A byway in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

is a track, often rural, which is too minor to be called a road. These routes are often unsurfaced, typically having the appearance of ' green lanes'. Despite this, it is legal (but may not be physically possible) to drive any type of vehicle along certain byways, the same as any ordinary tarmac road. In 2000 the legal term 'restricted byway' was introduced to cover rights of way along which it is legal to travel by any mode (including on foot, bicycle, horse-drawn carriage etc.) but excluding 'mechanically propelled vehicles'. Byway road sign

Access rights

Byway open to all traffic

England & Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Engl ...

, a byway open to all traffic (BOAT) is a highway over which the public have a

right of way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

for vehicular and all other kinds of traffic but which is used by the public mainly for the purposes for which footpaths and

bridleway A bridle path, also bridleway, equestrian trail, horse riding path, ride, bridle road, or horse trail, is a trail or a thoroughfare that is used by people riding horses, riding on horses. Trails originally created for use by horses often now s ...

s are used (i.e. walking, cycling or horse riding (United Kingdom Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, section 15(9)(c), as amended by

Road Traffic (Temporary Restrictions) Act 1991 A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

, Schedule 1). Byways account for less than 2% of England's unsurfaced rights of way network, the remainder being

footpath A footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) is a type of thoroughfare that is intended for use only by pedestrians and not other forms of traffic such as motorized vehicles, bicycles and horses. They can be found in a wide ...

s and

s. A byway open to all traffic is sometimes waymarked using a red arrow on a metal or plastic disc or by red paint dots on posts and trees. Byways can be found using the Council definitive map or a third party mapping software such as SmartTrail by All Terrain Uk.

Restricted byways

On 2 May 2006 the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 reclassified all remaining roads used as public paths as restricted byways. The public's rights along a restricted byway are to travel: *on foot *on horseback or leading a horse *by vehicle other than mechanically propelled vehicles (thus permitting e.g. bicycles, horse-drawn carriages, to travel along restricted byways), except in certain circumstances. A restricted byway may be waymarked with a plum or purple arrow.

Nature and history of byways

Some byways that have not been over-modernised retain traces of the ''aggers'' or ditches that originally ran along each side of the lane; good examples of this can be seen along the side of the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

Ermine Street Ermine Street is a major Roman road in England that ran from London ('' Londinium'') to Lincoln ('' Lindum Colonia'') and York ('' Eboracum''). The Old English name was ''Earninga Strǣt'' (1012), named after a tribe called the ''Earn ...

" in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

. By contrast, straight enclosure roads which were laid out between 1760 and 1840 run through the then newly enclosed lands with straight walls or hedges. Grendon, Northamptonshire byway

Many former Roman roads were later designated as parish boundaries – unlike the newer enclosure roads which rarely ran along boundaries but were solely designed to give access from a village to its newly created fields and to the neighbouring villages. The latter can often be seen to bend and change width at the parish boundary: this reflects the work of the different surveyors who had each built a road from a village to its boundary. If the roads did not meet up exactly, which was quite common, a sharp double bend would result.

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