The Parish of Martley has a network of footpaths, made up of 296 separate links, total length approximately 42 miles (37 miles footpaths, 5 miles bridleways). These were registered as public rights of way some 50 years ago. In recent years more & more interest has been shown in opening & maintaining these paths all over the country, after all as a walker, you have as much right to be on a footpath as you do to be on a public road.

40 years of The Martley Footpath Volunteers “The Path-or-Nones”

In 1985 a group of volunteers was established in Martley under the leadership of Mr Keith Trumper. The purpose of the group was to open unused rights of way for all to enjoy and in this, the group has been singularly successful. Martley is well known to have one of the most complete & well signposted footpath networks anywhere in the Country with 99% of the paths open to walkers.

The volunteer group has a somewhat strange name, which was brainstormed in a local pub by its members, probably after too many ales, “The Path-or-Nones” with an unlikely Greek twist, but very clever in its meaning.

40 years later, The Path-or-Nones are still going strong with a new leader in Jon Pearsall, supported by 14 group members & of course very understanding partners. Jon, his brother Tom Pearsall & John Corbett were involved with the volunteer group startup in 1985 with Keith Trumper & are still working on the Martley footpaths today, which has to be said is an amazing achievement. On the 10* October 2025, this milestone anniversary of maintaining the footpath network was celebrated at The Crown Martley, hosted by Robin Conway & his team. Group members attended with their partners, the Wichenford volunteer group “Wichways” & partners with Lin Stansfeld their Parish Paths Warden, Karen Metcalfe the Parish Paths Warden for Shelsley Beauchamp & special guests from the local community.

The Path-or-Nones meet for 3-4 hours every first Friday of the month, tackling anything from clearance of undergrowth to the installation of bridges, ditch crossings, steps & gates. Do join us, we meet at 9.00am at the Crown Martley.

The Path-or-Nones do not organise walks as this is left to local walking groups, but they have produced ten pamphlets for circular walks in the Parish of Martley. These are available for free download from the Path-or-Nones website www.thepathornones.co.uk

For more information, please contact the following Path-or-None members:-

Jon Pearsall – 07747 775434 – jonpearsall70@gmail.com

Merv Hardwell – 07801 967913 – mervyn.hardwell@yahoo.com

Friday 5th October turned out to be sunny and warm which made a pleasant change. A few of us met up at the village hall while others headed directly for Prickley Farm. The task for today was to remove two old stiles and replace them with new gates. The gates had previously been delivered and stored in an outhouse on the farm so everything was in place to begin the work. Surprisingly the old stiles came out quite easily (which is definitely not always the case) and we managed to dig the holes and trenches for the new gates without any major problems. Many thanks must go to Cath Nott for supplying coffee and biscuits.

Thankfully the 21st June turned out to be a dry day and as usual we met at the village hall. The plan today was to install three new gates some steps and a new way marker post at the locations shown below. John & Robin had delivered the gates, posts and steps the day before and everything was in place to begin the work. The location for the first gate took a fair bit of clearing as the route was very overgrown having not been used in years the second & third gates proved easier with the post holes and trench’s going in quickly, Gate ‘A’ had new steps installed and we were finally finished.

A special thanks to Nessa for kindly providing us with tea & biscuits.

The Martley footpath volunteers have been busy in the early part of 2004 despite the continuing wet weather. Our March session, under the friendly supervision of Jo Tufton, relocated and installed a new ditch crossing in Kingswood on the Eastern slope of the Teme Valley, located on the ancient path known as Chimney Lane. As the photos show, conditions on the steeply sloping and slippery clay site were challenging; it was distant from the nearest vehicle access and we could not have achieved the task without the assistance of the landowner, farmer Mr Richard Bray, who was able to deliver the heavy planks almost to where we needed them.

For our April working party we were assigned 10 waymark posts to replace. We had enough participants to divide into 2 groups each doing 5 and finished the job within the allocated morning. Although the ground remains waterlogged in many places, the relentless rain actually held off on the day, which felt pleasantly Springlike.

We continue to meet on the first Friday of the month and welcome new members, who should contact Mervyn Hardwell in the first instance via mailto:mervyn.hardwell@yahoo.com

A commemorative bench was installed on Monday the 18th December on the Worcester Way and Martley Circular Route in Kingswood in memory of John Nicklin, one of the founder members of the Pathornones who sadly passed away in April 2023. A good number of people attended and assisted with the installation of the bench including John’s wife and daughters and members of Team Valley Geological Society.

March 25th 2018, postponed from March 18th owing to heavy fall of snow.

For reasons unknown, on a footpath through Mr Jeffries land, and for many years, a stile had been incorrectly sited.  This not withstanding the fact that when we recently visited to inspect the site, we found a yellow tag, emplaced many years ago, by Worc. County Council Rights of Way team, where the stile should have gone.  Mr Jeffries accepted that the stile could be replaced by a gate (thank you from all us increasingly un-agile oldsters) so the team did just that on March 25th.  Seems they were well looked after too.

OK for Some

The Start of it All

Finished Gate

note the yellow tag left there by Worc. County Council when path surveyed around 2000

We were asked to install two gates down by the weir where the Worcestershire Way and the Geopark Way cross from open land to trees. There are reports of motorised vehicles speeding through the woodland and the owner wished to stop it.

It was a big job, taking us 4 longish sessions to build ramps, install two RADAR gates, lengths of fencing with sheep and lamb proof netting and so on.  Moving all of the timber, rubble, netting, tools, generator to site was itself a big procedure, thanks in part, to the l/o who did take some kit down on the trailer behind his quad bike, otherwise we carried it!  Special thanks and commendations once again are owed to our leader, Jon Pearsall, who masterminded the plan, bought much of, and assembled all of the gear and generally kept us in order.  Thanks too to all of the volunteers who were able to come along.  The gates allow disabled users on mobility vehicles and in possession of a RADAR key, to open it up so they can pass through but at the same time prevents use of the gate other than for walking access.  Its design stops motorcycles for example.  Whilst trying with the combined intelligence of a dozen PONS to work out how the gates were to be assembled, we wished that we had been issued with drawings showing the exact layout so that footing holes could be dug in the correct place, one time only.  Ah well, we are used to being kept in the dark.

A final, fourth work party was held 1st Feb to attach mesh to sides and walkway.

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Wet, dirty, cold

and that was just my old pair of standard issue gloves.

Not many turned out–thanks for those who made it known that they could not be there–Ruari, Mike, Paul, Terry, Janet, Andy, Tony I recall.  Thanks too in great abundance to JP, who in short order had organized fencing, handrails and a real heavy load of kit to do a ‘special’, that is, to install two gates with ramps down by the old weir on the Teme.  The new gates are known as RADAR (Royal Association for Disability And Rehabilitation) gates that allow those on mobility scooters to open the gate with a key they carry but at the same time, walkers use a normal gate which with the hoops makes it really difficult for others e.g. illegal motorcyclists  to get through.

Big job and huge amounts to carry to the site along the Worcestershire and Geo-park ways, with sleet threatening and old snow lying around.  Tom took his ginger Discovery, sorry, gingerly took his Discovery along the track as far as he dared before unwilling hands offloaded and lugged the gear down to marshalling sites.

The combined brainpower of around 105 totalled from 7 of us, eventually worked out how we had to install the gates, their hoops, fences and ramps.  That exhausted us so much that we were forced to stagger back to Julien’s hospitality suite to enjoy minced pies, bacon butties, excellent mulled wine and a great variety of gins and vodkas brewed by JK.

We plan to have an extraordinary meet to complete the work so we can get back on to repairing our circular walks routes.  Anything like today’s gathering and it will certainly be out of the ordinary anyway.  Happy Festive Season to all our readers.

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