…which has a ‘stock grazing, please close the gate’ sign on it, do you
A) close it as per the sign, or
B) leave it open as per the countryside code of ‘leave all gates as you find them’?

Just interested in the consensus after seeing a debate on that there twitter. Me and hora rode past the gate in question this afternoon and it was shut, incidentally.

I’d shut it.

What you going to do. It’s a gate. Gates are meant to be shut.

C) wipe it off of course

I’d have closed it and taken a picture of the sign as proof if what I’d done and why.

The owner, farmer, who put the sign there has to take responsibility even if they had forgotten to remove the sign.

If it is just open and flapping about, I’d close it. if propped open, leave it open.

The sign’s a Peak District National Park one, screwed to the fence post.

Leave it as you find it.

Left it as it was as per the cc, the farmer may be happy for the livestock to pass between the two fields.

Jamie – Member
I’d shut it.

Whoa there Rambo. The lad only asked!

If it were the gate half way down the beast…?

shut it of course – common sense

Leave as was

Whoa there Rambo. The lad only asked!

Shaaaat it!

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnNrwmk2RIk[/video]

That one, I’d shut. Others I’d exercise my own judgement as to whether or not it was intended to be open.

The propped open answer was a good one.

Look around – what is the gate between? A field and a road? Probably best shut, similarly a grass field and one with standing crops, ploughed or with long grass.

Between two grazed fields, probably best left.

What you going to do. It’s a gate. Gates are meant to be shut.

Only if it was onto a road and livestock could get onto road.
Gate between fields or farm, no the farmer would regularly want and need livestock to access more grazing or water supply or shelter.
Generally, leave as you find.

If there’s a sign saying to close it then do so. Otherwise, leave it as you find it. Why assume that the farmer/landowner is so thick as to not cover up or remove a sign that’s wrong?

I’d assume local signs overrule general advice.

If it were the gate half way down the beast…?

Leave it.

Then push back up and smash out a Strava PB!

Only time gates are left open on the Quantocks is to round up/ count they ponies.
I’d shut it otherwise.

Shut it!

You shut it!

If in doubt that is. A shut gate may cause a bit of an inconvenience, whereas an open one can lead to a whole heap of trouble.

If in doubt, I’d shut it. Based on the rationale that the consequences of an incorrectly closed gate would be less bad than an incorrectly open gate.

So if a farmer has to keep re-opening a gate he’d left open to drive through in his tractor repeatedly during the day he’d probably be annoyed.

If all his sheep escaped and got run over I guess he’d be outraged.

Cos I work in a prison I’d shut it. You never get your arse kicked for shutting a gate & It’s easier to shut/lock it than explain why you didn’t.

If all his sheep escaped and got run over and run off over hundreds of acres of hillside that he spent an hour gathering them in from to herd them down the track to the lower pastures,I guess he’d be outraged.

Ftfy

As a farmer…….. SHUT THE GATE. I know we have been told for years to leave it as you found it. That was OK when there were only a few people out walking. Nowadays the numbers we get are staggering. It is nothing to see a coach load of ramblers out. Being such socially minded sorts the first will prop the gate open for the rest, they being strung out for miles, The last will find it open and leave it so, assuming it was open all along. I waste an average of about 5 days a year sorting out sheep that have mixed or escaped. Luckily my gates don’t tend to go to open hill or to a main road (though the potential is there for both). You cannot imagine how angry it would make a farmer to have to get sheep back off the open mountain if they are not meant to be there. IF the farmer wanted that gate left open in such a busy area on such a popular path I can GUARANTEE, 100% that he will have made it clear by tying it open with 6 miles of string or sticking up a big hand painted sign saying “please don’t close the gate”. If he really wants it open then there is a very good reason (gathering stock or some other ground) and he really does not want the risk of someone shutting it in the meantime.

If you find and open gate on a path and close it when it should be left open, I will be mildly annoyed but it will not be the end of the world.

If you prop a gate open and then fail to close it afterwards I will be like Liam Neeson in “Taken”… I will find you, and I will kill you lol

I think the ‘well it was open’ brigade see it as a easy cop out (hey I don’t have to get off my bike now/not my problem).

I don’t see why “groups” prop gates open for the rest, then carry on. If you’re fit/fast enough to get there first, hold the gate, count your group through, close the gate, then use your god like riding or walking skills to make your way back to the front ready for the next gate.

Way back when, I used to leave them as I found them. Now with so many people in the great outdoors who just don’t seem to “get it” (you know, the ones who look miserable as sin), I’m erring on the side of close it anyway.

If there’s a blatant sign asking me to close it, it’s a no brainer. Most places we ride are actually a workplace for someone else. I hate it when some pillock has been messing about with my work space.

Am I just getting old or are people now incapable of sparing a thought about anyone else at all?

Oh OK then….

Use a bit of judgement and common sense?

That one on the Beast I’d definately shut as it’s sepeprating pasture from the woods. And there’s slim to no chance the farmer is working/driving on the track, why would they, it’d be nearly impossible to get up on a ‘farming’ quad, and there’s a road up from the farm at the other end of the field.

A big gate between two fields, and the farmer coming toward you hearding 200 sheep, probably leave that one open. If it’s not obvious why it’s been left open then close it. It’s far less annoying having to re open a gate than having to heard up livestock.

Thank god for trail centres where I’d not have to make this very difficult decision.

Its not always cyclists who don’t shut gates. I’ve come across gates left ajar by walkers (after I’ve passed them on the way down).

I was going to say ‘leave as you find’, but now we’ve had an answer from a farmer (I.e. someone who actually knows what they’re talking about, a rare thing on here), I shall close them in future.

IHN – Member

I was going to say ‘leave as you find’, but now we’ve had an answer from a farmer (I.e. someone who actually knows what they’re talking about, a rare thing on here), I shall close them in future.
This

The police knocked on our door the other night- “Do you realise you have 10 cows in your garden”? Er…. No !!!!! Some tw@ had left the bridle way gate open, cows down the lane, in our garden etc. A motorist had called the police after newly hitting one apparently. So, yes close the gate!

Ah yes, there was a Police programme recently where the Police attended a driver fatality due to two horses escaping a field.

Wouldn’t be great to drive down Snake Pass/NSL and find a motorist swerving to yourside of the road to avoid a sheep etc.

Its not rocket science, Farmers who prop open gates tend to be within eyesight of you. IF they aren’t then some lazy **** or Strava muppet is on the lose.

The gate in question is a bit pathetic, though. Does it even have a closing mechanism? A sheep could fart it open.

It has a pretty robust hook and latch now.

If I ever hear someone shout Strava I’ll block the **** 😆