We often get asked what to do if there is a problem with the path network, if it’s blocked, overgrown or there are crops on the footpath. Ian Mitchell, our area footpaths officer, has written this guide on what to do.
Reporting problems about Paths to Norfolk County Council
Norfolk Ramblers agreed at our area council meeting on Saturday 11 November to donate £300 to the North Walsham and Dilham Canal Trust.
The funding will be used by the trust to help pay for notice boards at the canal which will allow them to publicise the walks which are available in the area. The area is used by a number of Ramblers groups and the trust is keen to open up the canal area for use by the community.
Julian White, the Communications Officer for Norfolk Ramblers, said:
“We’re pleased to be able to donate this money to the North Walsham and Dilham Canal Trust in the knowledge that it will be used to help promote walks along the canal. Several of our groups, including Hike Norfolk, have run walks along the route and we fully support the trust’s efforts to restore the canal”.
We were pleased to have been able to arrange a Workshop at the Norfolk Record Office at the end of last month. The 18 people who attended were drawn from those who had registered an interest in researching paths to be claimed as rights of way before the infamous cut off for claims based on historical evidence on 1 January 2026.
The Workshop started with a brief introduction to the Record Office itself, but quickly moved to a slide show illustrating the types of records which might be most useful in our research. (That presentation is available on request from ken-hawkins@tiscali.co.uk.)
After responding to questions, and having further information added by our own Ian Mitchell, we were taken to the public searchroom and shown how to order original documents. We then went into one of the strongrooms (to which the public is not normally admitted) to see where the documents are stored, before returning to The Green Room, where a range of relevant documents had been laid out for inspection.
That process also provided opportunity for a lot of detailed questions and exchange of views between small groups of individuals.
Our thanks go to Gary Tuson and his staff at the NRO for providing this session, and in particular to the Education and Outreach Team (Victoria Draper, Kären Gaffney and Claire Bolster) who arranged the workshop, looked after us so well on the day, and also provided the photographs reproduced here.