So, has this now happened?

There’s a new sign and bridleway marker at the east end of the drove, but I seem to remember hearing that the drove is split between 2 different local authorities?

Can we now legally ride from Kingswood to Shipham off road, which would be pretty amazing and finally join the Crook Peak area to the Cheddar section.

Don’t know this route but a drove road would likely have historical higher rights of access than by foot. This might have been behind the Definitive Map change you report and should apply on other sections too.

Thanks mrelectrc, the RoW issues of this particular path go back quite a way…

This order only refers to the western half…

http://www.n-somerset.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/CD41CBBB-122A-4C24-B478-1259B6B574CB/0/NoticeandOrderforWebsite.pdf

Just ride it.

I’ve only ridden it once out of the 100s of times I’ve ridden on the Mendips. I was unlucky enough to have an altercation with that mad woman who patrols it, to be honest, I’d rather know I was in the right if I met her again.

She’s crackers. She’ll still be crackers after reclassification.

She still got the damn Volvo ?

I just head straight up and over the hill next to the quarry. Its a fun descent down onto shipham road!! Itll be great if the drove has been upgraded though.

So, did I imagine the Bridleway sign, or has the drove been upgraded?

I received a letter several weeks ago confirming its been upgraded, since I gave evidence to the officers for the original assessment a couple of years ago. I don’t remember the details though. I’ll see if I can dig it up.

Well done, I thought the process was going to take much longer.

Sorry to sound dim, but does this mean that its been flattened / levelled, or is it just a status upgrade for legal reasons?

This is great news. Fair play to all those that got involved to sort this out.
I recall riding this trail with no problem, thinking drove road = No right of way issue.
Then around 2001 Volvo lady turned up. After a few run in with her I dug out a map and realised she was right it was a footpath, so I stopped riding it.
However I always thought it was a joke that it was a footpath and that this women was so obsessed about it. It’s not like it goes anywhere near what I assume is her house.

I was just thinking about this earlier and going to ask if it had been upgraded yet.

Finally, I’m looking forward to giving it a go later in the week 😀

Just to be clear, yes Winscombe Drove is now classed as a bridleway all the way to Lillypool Farm / Cafe, the reason the sign on the A38 end only notified the change to the half way point is that from there it switches from “North Somerset’, to ‘Somerset Proper’…
Emailed the parish, who contacted the N. Som Rights of Way Dept. for confirmation.
Not sure why the old thread was closed as it was obviously unresolved at the time?

The system automatically closes threads one year after creation. I suspect they get moved to a different database and it keeps editable threads to a sensible number in the main database for performance reasons

We’ll be riding the drove tomorrow 🙂