Oxford "Old Road" from Wheatley to Shotover

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AndyB
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Re: Oxford "Old Road" from Wheatley to Shotover

Post by AndyB »

To be clear, we are extremely interested in historic routes. We're nerdish like that.

In terms of how you address it, all you have to go on are the provisions of Part 6 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006, particularly s.67(2). You can write to the council, but if they decide to leave its status as a restricted byway, all you have left is judicial review, and there is no guarantee you will win that.

Truthfully, because the terms require use by mechanically propelled vehicles, you will probably have considerable trouble proving use by or construction for them. Horse-drawn vehicles are not mechanically propelled.
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c2R
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Re: Oxford "Old Road" from Wheatley to Shotover

Post by c2R »

We're also interested in Old Road, even if it isn't actually a Byway open to all traffic - it's clear that it was a historically important route. However, even if there was a a clerical error that hadn't been made, it's likely that at some point it would have had a TRO put on it to prevent through traffic, or perhaps been stopped up, or any other such numerous ways of preventing its use for current vehicles.

I therefore don't see what would be gained by either trying to correct an error made 130 years ago, or altering the current record - we can just record the evidence of what we know, and the dispute in the historical status; but what isn't in dispute now is the current status of Old Road.
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Berk
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Re: Oxford "Old Road" from Wheatley to Shotover

Post by Berk »

Well yes, I mean even though it’s not meant for use by modern motor traffic, the lack of barriers and so on means you’re free to do just that and drive all the way up and down.

Far more tracks have bollards and chicanes across them preventing access. So the ‘clerical error’ may be working on your favour. :wink:
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Richard_Fairhurst
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Re: Oxford "Old Road" from Wheatley to Shotover

Post by Richard_Fairhurst »

Berk wrote: Thu May 16, 2019 22:29 Well yes, I mean even though it’s not meant for use by modern motor traffic, the lack of barriers and so on means you’re free to do just that and drive all the way up and down.
If you want to get prosecuted, sure...
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KeithW
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Re: Oxford "Old Road" from Wheatley to Shotover

Post by KeithW »

Richard_Fairhurst wrote: Fri May 17, 2019 10:57 If you want to get prosecuted, sure...
If there are no signs on the ground to indicate that its closed to motor vehicles no prosecution is likely to be brought or succeed if it was. Classification and mapping is one thing and enforcement is another.
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Jonathan B4027
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Re: Oxford "Old Road" from Wheatley to Shotover

Post by Jonathan B4027 »

Never ever been any signs at the Wheatley end and no one will stop you driving across.
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Richard_Fairhurst
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Re: Oxford "Old Road" from Wheatley to Shotover

Post by Richard_Fairhurst »

There's no explicit "thou shalt not"s, but there is a T at the junction in Littleworth, and a Restricted Byway sign at the start of the Restricted Byway. One would hope the observant driver would... ha, ha, who am I kidding.
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ajuk
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Re: Oxford "Old Road" from Wheatley to Shotover

Post by ajuk »

Is this a road that was once part of the historic route from Oxford to London?
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JammyDodge
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Re: Oxford "Old Road" from Wheatley to Shotover

Post by JammyDodge »

ajuk wrote: Tue Apr 13, 2021 02:29 Is this a road that was once part of the historic route from Oxford to London?
I think it is.
On another note,
I found this map from between 1780s and 1803, which seems to suggest the main route for London to Oxford was via Windsor and Watlington rather than through Wheatley on the old road, although I suspect this was because their main cartographer was from Bern, Switzerland
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KeithW
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Re: Oxford "Old Road" from Wheatley to Shotover

Post by KeithW »

It seems Old Road was bypassed when the Turnpike Road (now the A40 route) was built in 1788 as London Road. Old Road takes you over Shotover Hill. This was fine for riders on horseback and pack horses but unsuitable for horse drawn wagons and stagecoaches.
http://www.turnpikes.org.uk/rutv8%20Oxford%20turnpike%20Roads.htm wrote: 8.6 3.2 The New Road through Headington
The renewal Act of 1788 included some radical changes to the turnpike route. From Wheatley the old road climbed the ridge up to Shotover Plain and then descended the steep path to Cheney Lane (Figure 8.8). The gradient on these hills put a severe strain on horses and passengers. Wood recorded that in 1689 Mathew Slade, a Dutch doctor, died in a stage coach "occasioned by his violent motion going up Shotover Hill on foot". The number of horses drawing a coach on any highway was normally restricted to prevent heavy loads being dragged along the road but in 1768 the trustees allowed up to 10 horses to be used on vehicles from "the post to the 51st milestone at the top of Shotover Hill". (vehicles ascending Littleworth, Stowood and Wood Eaton Hills were granted similar concessions).
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andrewwoods
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Re: Oxford "Old Road" from Wheatley to Shotover

Post by andrewwoods »

When it was a 'proper' byway in the 1980s, rather than the restricted byway it is now, I did sometimes drive to work that way - through Wheatley, up onto Shotover and down into Horspath.

This was in my old Landrover.
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Re: Oxford "Old Road" from Wheatley to Shotover

Post by KeithW »

Which takes back to almost the beginning of this thread.

A duty was laid on councils to review all byways in 2008 see
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=40265#p1051251
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