Parish: Flitton
ROW: FP11
Location: Hermitage Farm
Map ref: TL0441834035
One of the many wrongly recorded ROW which have been recorded at lower status.
User evidence: 2

Maps

Thomas, Jefferies Map 1765
Bryant, Andrew Map 1825
The Ordnance Survey (O.S one inch map) sheet 62 (Woburn & Aylesbury) 1834 edition
1904 Bacon Bedfordshire Map

It it important to use cartographers from different decades, to rule out just mere repetition.

Enclosure award and map Book: N: no8: One other private carriage road of width of thirty feet leading out of the Shefford & Dunstable Road in south westerly direction a long the south west side of an allotment to the Rev John Thomas. Near to the Hermitage and leading onto ancient land of Pulloxhill. - It is argued that the term public and private refer to maintenance responsibilities. This has never been tested in the courts.

The judge, Mr Justice Sedley, carried out an extensive examination of the proper construction of the phrase “private Carriage Road” in the 1820 Award and came to the conclusion that it was not used to mean a public carriage road. He concluded: “...throughout [the Award] the words ‘public’ and ‘private’ are used differentially and with evident care in a context suggestive of the defining of rights to use the road rather than of the characterisation of the road’s quality or status. All the indications are that ‘private carriage road’ is deliberately used in the Award as a term of art distinguishing the particular road according to the extent of the particular rights over it from the public carriage roads on which all subjects enjoyed an equal right of vehicular passage”.

The Ordnance Survey (O.S) 25 inch to one mile 1st edition of 1882 shows the route.

The Ordnance Survey (O.S) 25 inch to one mile 2nd edition of 1901 and the O.S 3rd edition 1903 show the route and is annotated "B.R" for bridle road.

Richard Oliver has this to say on the annotation B.R:

From 1883 onwards footpaths were shown by "F.P" the reason for ..F.P, being that the public may not mistake them for roads traversable by horses or wheeled traffic" (SC, 16:2:83)

From 1884 bridle roads were shown by 'B.R' (SC, 13:2:1884)

The date of these Southampton Circulars (SCs) giving instructions to the Ordnance Surveyors explains why there are no 'F.P' or 'B.R' annotations on the O.S maps prior to 1901.

An aerial photograph cannot, of course, be taken as evidence of what rights might exist over a route, only that a route might be discernible on the ground at the date the photograph was taken.

The OS maps are also evidence that a surveyor found the route and was actually usable in the way recorded. Thus there could not have been any obstructing stiles at the time of the survey, which is still the case today some hundred years later.

The courts have treated Ordnance Survey maps as not being evidence of the status of a way. For example, in: the case of Attorney-General v Antrobus [1905] 2 Ch 188 at 203, Farwell J stated in relation to an Ordnance map of 1874:

"Such maps are not evidence on questions of title, or questions whether a road is public or private, but they are prepared by officers appointed under the provisions of the Ordnance Survey Acts, and set out every track visible on the face of the ground, and are in my opinion admissible on the question whether or not there was in fact a visible track at the time of the survey".

Finance Act 1910
The 1910 Finance Act provided for the levying of a tax upon the incremental value on land. The tax was to be paid every time the land changed hands. Owners would have been concerned to ensure that public highways and rights of way were correctly recorded. The existence of such a way reduced the value of the land. The fact that it was carried out under statutory authority, and that there were criminal sanctions associated with falsification of evidence, means that the authenticity or legal validity of the resulting plans and records is particularly credible.

Deduction for F.P only... no mention of the Public Bridleway. There are many farms in Bedfordshire which are besides what are now 'A roads' again there is no mention of the Road.

The 1925 Rating Valuation records show that at this time a B.J Burton was the owner and occupier of Hermitage Farm.

REMARKS: Market Luton 10 miles Station Flitwick 2 Miles Saw Mr Burton Snr, said was very short of water in summer, ground very wet and heavy"

Batholomews Revised "Half-inch map" Contoured maps of Hertfordshire sheet 25 1931 edition depicted the route as a Inferior road. Current evidence indicates that Bartholomews were highly regarded as map producers, however they don't appear to have assessed the legal status of roads on their maps prior to publication.

Access to the Countryside Act 1949
R.O.W: FP
Date of walking: Aug 1958
S.B.7 starts at the S.E end of U.C.329(5) near to Hermitage Farm building in a south easterly direction along a farm track to join S.B.3

Provisional Edition of 1963 and the modify draft all show the route as B.R, in 1964 the symbols B.R were removed.

Conclusion
Clearly some more research is required to add weight to the path modification. I believe this public bridle road has been around for hundreds for years there must be some document that makes a reference to this as a bridle road.