A place of tall tales and tranquility

We were amid the splendid and rugged landscape of Wasdale in the western lakes, not forgetting, of course, the wonderful and somewhat eerie Wastwater, which reclines so peacefully at the foot of these hills.

One place of refuge is the renowned Wasdale Head Hotel, famed for hosting its "Biggest Liar in the World" contest, but this small and very impressive corner of England has other claims to fame.

Apart from being home to the biggest liar in the world, it contains the highest mountain in England (Scafell Pike), the deepest lake in England (Wastwater) and the smallest church (the church of St Olaf in Wasdale Head).

But, I ask myself, is this smaller than Upleatham, featured recently in this column?

We had a look inside the 400-year-old St Olaf's and it is exquisite, even if its tiny graveyard is full of casualties who have died on the surrounding mountains.

The origin of the "Biggest Liar" contest dates to a 19th century landlord called Will Ritson (1808-1890), who would regale visitors with utterly false stories about local life, but he told them in such a convincing way that many believed him. There is still a Ritson's Bar in the hotel which serves as his memorial.

One of his favourites yarns was that the turnips in Wasdale were so large they had to be quarried rather than just dug out of the ground, and when the family had eaten their fill, the remaining shell was used as a shelter for the Herdwick sheep.

The modern contest to find the biggest liar in the world was started in 1974 by Copeland Borough Council and it is said that a local bishop objected to this on the grounds that it encouraged people to be untruthful.

He added that he had never told a lie in his life - and was promptly awarded first prize.

Wastwater is impressive because it is not commercialised - there are no ice-cream kiosks, deck chair sellers, cafes, amusement arcades, hotels or houses along its shores. It is a true haven of peace after visiting Windermere or Derwentwater.

There are no boats either, except for a single craft kept for rescue purposes, and the only boating which is permitted here is canoeing under tuition.

Diving is permitted, however, and when we were there, we encountered a band of some 20 divers under professional tuiton. As this deep lake has been known to produce murdered human bodies, I hoped their quiet exercises would be less eventful. Certainly we did not find any corpses on our land-based trek!

With such an assorted gathering of countryside experts on that outing, with some rural professionals among them, I took the opportunity to mention some of the comments raised by my recent references to the mis-use of public footpaths.

I referred to one letter published in this paper's correspondence column of July 19 in which the writer thought I had never used a public footpath.

He thought I might educate myself if I did! As I have been using public footpaths for more than 60 years, and as I left school at 16 (having walked five miles to school and back each day on footpaths) I have learned a little from the experience.

In further response to his letter, I might add that my only use of the NHS in the last 40 years or more has been to obtain good health certificates for my life insurance. So yes, Mr Wise, I do agree that walking is healthy and educational.

Mr Wise seems to forget that motorists pay to use public highways - this began as the Road Fund Tax, supposedly levied on road users to build and maintain our highways, but no similar fund exists to fund our public footpaths, and it may be that this is the cause of much ongoing antagonism.

With New Labour's ability to find ways of raising new taxes, both by stealth and openly, I am sure such a scheme is not beyond the capacity of their advisers. And I, for one, as a long-term user of public footpaths, would welcome it.

As things stand, funding for the maintenance of public footpaths seems to be very haphazard, with much of it coming from those who do not use the paths - and that includes landowners themselves.

In the past, landowners and villagers made good use of such paths; today, they are more geared towards tourism, with the landowners, councils or others having to find the time and money for maintenance. And foot-based tourism of this kind is vital to the rural economy, therefore our footpaths are important.

There needs to be some kind of overall strategy for their future with further clarification of their purpose, their funding and their use, with more than a little common sense and rationale being applied in some cases.

Among the correspondence generated by this topic was a very level-headed, calm and informative letter from Andy Brown of Staindrop, who runs a small business specialising in landscape conservation.

He creates and manages woodland, lays hedges, builds fences, arranges pathwork, stiles and gates and undertakes a host of other tasks as well as acting in an advisory capacity.

Much of his work for Durham County Council and local parish councils involves footpaths and he tells me that Durham County Council has a footpaths partnership scheme with parish councils, which allows parish councils access to funds so that local contractors like Mr Brown can be called in to effect repairs and maintenance as required.

As all this is done at local level, any ongoing problems can be amicably dealt with on the spot and, he adds, this system is also more cost effective than it would be if administered from County Hall. It sounds a good idea.

Another sound idea proposed by Mr Brown is some kind of subsidy paid to landowners and farmers specifically for the upkeep of public footpaths through their land.

He does stress, however, that the path itself is not owned by the landowner, but such a payment would reflect the inconvenience of the path's existence. (And only this morning, I've heard of a householder complaining of hikers pressing their faces against his windows to peer into his house and then standing outside discussing his furniture and what he's having for breakfast. He says it's like living in a zoo. This, in my view, is mis-use of a public footpath. It's sheer rudeness too.)

Mr Brown then moves on to the vexed question of walkers trampling down crops on rights of way, and accepts this is an area of considerable difficulty.

Legally, he tells me, a public right of way is owned by the local authority to a depth of four inches and a width of about six feet. Just as it would be illegal for a landowner to take up a macadamed highway in order to jointly cultivate fields at both sides, so it is illegal to cultivate a public footpath.

Legally, a farmer would be guilty of criminal damage to the surface of the path if he ploughed it and seeded it with an arable crop (grass is not a crop for legal purposes), but common sense prevails.

Realising it may be difficult to avoid such damage while ploughing, farmers are allowed two weeks to reinstate the path. Rolling the line of the path, or mowing the growing crop, are means of reinstatement, but it seems the public has a right to trample crops which grow on the surface of the path - provided they keep within the boundaries of the path. Walking ten abreast is clearly not acceptable.

My correspondent's letter deals with various problems, but it gave our party on the slopes of Great Gable plenty of material for discussion.

It was widely agreed that footpaths, properly maintained, are of increasing importance to the rural economy as more farmers diversify into bed and breakfast, shops, camp sites and other amenities.

A wise and workable policy for funding the paths has to be agreed, while local dialogue between landowners and footpath users is vital.

I was surprised to hear concern at the increasingly militant attitude of the Ramblers' Association, one man feeling it did more harm than good. Some felt the Right to Roam proposals were ill considered, bearing in mind conservation of wildlife in all its forms, but we all agreed that public footpaths are the arteries of the countryside, increasingly vital to the rural economy. All we want is people to use them with responsibility and respect