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When I was a kid there was a wood behind my house, and one day, in about 1987, a BMX course appeared. Here it is. It include four earthwork obstacles (marked red): a juddery ridged cutting, a banked corner, and two humps (dromedary and bactrian).
The standard circuit was a figure of eight, starting with a very steep descent (unless you were a coward, in which case there was a choice of two slightly less steep descents). The first loop was pretty much set in stone; the second was open to some variation.
A couple of years later, the council built a fence around the wood, formalising the entrance points. This had an interesting effect: first of all the main way in from the north side moved with the location of the gate. As this entry took precedence, the main path moved with it.
This bypassed two of the obstacles on the BMX course, and by the mid-'90s the banked corner had been completely swallowed up by the adjacent trees and bushes.
Less explicably, an entire section of the main route through the wood just disappeared...
Less explicably, an entire section of the main route through the wood just disappeared...
This section was open field, full of nettles, and was easily overgrown. It seems that one year it just got so overgrown that it didn't get trod back in by the dog walkers and BMXers.
Finally, in the mid-'00s, a fallen tree completely totaled the cross-over section of the course.
Finally, in the mid-'00s, a fallen tree completely totaled the cross-over section of the course.
I wanted to share that with you because it reveals something about the speed at which established routes can change for the slightest reasons.
Which makes it all the more fun that there are still loads of just-about straight-line paths between towns all over Ordnance Survey.
Which makes it all the more fun that there are still loads of just-about straight-line paths between towns all over Ordnance Survey.
Also, hats off to whoever spent the day digging up earth to build all the BMX obstacles. The banking may have got swallowed up, but other parts of that course were still going strong over a decade later.
