and the relevance/point of knowing the names of inbred cheltenham’s average is what exactly?

😛

Hey Jo is a nice girl, and blessed if you know what I mean.

Dimmandan you from Whiteway?

Bit of an update.
We are meeting NE (and the land agent representing the landowner of Buckholt Wood) this Friday (23rd). The site meeting we had last week went pretty well and we felt that we made progress in terms of getting more tracks to be considered. A bit frustrated that they seem to insist we should “sacrifice” some though. Seems spiteful to me personally. And they seem insistant on some form of written and signed agreement. However we go into this week more optimistic than last week for sure. Easter is fast approaching and they will be made aware that our time will be up by then. Roger.

Rog – not sure if they have been already or not, but is it worth getting some of the FOLK guys (Thinking Julius perhaps) to speak to NE et al, to explain the impact we have on a place like Lecky and how the agreement works which we have there?

Aftershock, no I am not a Whiteway boy, just know Viv and the family.

Roger, looks liek the woods have seen increased wheel action over the last week or so. Shrine, TheOneWhoWaits, Racetrack and the wall all have nice and fresh tyre tracks on.

FOLK have sent a summary of how MTBing is managed on Leckhampton Hill to NE. Julius is a great help to us.
HEADS UP……
There will be a Natural England arranged work party carrying out work in Buckle / Buckholt woods this weekend. We really could do without a NE / MTB encounter at this time. Give it a wide berth and spread the word.

Another meet with NE / land agent on Friday afternoon. We will know for sure this time what the potential for long term agreement is. We hope the walk of some of the tracks with them last week will have made a difference. Lock ‘n’ load…

Another meeting was held on Friday with the Natural England representative and the agent representing the land owner of Buckholt Woods. We fed back the outcome of discussions at the Royal William rider meeting earlier in the month and a revised proposal was offered to us.

We left this meeting today with the view that we now have a workable agreement to move forward with into this year and beyond. A formal statement will be issued by Cheltenham & County CC and Bigfoot MBC shortly giving more details on agreed routes and ongoing liaison with NE and the land owner. Once we have issued this statement we anticipate riders may have some questions and we can address these then.

Please can you continue to support the call to stay away from Buckholt Wood until Easter while we continue to work on getting the agreement in place as we do not want to jeopardise the good progress we have made so far. Once again your patience and support is really appreciated. Thank you.

Cheers Roger and the team.

WE HAVE AN AGREEMENT…
Last Friday (March 23rd) representatives from Cheltenham & County CC and Bigfoot MBC reached what we considered as a workable riding agreement with Natural England and the forestry manager (representing the landowner) for accessing Buckholt Wood. Included within this agreement is a code of conduct that we request all riders that access this woodland to respect and abide by. See extracts below. The agreement is not a formal signed document but a statement of how the riding community will conduct itself.

Our code of conduct
We have agreed to promote some simple but important rules that riders should make themselves aware of:
• Please be considerate towards other trail users – slow down near walkers, dogs, horses etc, let them know you are there and pass them carefully. This includes trails considered as singletrack – cyclists do not have exclusive use of any trail
• Please do not build new trails, jumps or other constructions, dig berms, cut down trees or remove branches.
• If there is a problem with a trail please get in touch with Roger Smith corrective@blueyonder.co.uk so it can be resolved through Natural England and the forestry manager
• Cycling on the trails is with the landowner’s permission, this does not imply any right of way
• Cycling is not allowed on the permissive horseways in Buckholt Wood – these are not bridleways with associated rights of way
• Trails in Buckle Wood and Cranham Wood are not covered by this agreement

Other aspects
• We intend to review this agreement after a period of time – at this point we can assess how it’s working and whether any changes are needed.
• We will continue to use the lines of communication established between the cycling community, Natural England and the forestry manager to resolve problems or make changes. This might include:
– Where seasonal or temporary variations need to be made, for example during forestry operations
– Where the precise route of a trail needs to be modified
• We agreed it would be good to give something back to the woodlands we ride in – we intend to help Natural England with their volunteer working parties in Buckholt Wood through the winter months (say monthly or every two months, October to March)
• All CC-CC and Bigfoot members taking part in organised club rides will have third party insurance (provided by CTC or equivalent)

BUCKLE AND CRANHAM WOOD
Please be aware that Buckle and Cranham Woods (owned by Mr and Mrs Tyson) are NOT in this agreement. Tracks in these woods include The Shrine, Spooky Wood etc. CC-CC and BMBC will not be taking official club organised rides through these areas and we urge riders to respect the landowners wishes. If we can engage in access negotiations with them we of course will pursue this but we cannot make any promises on getting a similar agreement in place soon.

Since the rider consultation meeting at the Royal William on March 8th and a walk of some of the trails a week later, we did get NE to make some compromises to their original agreement proposals. “Teachers” is now within the agreement, as well as the trail that runs parallel to the small stream at the bottom of it. Additionally it was agreed that we did not need anyone to SIGN an “Access Agreement”.

The trail known to some as “Bunny Run” we tried hard to get but on this occasion it didn’t happen. There is a wider track near to Bunny Run that we have agreement to ride and we will be leaving it to NE to clearly mark this route up so there is no confusion. We hope in time after the landowner gains confidence with our partnership we could approach this again.

WHEN CAN WE RIDE IN BUCKHOLT WOOD???
As from Good Friday (April 6th) riders may access the tracks identified in the agreement.

This is just the start of our partnership with the landowner of Buckholt Wood and so we will continue to keep as many local riders informed as possible about issues in this and neighbouring woods. Please take our requests seriously and prove to NE that we are a responsible user group in this woodland. And of course thank you all again for your support in this whole process since it started in October last year.
Cheers, and enjoy.
Roger Smith
Mike Purnell
Graham Foot

Roger, I only get down to see my parents now and again (they live in Whiteway) when I do I like to bring my bike and ride in these woods as its easy access from there house. Problem is I have no idea of the names of the tracks I ride, does any one have a GPS map (or similar) marked up showing the areas we are allowed to ride so as I don’t go somewhere that has been agreed off limits?

Thanks

Shaun

Shaun
follow the links here cc-cc

Shaun.
We have requested that the names local riders use are added to the map that Natural England have produced for us. It is their map and we cannot customise it ourselves. The current maps will be on http://www.cc-cc.co.uk quite soon, as well as on Bigfoot MBCs website no doubt as well.

Thanks.

What are you calling the BunnyRun not the track that goes to the field where they have tents in?Is the track down to Cranham Corner still ok by the road Junctions.

So what we have is Racetrack/Wall/.Track down over the planks is that out?.

Oh pope woods DH i shall miss you 🙁

good work with the agreement though all 😀

Is Popes wood out then?

Oh pope woods DH i shall miss you

I don’t think the downhill tracks to the NW of the hill top are included in the area covered by this agreement – doesn’t look like it on the maps anyway 🙂

The agreement only covers the central section of the woods, Popes wood, the Shrine area, the Race track, all these are not in the area.

Coopers hill isn’t covered either, although bikes were banned anyway from most of it.

Excellent work by Roger et al. Well done guys, just goes to show what a mature, responsible and open approach can achieve.

I, indeed we, owe you a pint.

MRMO,

MRMO,

any idea on the areas of coopers hill, as i ride from top of the wall back to the roman villa to get back home on a ride…it’d help if i know where to avoid!

V666ern, technically all of it. There are signs if you come up fiddlers elbow in the car park telling you no bikes. But if your coming from the wall you don’t pass any signs….

There is a bridleway that goes from the villa, and meets the road/track but that is about it as far as i seem to remember.

(the rules and where i ride may or may not match)

cheers mrmo, ill keep an eye out!

Coopers Hill has always been a No-No got hell of a bollocking there in 1995.Hay-Ho.Doesnt look great for Cranham.Least the FOD isnt to far away.

Thats quite p00 as i now live it witcombe, and my little forays through coopers hill were rather pleasant

drat and blasts, the road it shall be then!

So quick question folks, on the map which way do you ride teachers…is it top to bottom (on the map towards cranham)

usually my route is left to right main trail, down the wall then onto painswick so reversing the route coming back down teachers then left to right back up the map from cranham back to the road – does that make sense / is correct – never rode teachers! 🙄

Yes teachers is top to bottom.But is now of limits.Its the one Jim liked the best to put branches over and break tree branches so he could fold over the track at head hight nice man.Bloody dangerous if you are nightriding.

Teachers is OK to ride.

Cheers BW at the meeting they said NE said at the end of teachers was a SSi.Just read above.Thats good.Love the jump at the end.Jim wont be pleased.
V666ern not easy to see the start of teachers but once you are on it its very obvious.Near the end there is abit of a fork with a jump so be carefull to see that not big.You can go either side.One of the best in Cranham and one of the longest.

Sorry for not checking the forum for a few days. There should be a new agreement map going up on http://www.cc-cc.co.uk/content/?PageName=Mountain%20Biking very soon that has some names on it that might help some. It has been sent to all our contacts and local bike retailers. NE will be marking our route up in a similar fashion (we believe) to the horse routes, ie some form of stenciling on trees. Not sure when they are getting this sorted, might be now or weeks to come. In the meantime as the weekend (Good Friday included) is fast approaching, any questions I might be able to answer for you??

Nice ride this morning checking out the allowed trails with Rog. Good to be back on the Wall and Teachers. 🙂

Well, after five months I sure have missed riding here!!! First proper MTB ride out for my two lads as well so a great morning indeed. All seemed OK out there, no trail blockage issues anyway. I was pleasantly surprised with the trail we have been given in the SW corner of the Wood. OK not tight twisty technical type stuff but narrow and undulating in places. Better than nothing for sure. I know CC-CC and Bigfoot will be passing through Saturday AM and we will be both considering some form of group splits if we have large attendances. Although we have agreement to ride the trails we do want to try and promote some informal dispersal of riders if we can, but that is for our clubs to try and manage. Happy Easter everyone!!!

Cheers roger,
Got two runs of the wall in during my Twins nap time ride. 🙂
The climb up from buckholt road hasn’t got any easier though

Now that we have got an arrangement with the landowner to ride Buckholt Wood it occurred to me that there may be some other users of the wood that are unaware of this. In time there will be some markings indicating where cycling is allowed but I doubt if these will be in great abundance. I’d like to recommend that regular riders of the wood print off a copy of the map showing the agreed trails and keep a copy with them as proof of our agreement. It may sound a bit over the top but if we can minimise any arguments on the trail then that has got to be a good thing. Not that anyone in the past has ever confronted me but I guess there may well be individuals opposed to what we are doing.
Go to the following link and the go to the bottom of the page: http://www.cc-cc.co.uk/content/?PageName=Mountain%20Biking

I am in the process of printing and laminating some mini versions of the map that will easily fit in my back pack. I will hand these out to CC-CC members as and when they request one.

The weather hasn’t been great since we were allowed back in but if anyone has any useful feedback that they think is relevant, or questions, please let me know.

Cheers, Roger.

would it be worth pinning some up at the start of trails to show trail users / walkers etc that were allowed to be there…just temporary before the signage goes up

i can help spray some trees one evening with you and can make some templates if you like?

can we do a no entry sign with jim bowen in it?! 😆

We could get all Banksy on it 🙂

Might not be a good idea that if you get walkers who are anti MTBikes!Doing the Wall/teachers/racetrack when do you ever see walkers?.
Teachers needs using to get some of those leaves flatten down.All the trails were in good nick Good Friday.They have fell alot more in Popes Wood.All fine there to.Did see quite a few people out.
Plenty still using the Shrine 🙄

Popes Wood is no go for us bar the section of The Cotswold Way leading to Painswick Beacon. Sorry.

Is it going to be discussed with NE at any point?

Popes Wood is no go for us bar the section of The Cotswold Way leading to Painswick Beacon

Not quite sure I understand – there’s public Bridleways through Popes Wood to the north of Kites Hill all the way to the far end by the main road.

The Cotswold way isn’t a Bridleway.

Or are you saying that this section of Popes wood doesn’t come under this agreement as its not part of the Cotswold Commons Reserve etc anyway?

Interested, as I have a route I like doing from Randwick car park in Standish to the far end of Buckle wood and back, using Popes wood each way.

Cheers

st george do you have a route, id like to be able to do that to randwick then back!