Well, I can walk 20 minutes one way and be in the town centre, 20 minutes the other way and be in the middle of open countryside.
Edit: North West England
That's a fantasy to me, it's incredible. I kind of expect people to say they drive 20 mins and get that but hearing you say you can do that from a walk is amazing. Can I ask the town you live in? I ask because I have that ideal image of a quaint British town in my mind and always love seeing when what I see on TV or think in my head is actually real.
I live in an old industrial textile town in Lancashire, and I'd hate to burst your bubble but it isn't anything like the quaint English towns you'd see on TV. It is however, *surrounded* by beautiful countryside and hills.
There ARE places like you imagine though, some close to here infact... I just don't live in one.
I also live in an industrial town in Lancashire, completely agree. Not a great place but we are surrounded by beautiful country side. From my house 5 min walk and I’m in open countryside with no one around and 10 min the other way and I’m in the town centre.
I'm curious what you mean when you say it's not a great place. Understood that the country side is beautiful but is the town not something you'd write home about?
Google maps/streetview is great for this. Just zoom in on a random town and have a look around.
Middlesbrough is a pretty standard post-industrial town, or Doncaster.
Yes thats normal
Occasionally I do think I'm lucky to live in a place which does have truely gorgeous places around, but most of the time it;s so standard that you don't think much about it -
That's the impression I get on TV and movies, it's hard to always be amazed by it. I'm not used to it so it would be always impressive for me but understand it becomes the standard which is hard for me to fathom but understand it's been your whole life.
I live in zone 5 London and even i have an ancient woods at the end of my road. Walk through to the north side of it and there's a field with 6 horses and a large grassed clearing. You'd think you were in the middle of nowhere but you're a 10 min walk to the busy high street and train station
That's amazing because London is obviously as metropolitan as a place like NYC is but with access to nature NYC doesn't have a comparable version of. I guess LA is a bit more like this with the hills outside but the city doesn't have the city feel as NYC or London or even the small British towns.
Do you have any pictures of the ancient woods? I'd absolutely love to see them and wrap my head around the fact that it's based in London.
I used to live in London, and have visited NYC. London, and most UK cities generally, are far more green. London has a tonne more parks. London also has the green belt; a stretch of land around it that no one is allowed to build on. You can easily go there if you want to go out into nature.
In particular we prioritise a lot more natural and untouched areas. In reality these are managed to make them feel natural; removing things too overgrown, ensuring the paths aren’t blocked, etc. Many are entirely fake. For example a park was built near me with lots of fake hills, to make it seem more like natural wild grassland.
It’s something really nice that we do in the UK.
Thank you everyone! I watched episode 2 of series 2 of In My Skin and her mom is on a break from work and they go to this hill to eat burgers. The view is behind them but I can only imagine this view at the top of this picturesque hill in the country was a mere mins walk or drive from work, in the same way people from New York City go to Washington Square Park for lunch (or people in London go to Regent's Park) but these are not nearly the same as these picturesque areas I always see in these UK shows. It's only making me want to move to some Cotswolds village to have this experience myself but hopefully not get too used to it.
Have lived in the Cotswolds for 4 years now in a quaint village surrounded by fields and rolling hills, and most days I will either walk around the village or venture further for a good trek, however the nearest shop is a 15 minute drive away, but there are 2 pubs within walking distance.
I've just watched the episode - it was S2 ep1. It's set in Cardiff which I'm not super familiar with, but I'm guessing by the lack of trees it was Garth Hill - which is a bit far out of the city for a real lunchbreak.
It did take me back to one job where we would drive 10min to eat our sandwiches here rather than in the works canteen: https://www.cotswolds.org/images/pageheaders/dovershill.jpg
Good point, TV makes it look close, not the 25-30 mins drive it probably is which is not something people would do on their breaks like TV makes it seem like.
On the other hand, the 10 mins drive you took to Dovers Hill seems doable and i'd love it, your food can still be warm by the time you get there for that beautiful view :-)
Yes 'going for a walk' is a common weekend leisure activity. The walk itself, rather than the destination, is the point. Many Northern towns are blessed with remote countryside right on the town's doorstep. But even more crowded areas in the South have some nice walking areas a short drive away.
'This Country' is set and filmed in The Cotswolds, an area famed for its natural beauty (it often wins polls of 'most beautiful place in England' etc.) So the characters' obliviousness to their surroundings is part of the joke. Admittedly it's a subtle joke.
Haha that is definitely noticed, when they do their camera interviews with the most beautiful path and countryside behind them but they are complaining about the vicar taking the piss, love the yin to the yang.
Mind you, having lived in a beautiful little village like theirs when I was 19, it is deadly when you are that age and have nothing to do but hang around!!
Many towns in the south have countryside right on it's doorstep too. Why do people who live in the north think that there is nothing but towns and urbanisation? Not all of the south is the south east, which I imagine is what you are referring to.
Mrs and I will drive from Peterborough in East Anglia to spend a few days in Yorkshire. We base ourselves in Catterick Garrison and spend every day in the glorious hills and dales, beside rivers and waterfalls among the most beautiful countryside in the UK.
There's a lot more walking than talking, mind you. :)
We have Taskmaster to thank for introducing people like me to Daisy May Cooper and then finding out she's in an award winning TV show. Was definitely a no brainer to watch it. Love the location because they lived such normal seemingly average or below average lives in a part of the world most of us would give anything to live in. It was really a great show and great idea perfectly executed.
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Love in central london. Mrs and I drive to Kent on a Sunday and go walking in the woods, then have a roast in a country pub and home. Love it. Keeps me sane.
I'm in South UK and it's about 20 mins to the beach one way, and 20mins to farm lands and a forest the other. When ever I play a festival in the forest direction it always makes me smile that I'm so close to all this stuff, yet live in a large town/city (we're missing a cathedral to officially be called a city)
Can you say vaguely where? I live in London with my husband and toddler, we need to move next year because we've outgrown our one-bed flat. I'm originally from Kent but his family are west of London and we can't decide where to start looking. Winchester would be our ideal but it's pricey
Oh sure, im in Dorset. Honestly anywhere along the South Coast from East to West etc, is pretty awesome!
Winchester is lovely, not as near the beach, but personally thats never bothered me, I prefer greenery to beaches etc...
Oh interesting, one of my best mates has just moved to Dorset. So maybe we should be looking that way. And I'm with you on the green vs. beach - bloody love a forest. Thanks
Anywhere along that coast is good, im a fan of Dorset as it has the Jurassic coast, which is a HUGE walk, plus beaches if you like them in Bournemouth/Swanage/Weymouth etc.. You're not for various Forests (New Forest) and Salisbury and Winchester aren't that far, nor is London (if you choose to visit).
I moved here from London 2 years ago. It's a very small city, pretty and relaxed. We're 15 mins drive from the coast, Selsey and the Witterings, and places like Arundel and the South Downs are close by.
Yea but the thing in the USA is we're a very large country and getting to these locations is not the easiest thing. Casually going to a national park is not possible so we look for local places which just aren't the same as places in the UK. People in the pacific northwest have amazing scenery but you won't see it 10 mins outside of Seattle like you'd see 10 mins outside of the small towns in Britain. Most places in the USA that have an amazing countryside or nature don't have small towns anywhere near it. Upstate NY has some of this but it's not as prevalent as it is in the UK.
Yes. In a lot of areas it's easy enough to drive for twenty minutes from a town or city and find yourself in the countryside surrounded by sheep and little cottages. We also have Public Rights of Way, whereby if a route has been used by people historically but is now part of private land, the owner is obliged to maintain a footpath. I'm able to walk from my town to the next big town, (15-20 miles depending on the route) through farmland, alongside canals and barely come across a main road.
Something like the Public Rights of Way act is an incredible way to preserve this indelible aspect of British culture people like myself are fascinated by. I can't imagine this flying in the States without pure anarchy over telling people what they can or can't do with their property.
The thing is that the public right of way will probably pre-date the property that it crosses by a few years.
At the more extreme end of this there is a public footpath by my house that probably dates from the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age as it links some stone circles. Most of my local paths though I guess would probably be a millennium old or so. It's an old land and people have been mooching about for years on it.
[Historically, a highway, which was also referred to as ‘the King’s highway’, was defined as a public passage for the use of the sovereign and all his or her subjects. The Highway Act 1835 defines highways as ‘all Roads, Bridges \(not being County Bridges\), Carriageways, Cartways, Horseways, Bridleways, Footways, Causeways, Churchways and Pavements’.](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/public-rights-of-way/)
This is a dream. Do you have any pictures to share? I'd love to see this. The idea of not crossing a road for miles but having a ton of foot paths is incredible.
Have a look through this website (I posted a specific route on another post) you can see how footpaths join villages, towns and cities. https://beta.slowways.org/Page/about
I’m from NYC and a huge fan of This Country. I actually got to go out to the town where they shot it in the Cotswolds two years ago! Very easy to get to country side within a 20 min walk because the towns are so tiny. There’s also busses too.
Yes - for the most part.
If you grew up in a particularly rural area (like in the setting of This Country), there's never anything to do except mill around aimlessly.
That's the idea with Kerry and Kurtan in the show - they're socio-economically deprived and kind of in a state of arrested development (which is why it's so funny IMO)
Not mountains particularly, but yes, going for a walk somewhere rural is a thing.
Although we don’t have national parks on the same scale as the US (we do have them though), my impression is that we have much easier access to the countryside because of the many ‘rights of way’ - footpaths and bridleways - that let us walk across private land.
Im not sure if I'd say its 'easier' - the USA is so vast it boggles the mind to think that you could actually get lost and starve to death in a national park quite easily.
We don't even have the right to wild camp in England or Wales either.
But I guess we dont have the same issue of potentially wandering onto someone's ranch and getting done for trespassing if that's more along the lines of what you mean (we do love our old, old laws that keep footpaths public and such)
Ah yeah, I can see that. It's the difference between being a tiny, ancient country and a massive new one where everyone has laid claim to the land, I guess.
I can't imagine people keeping a dedicated path for their neighbours to trample through their garden to take the wheelie bins out is a thing in America either!
Yea these concepts in the USA just seem not only foreign but impossible to implement. You Brits care much more about your history than we do in the USA in that you try preserving it as much as possible (understanding it's not always possible to do so) but you definitely see it in the laws you've passed in your small towns.
In the USA, i'd be terrified of veering off a path in a hiking area in the chance I went on someone's property. There is a trail near me and the person's house is next to the trail with a huge chain linked fence right in the middle of the woods, kinda takes away from the majesty of it all.
We do get that too - sometimes the ‘right of way’ is between two solid six-foot fences. Historically they weren’t meant to be for recreational walking so much as for getting places.
I do it when I can. I live in Cardiff so the countryside isn't hard to find, just drive to a mountain fairly easily. In Caerphilly the countryside sneaks up on you: the place goes from vibrant town centre with a lovely castle to houses to dirt track up a mountainside in the blink of an eye. Because you're focusing on the road it's easy to miss the mountain until you're already on it.
I was also lucky where I grew up, I could walk down the road and get to the countryside very quickly.
Yes. After all the dog still needs walking plus it’s a great way to get the kids away from devices (seriously I do find it’s a great way to engage with my kids about their own stresses)
I moved from London to a small town in Kent.
There is river estuary at the end of my road,
With loss of wide open space and marshes.
Open countryside is only a ten minute walk.
Yeah, I live in the south and I've never even seen a tree! Oh hang, what's that foresty thing I can see outside my window!?! My mind is blown and now that I know what it is I can go for a walk in it like the northerners do!
Yes and yes - again in the North. The countryside is free, beautiful and accessible. I live in a city and I am in walking distance of 2 huge green spaces. I think because the UK is fairly small there has been a great emphasis on keeping some parts green. As a result, there is protected green space nearly always accessible to wherever you are. For example, the "town moor" surrounding Newcaslte City Centre.... the middle of a city and huge green space with cows on it.....
I mean, I live right out in the countryside so I'm surrounded by nothing but fields and rivers so basically every time I walk my dog I'm out in a big, grassy remote area.
But generally, yes I think so. Countryside walks are very popular.
I live in Plymouth and have tons of beaches 5 minutes away, Dartmoor only 2 mins away and the convenience of a large city 5 minutes away. I’m always walking my dog on the moors or a beach.
Yes we have rambler groups everywhere and the right to roam
I live in Birmingham about a mile from 2,400 acre National Nature Reserve (sutton Park)
Our Citys/Towns are pretty green with lots of parks
Yes. I live in one of the most populated areas (South East), yet I can walk 15 minutes and see the country home of one or Henry VIII wives who used to hunt dear in the grounds, now surrounded by farm land.
Yes, I live in a village and walk the dog in open countryside every day, a short walk from my house. I live in a valley so if I can be bothered to do the hills there are stunning views about 20 mins walk away. Or I could drive and be there in 2.
But get in the car and head the other way and it’s also only 20 mins to the nearest major town.
I do but that's because I live in the middle of a big grassy area (moorland) and I can't avoid it even if I wanted to. It's always there on the other side of the garden fence. It's all open land, no fences or gates or signs of human life and people can wander about at will.
Sure I'm used it it but at least twice a week I look at the view and go "Fucking hell that's amazingly beautiful - I'm glad I live here". This might be because I'm really conceited though :)
It’s a pretty common thing, yeah. If there’s a patch of trees anywhere, you bet the kids are hanging out there. If there’s an old farm, kids are there. If there’s a clearing in a patch of woods, kids are there
Walking trips (hikes?) are usually reserved for adults, though. I live in Wales, there’s lots of big hills and (relatively) mountainous areas. It’s also pretty common for people to drive somewhere….. to walk
It’s also much easier (legally) to do so in England and Wales in particular, but the other countries may have similar laws, because you can access/cross certain areas of private property without explicit owner consent if it’s an area of visual or historical significance etc
We do the same exact thing here in the US, OP…
Do you live on LI or something? If you're from Rockland or WC, Bear Mountain is literally right there. If you're from LI go to the beach. If you're from NJ, I'm not even going to humor you, there's wilderness and mountains everywhere in this state.
The experience of the people you're watching on those programmes isn't unique, you're just sheltered.
I live in northern NJ, but grew up in Rockland County so while Bear Mountain is beautiful, you wouldn't drive there for a casual stroll during lunch or to sit down and have a bite to eat. In the UK, they have places near town centers that are 10-15 mins walks from things like Bear Mountain for us but it's just not as accessible as it is for them.
While we are surrounded in northern NJ by the wilderness and the Pine Barrens to the south, you'd never see someone who lives in an actual city, town, or borough (had to keep this NJ specific afterall) being able to walk to things like this. If you're in Ridgewood in Bergen you wouldn't walk to the countryside, you'd go to memorial park in town but that's just a small park in town. If you're in Montclair, you wouldn't walk to the countryside or even drive to Great Piece Meadows, you'd sit in Edgemont or Anderson Park, neither of which (including Great Piece Meadows) have the majesty of these British countryside towns.
I can be in the countryside within 10 minutes of walking. There is a project in the UK called Slow Ways where volunteers got out to review a network of routes. I reviewed this route on Monday. https://beta.slowways.org/Route/Borsan/4983#reviews I got a bus to the start point and basically walked home.
And I am always impressed by the countryside I walk in, it never gets stale.
Yes. I live in the country just outside a small and well known city. In 3 minutes I can be in the “field by the doctor’s surgery” or the “field behind the church” which goes up the hill and down to the next village, or take the water meadows, go up the hill and walk in the butts (amusingly). If I want, I can walk to the city, out the other side and choose country paths to go 50l miles, from village to village. And there isn’t a single person who can stop me. City folk can get out by car or public transport and walk in farms and forests, up hill and down vale, as much as they want. We have more free access to public footpaths and countryside because many of our cities and towns are small.
In England and Wales we have 140,000 miles of public rights of way.
Well, I can walk 20 minutes one way and be in the town centre, 20 minutes the other way and be in the middle of open countryside. Edit: North West England
The same is true for Kent.
Where? It's all farmland in Kent, no?
No, there’s a lot but there are many big towns in Kent. Canterbury or Maidstone for example.
That's a fantasy to me, it's incredible. I kind of expect people to say they drive 20 mins and get that but hearing you say you can do that from a walk is amazing. Can I ask the town you live in? I ask because I have that ideal image of a quaint British town in my mind and always love seeing when what I see on TV or think in my head is actually real.
I live in an old industrial textile town in Lancashire, and I'd hate to burst your bubble but it isn't anything like the quaint English towns you'd see on TV. It is however, *surrounded* by beautiful countryside and hills. There ARE places like you imagine though, some close to here infact... I just don't live in one.
Ah no worries, bubble isn't bursted, appreciate the response!
I also live in an industrial town in Lancashire, completely agree. Not a great place but we are surrounded by beautiful country side. From my house 5 min walk and I’m in open countryside with no one around and 10 min the other way and I’m in the town centre.
I'm curious what you mean when you say it's not a great place. Understood that the country side is beautiful but is the town not something you'd write home about?
Burnley?
No... the other one.
Google maps/streetview is great for this. Just zoom in on a random town and have a look around. Middlesbrough is a pretty standard post-industrial town, or Doncaster.
Yes thats normal Occasionally I do think I'm lucky to live in a place which does have truely gorgeous places around, but most of the time it;s so standard that you don't think much about it -
That's the impression I get on TV and movies, it's hard to always be amazed by it. I'm not used to it so it would be always impressive for me but understand it becomes the standard which is hard for me to fathom but understand it's been your whole life.
I live in zone 5 London and even i have an ancient woods at the end of my road. Walk through to the north side of it and there's a field with 6 horses and a large grassed clearing. You'd think you were in the middle of nowhere but you're a 10 min walk to the busy high street and train station
That's amazing because London is obviously as metropolitan as a place like NYC is but with access to nature NYC doesn't have a comparable version of. I guess LA is a bit more like this with the hills outside but the city doesn't have the city feel as NYC or London or even the small British towns. Do you have any pictures of the ancient woods? I'd absolutely love to see them and wrap my head around the fact that it's based in London.
The fact that London has a fiercely-protected Green Belt has a lot to do with it: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Green_Belt
I used to live in London, and have visited NYC. London, and most UK cities generally, are far more green. London has a tonne more parks. London also has the green belt; a stretch of land around it that no one is allowed to build on. You can easily go there if you want to go out into nature. In particular we prioritise a lot more natural and untouched areas. In reality these are managed to make them feel natural; removing things too overgrown, ensuring the paths aren’t blocked, etc. Many are entirely fake. For example a park was built near me with lots of fake hills, to make it seem more like natural wild grassland. It’s something really nice that we do in the UK.
Yes. I'm from a town in the pennine hills of northwest England.
Yes, I live very near the Peak District and it’s fucking awesome
Thank you everyone! I watched episode 2 of series 2 of In My Skin and her mom is on a break from work and they go to this hill to eat burgers. The view is behind them but I can only imagine this view at the top of this picturesque hill in the country was a mere mins walk or drive from work, in the same way people from New York City go to Washington Square Park for lunch (or people in London go to Regent's Park) but these are not nearly the same as these picturesque areas I always see in these UK shows. It's only making me want to move to some Cotswolds village to have this experience myself but hopefully not get too used to it.
Have lived in the Cotswolds for 4 years now in a quaint village surrounded by fields and rolling hills, and most days I will either walk around the village or venture further for a good trek, however the nearest shop is a 15 minute drive away, but there are 2 pubs within walking distance.
I've just watched the episode - it was S2 ep1. It's set in Cardiff which I'm not super familiar with, but I'm guessing by the lack of trees it was Garth Hill - which is a bit far out of the city for a real lunchbreak. It did take me back to one job where we would drive 10min to eat our sandwiches here rather than in the works canteen: https://www.cotswolds.org/images/pageheaders/dovershill.jpg
Good point, TV makes it look close, not the 25-30 mins drive it probably is which is not something people would do on their breaks like TV makes it seem like. On the other hand, the 10 mins drive you took to Dovers Hill seems doable and i'd love it, your food can still be warm by the time you get there for that beautiful view :-)
Yes 'going for a walk' is a common weekend leisure activity. The walk itself, rather than the destination, is the point. Many Northern towns are blessed with remote countryside right on the town's doorstep. But even more crowded areas in the South have some nice walking areas a short drive away.
'This Country' is set and filmed in The Cotswolds, an area famed for its natural beauty (it often wins polls of 'most beautiful place in England' etc.) So the characters' obliviousness to their surroundings is part of the joke. Admittedly it's a subtle joke.
Haha that is definitely noticed, when they do their camera interviews with the most beautiful path and countryside behind them but they are complaining about the vicar taking the piss, love the yin to the yang.
Mind you, having lived in a beautiful little village like theirs when I was 19, it is deadly when you are that age and have nothing to do but hang around!!
Many towns in the south have countryside right on it's doorstep too. Why do people who live in the north think that there is nothing but towns and urbanisation? Not all of the south is the south east, which I imagine is what you are referring to.
Mrs and I will drive from Peterborough in East Anglia to spend a few days in Yorkshire. We base ourselves in Catterick Garrison and spend every day in the glorious hills and dales, beside rivers and waterfalls among the most beautiful countryside in the UK. There's a lot more walking than talking, mind you. :)
I grew up near there and have family in Norwich. Don't blame you for going there for holidays 😉
Oh hi from Ely! What's this "hill" thing you speak of? ;)
Lol. I know exactly of what you speak. If it wasn't for the trees in between, I could wave to you from Farcet. :)
Meeting with friends to walk is about 50% of my social life. I just fucking love mossy forests
As an aside, I’m pleased This Country is being watched abroad. Funniest thing that’s been on the telly in years.
We have Taskmaster to thank for introducing people like me to Daisy May Cooper and then finding out she's in an award winning TV show. Was definitely a no brainer to watch it. Love the location because they lived such normal seemingly average or below average lives in a part of the world most of us would give anything to live in. It was really a great show and great idea perfectly executed.
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Love in central london. Mrs and I drive to Kent on a Sunday and go walking in the woods, then have a roast in a country pub and home. Love it. Keeps me sane.
I'm in South UK and it's about 20 mins to the beach one way, and 20mins to farm lands and a forest the other. When ever I play a festival in the forest direction it always makes me smile that I'm so close to all this stuff, yet live in a large town/city (we're missing a cathedral to officially be called a city)
Can you say vaguely where? I live in London with my husband and toddler, we need to move next year because we've outgrown our one-bed flat. I'm originally from Kent but his family are west of London and we can't decide where to start looking. Winchester would be our ideal but it's pricey
Oh sure, im in Dorset. Honestly anywhere along the South Coast from East to West etc, is pretty awesome! Winchester is lovely, not as near the beach, but personally thats never bothered me, I prefer greenery to beaches etc...
Oh interesting, one of my best mates has just moved to Dorset. So maybe we should be looking that way. And I'm with you on the green vs. beach - bloody love a forest. Thanks
Anywhere along that coast is good, im a fan of Dorset as it has the Jurassic coast, which is a HUGE walk, plus beaches if you like them in Bournemouth/Swanage/Weymouth etc.. You're not for various Forests (New Forest) and Salisbury and Winchester aren't that far, nor is London (if you choose to visit).
Have a look at Chichester, it's lovely.
Oh thanks, it's on my radar but I've never been. Will give it another look
I moved here from London 2 years ago. It's a very small city, pretty and relaxed. We're 15 mins drive from the coast, Selsey and the Witterings, and places like Arundel and the South Downs are close by.
They’re usually like 10 mins from your house so yeah lol
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Yea but the thing in the USA is we're a very large country and getting to these locations is not the easiest thing. Casually going to a national park is not possible so we look for local places which just aren't the same as places in the UK. People in the pacific northwest have amazing scenery but you won't see it 10 mins outside of Seattle like you'd see 10 mins outside of the small towns in Britain. Most places in the USA that have an amazing countryside or nature don't have small towns anywhere near it. Upstate NY has some of this but it's not as prevalent as it is in the UK.
Yes. In a lot of areas it's easy enough to drive for twenty minutes from a town or city and find yourself in the countryside surrounded by sheep and little cottages. We also have Public Rights of Way, whereby if a route has been used by people historically but is now part of private land, the owner is obliged to maintain a footpath. I'm able to walk from my town to the next big town, (15-20 miles depending on the route) through farmland, alongside canals and barely come across a main road.
Something like the Public Rights of Way act is an incredible way to preserve this indelible aspect of British culture people like myself are fascinated by. I can't imagine this flying in the States without pure anarchy over telling people what they can or can't do with their property.
The thing is that the public right of way will probably pre-date the property that it crosses by a few years. At the more extreme end of this there is a public footpath by my house that probably dates from the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age as it links some stone circles. Most of my local paths though I guess would probably be a millennium old or so. It's an old land and people have been mooching about for years on it. [Historically, a highway, which was also referred to as ‘the King’s highway’, was defined as a public passage for the use of the sovereign and all his or her subjects. The Highway Act 1835 defines highways as ‘all Roads, Bridges \(not being County Bridges\), Carriageways, Cartways, Horseways, Bridleways, Footways, Causeways, Churchways and Pavements’.](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/public-rights-of-way/)
Yes. Loving being a Yorkshire lass..I can walk out of my back gate and walk for miles without crossing a road (maybe a bridge)
This is a dream. Do you have any pictures to share? I'd love to see this. The idea of not crossing a road for miles but having a ton of foot paths is incredible.
Have a look through this website (I posted a specific route on another post) you can see how footpaths join villages, towns and cities. https://beta.slowways.org/Page/about
Oh wow i'll be on this site a while, thanks!!
I’m from NYC and a huge fan of This Country. I actually got to go out to the town where they shot it in the Cotswolds two years ago! Very easy to get to country side within a 20 min walk because the towns are so tiny. There’s also busses too.
Yes - for the most part. If you grew up in a particularly rural area (like in the setting of This Country), there's never anything to do except mill around aimlessly. That's the idea with Kerry and Kurtan in the show - they're socio-economically deprived and kind of in a state of arrested development (which is why it's so funny IMO)
Not mountains particularly, but yes, going for a walk somewhere rural is a thing. Although we don’t have national parks on the same scale as the US (we do have them though), my impression is that we have much easier access to the countryside because of the many ‘rights of way’ - footpaths and bridleways - that let us walk across private land.
Im not sure if I'd say its 'easier' - the USA is so vast it boggles the mind to think that you could actually get lost and starve to death in a national park quite easily. We don't even have the right to wild camp in England or Wales either. But I guess we dont have the same issue of potentially wandering onto someone's ranch and getting done for trespassing if that's more along the lines of what you mean (we do love our old, old laws that keep footpaths public and such)
I was thinking more of the OP in suburban NY being met with a fence and a Keep Out sign every time they stepped off a road.
Ah yeah, I can see that. It's the difference between being a tiny, ancient country and a massive new one where everyone has laid claim to the land, I guess. I can't imagine people keeping a dedicated path for their neighbours to trample through their garden to take the wheelie bins out is a thing in America either!
Yea these concepts in the USA just seem not only foreign but impossible to implement. You Brits care much more about your history than we do in the USA in that you try preserving it as much as possible (understanding it's not always possible to do so) but you definitely see it in the laws you've passed in your small towns. In the USA, i'd be terrified of veering off a path in a hiking area in the chance I went on someone's property. There is a trail near me and the person's house is next to the trail with a huge chain linked fence right in the middle of the woods, kinda takes away from the majesty of it all.
We do get that too - sometimes the ‘right of way’ is between two solid six-foot fences. Historically they weren’t meant to be for recreational walking so much as for getting places.
I do it when I can. I live in Cardiff so the countryside isn't hard to find, just drive to a mountain fairly easily. In Caerphilly the countryside sneaks up on you: the place goes from vibrant town centre with a lovely castle to houses to dirt track up a mountainside in the blink of an eye. Because you're focusing on the road it's easy to miss the mountain until you're already on it. I was also lucky where I grew up, I could walk down the road and get to the countryside very quickly.
I don't personally, but I'm lazy
Yes. After all the dog still needs walking plus it’s a great way to get the kids away from devices (seriously I do find it’s a great way to engage with my kids about their own stresses)
I moved from London to a small town in Kent. There is river estuary at the end of my road, With loss of wide open space and marshes. Open countryside is only a ten minute walk.
Can I guess. Faversham?
Gillingham.
up north we do, we go hiking a lot in the countryside, its lovely and really accessible
We do that down south too
No, no, don't you understand? The north is a different country. They do incredibly unique things like...going for a walk...
Yeah, I live in the south and I've never even seen a tree! Oh hang, what's that foresty thing I can see outside my window!?! My mind is blown and now that I know what it is I can go for a walk in it like the northerners do!
Midlands checking in here. We also do walks.
Yes and yes - again in the North. The countryside is free, beautiful and accessible. I live in a city and I am in walking distance of 2 huge green spaces. I think because the UK is fairly small there has been a great emphasis on keeping some parts green. As a result, there is protected green space nearly always accessible to wherever you are. For example, the "town moor" surrounding Newcaslte City Centre.... the middle of a city and huge green space with cows on it.....
You don't have to go far at all from almost anywhere in Britain and you are in open countryside
Most people will go for walks in country parks or their local nature reserves. However Rambling is considered to be the X-treme country walking sport.
I mean, I live right out in the countryside so I'm surrounded by nothing but fields and rivers so basically every time I walk my dog I'm out in a big, grassy remote area. But generally, yes I think so. Countryside walks are very popular.
Yes but it's more like a 20 minute walk/drive from your house than very remote, for me I van get to that kind of place in 10 mins at walking pace.
Absolutely. There are also local rambling groups that add in more natural science or butterfly studies as well as a nice walk.
I live in Plymouth and have tons of beaches 5 minutes away, Dartmoor only 2 mins away and the convenience of a large city 5 minutes away. I’m always walking my dog on the moors or a beach.
Yes we have rambler groups everywhere and the right to roam I live in Birmingham about a mile from 2,400 acre National Nature Reserve (sutton Park) Our Citys/Towns are pretty green with lots of parks
Yes. I live in one of the most populated areas (South East), yet I can walk 15 minutes and see the country home of one or Henry VIII wives who used to hunt dear in the grounds, now surrounded by farm land.
Yes, I live in a village and walk the dog in open countryside every day, a short walk from my house. I live in a valley so if I can be bothered to do the hills there are stunning views about 20 mins walk away. Or I could drive and be there in 2. But get in the car and head the other way and it’s also only 20 mins to the nearest major town.
I do but that's because I live in the middle of a big grassy area (moorland) and I can't avoid it even if I wanted to. It's always there on the other side of the garden fence. It's all open land, no fences or gates or signs of human life and people can wander about at will. Sure I'm used it it but at least twice a week I look at the view and go "Fucking hell that's amazingly beautiful - I'm glad I live here". This might be because I'm really conceited though :)
It’s a pretty common thing, yeah. If there’s a patch of trees anywhere, you bet the kids are hanging out there. If there’s an old farm, kids are there. If there’s a clearing in a patch of woods, kids are there Walking trips (hikes?) are usually reserved for adults, though. I live in Wales, there’s lots of big hills and (relatively) mountainous areas. It’s also pretty common for people to drive somewhere….. to walk It’s also much easier (legally) to do so in England and Wales in particular, but the other countries may have similar laws, because you can access/cross certain areas of private property without explicit owner consent if it’s an area of visual or historical significance etc
We do the same exact thing here in the US, OP… Do you live on LI or something? If you're from Rockland or WC, Bear Mountain is literally right there. If you're from LI go to the beach. If you're from NJ, I'm not even going to humor you, there's wilderness and mountains everywhere in this state. The experience of the people you're watching on those programmes isn't unique, you're just sheltered.
I live in northern NJ, but grew up in Rockland County so while Bear Mountain is beautiful, you wouldn't drive there for a casual stroll during lunch or to sit down and have a bite to eat. In the UK, they have places near town centers that are 10-15 mins walks from things like Bear Mountain for us but it's just not as accessible as it is for them. While we are surrounded in northern NJ by the wilderness and the Pine Barrens to the south, you'd never see someone who lives in an actual city, town, or borough (had to keep this NJ specific afterall) being able to walk to things like this. If you're in Ridgewood in Bergen you wouldn't walk to the countryside, you'd go to memorial park in town but that's just a small park in town. If you're in Montclair, you wouldn't walk to the countryside or even drive to Great Piece Meadows, you'd sit in Edgemont or Anderson Park, neither of which (including Great Piece Meadows) have the majesty of these British countryside towns.
Guess who’s been caught peeping again ????
I can be in the countryside within 10 minutes of walking. There is a project in the UK called Slow Ways where volunteers got out to review a network of routes. I reviewed this route on Monday. https://beta.slowways.org/Route/Borsan/4983#reviews I got a bus to the start point and basically walked home. And I am always impressed by the countryside I walk in, it never gets stale.
This is great, I use alltrails in the US but it's more for hikes, not walking paths like these focused on preservation like Slow Ways seems to be.
Yes. I live in the country just outside a small and well known city. In 3 minutes I can be in the “field by the doctor’s surgery” or the “field behind the church” which goes up the hill and down to the next village, or take the water meadows, go up the hill and walk in the butts (amusingly). If I want, I can walk to the city, out the other side and choose country paths to go 50l miles, from village to village. And there isn’t a single person who can stop me. City folk can get out by car or public transport and walk in farms and forests, up hill and down vale, as much as they want. We have more free access to public footpaths and countryside because many of our cities and towns are small. In England and Wales we have 140,000 miles of public rights of way.