October 2025.
During September, a team of volunteer members of Tatham Fells WI spent two days cutting back undergrowth and overgrowth from paths, stiles and gates in Lower Tatham.
And on 1st October, another team of footpath volunteers spent a damp autumn day working on two Tatham Fells kissing gates. The first job was replacing a rotten gate post on the footpath between Lowgill Hall and Brackenbottom, and the second was replacing a stile with a kissing gate at Craggs Farm, on a path that splits three ways, to Higher Craggs, Lythe Lane and Silly Lane.
Our thanks to the landowners, our very hard-working, always-cheerful, and sometimes mud-splattered volunteers, and to Lancashire County Council Public Rights of Way Team, who support our footpath work with materials. New volunteers are always welcome!
Sadly, the newly elected County Council has axed the Local Delivery Scheme (LDS), which delegated some responsibility for footpath work to parish councils, and supported them with an annual grant. Over the last 5 years, the LDS has encouraged and aided Tatham Parish Council in carrying out, with a massive amount of help from local volunteers, an impressive number of path repairs and upgrades, and its loss is keenly felt. The PC has written to the County Council cabinet member for Highways expressing its disappointment, and suggesting that footpath work could be done much more cost-effectively by parishes – but not without cash support from the county.