It’s been a few years since I’ve ridden there properly and I remember that there was some argy-bargy about where you can and can’t ride (or rather should and shouldn’t) in and around Cranham Woods and there’s been a kind of voluntary access agreement thing in place as per the map below (taken from the Bigfoot MTB site):

This doesn’t show the areas further up towards Birdlip though, like Racetrack and the stuff that used to be across the road from Racetrack that pops out at the Sawmill

Last weekend we rode Racetrack (it was ace, obvs), but when I went to remind myself where the stuff across the road was (from memory, about half way down Racetrack you pop onto the road, ride c.200yds back up and then into the trees on the other side) there were a number of rudimentary signs painted on the tress indicating no biking.

Is this part of any ‘agreement’ or just a disgruntled local? If it’s the latter, can the signs be ignored or is that just liable to inflame any issues further?

This is primo disgruntled owner territory, aka ‘the shrine’. In short it’s off the agreement…

Ah, okay, I did wonder. So riding there is A Bad Thing?

Indeed, it’s better to avoid the area. They’ve cleared The Shrine of trees so they’re paying more attention to the management of that part of the woods…

Alright, good to know. Cheers chaps.

People are still riding it a lot the difference now is as said above the shrine mound has been cleared of trees and they have been used to block around the mound.There is some new tracks of the racetrack which have been built now that run down to the Cotswold way they are pretty steep not made by locals and could soon be causing a problem there are about 4 tracks I think they have been made by people from Swindon!!.