ at the entrance to Lilford Village

Northants Ramblers submitted a claim to the county council in 2009 to restore the link, but the authority said it will take at least three years to investigate the matter.

Ms Ashbrook said: “Having experienced for myself the danger of this section of the Nene Way I realise how crucial it is that Northants County Council now gives top priority to this application.

“The council invites people to walk the Nene Way, but walkers dice with death when walking alongside the roads and at the crossings. We urgently need the claimed path to be incorporated into the Nene Way before there is a disaster.”

The disputed section leads from the village of Barnwell, south of Oundle, on a route overlooking the River Nene and the Grade I Jacobean Lilford Hall.

The Nene Way starts at Badby, south of Daventry in Northamptonshire and ends 177km (110 miles) later at Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire, close to where the River Nene flows into The Wash.