Unsanctioned Building On Holmbury Hill.

Over the last couple of years many MTB riders local to Holmbury/Peaslake have been working very hard to paint us riders in a good light to the Hurtwood control. This culminated in the Hurtwood control taking a very open minded view of us and allowing sanctioned trailbuilding/maintenance.

The most high profile and obvious advantage of this is that funding was obtained to rebuild the bottom section of the trail known as BarryKnowsBest.

Back in the autumn approx 500 metres of fresh trail was built by a trailbuilding contractor. This has been mainly greeted as a very good thing, and is ridden by A LOT of riders, and even the local residents are in favour of the ‘management’ of a few MTB trails.

This weekend someone decided to build two large jumps on this new section of trail. Whoever it was has dug a VERY large pit, and buried quite a few logs on the fastest part of the trail after a bermed corner. A local resident witnessed the jump/s being built and is absolutely fuming about MTB riders wielding spades and pick axes in the forest in an unsanctioned way.

The jumps have been removed and a build day will have to arranged to ‘tidy-up’ the aftermath.

This is an incredibly selfish act from certain individuals showing no consideration for other trail users on the busiest trail in the Surrey hills. It has also damaged the new section of  trail that as mentioned before has been funded with the help of the Surrey hills AONB.

If you know who did this please ask them to not do it again.

More Logging On Holmbury Hill.

A forestry programme of tree thinning and felling will be taking place on Holmbury hill throughout 2010. As some of you may have seen (or unexpectedly run into the logging around Resevior dogs) already.

Some of the existing trails on Holmbury will be affected including BKB(see map below). This work is necessary(as it a working forest) and we would ask you to please heed any warning notices of forestry operations.

More information can be found on the Hurtwood Rangers site.

BKB – new section now open

Thanks to Mark Beaumont’s handy chainsaw skills, the new section at the end of BKB was opened and the old section closed in a couple of hours flat last Thursday. There’s been no big announcement, partly because thousands (OK, well, hundreds) of riders going and playing on the trail at the same time might not be ideal. Suffice to say, you’ll find that the new section’s now wide open. This has been a big effort from Hurtwood Control, the Volunteers, Surrey Hills AONB, Mei Black at Extreme Tracks, Ian Warby at CTC and various other helpers, trail builders and general keen people over several years. It’s not just a case of digging a trail, although Mei and Ian have done a fantastic job of that; this new section is a new one for us and the Surrey Hills – a professionally built trail paid for with development money.
Anyway, let us (or more importantly, Hurtwood Control) know what you think. If you really like it, and haven’t done so before, don’t forget to become a Friend of the Hurtwood – it’s a five minute job to sign up, and you’ll be supporting a great charity that cares about access for all.

 

Many thanks to Russel Alford for the pic.

Holmbury Hill – car park closure [edit - actually, it's open]

It looks like Car Park 9, next to Felbury House in Holmbury, will be closed until further notice. There’s more on the Hurtwood Ranger’s blog.
The car park is well-used by mountain bikers and horse riders, so if you know someone who is driving to the trails this weekend, let them know.

Actually, Mark B’s just said the closure is off for now. More news when we get it.

Big orienteering event on Leith Hill this weekend

This weekend, between 2,000 and 3,000 entrants will compete in a *huge* orienteering event in Surrey. JK 2008 will  include an event on Leith Hill on Saturday, and one checkpoint will be on Summer Lightning. If you’re planning a ride this weekend, then please be on the lookout for runners, and please make sure you keep an eye out should you ride Summer Lightning.

Local farmer ploughs online

Manor Farm, on the outskirts of Wotton has launched a new website to keep farm users, visitors and locals up to date with what’s going on, down at the farm. The farm backs on to the trails leading onto Leith Hill and many of us will cross its boundaries without really knowing it.

Manor Farm hit the headlines recently when there was a suspected Foot & Mouth outbreak, which thankfully was not the case.

The website has all the latest news and information about the farm, its activities, the history of the farm and its involvement in country stewardship. It’s a great looking site and will knock the detractors who see farming as backward.

If you ride in the Surrey Hills, you need to read this

We’ve not posted an update on the recent Hurtwood Control meeting on the 25h July for mountain bikers
here, although we’ve been busy elsewhere. So here’s what’s happened – and why you should care.

Hurtwood Control is the biggest land manager in the Surrey Hills. It manages Holmbury Hill and a lot of Pitch Hill, too.

Hurtwood is a remarkably forward-thinking organisation, and it’s also dedicated to public access to the land it manages. This was effectively brought about by a Deed of Dedication signed in 1926 – the current owner of the Bray estate is the great neice (I think that’s right) of the original signatory of the Deed.

However, mountain biking on Hurtwood land has reached a point where it’s starting to have a detrimental impact on both the land and other land users. Hurtwood has to act.

Rather than simply ban mountain bikes, they want to get us involved and help them manage the problem they have.

That means that you – and your mates, and anyone else who rides in the Surrey Hills – needs to get involved in one way or another. Here’s a list of what you can do.

1) Join Hurtwood Control.
If you think the riding you enjoy on Hurtwood Control land is worth more than £25, you’d be right. Hurtwood Control membership costs £25 a year and allows the Control to keep managing the land. The more money – and the more mountain bikers – join Hurtwood Control, the better for them, and the better for us. The application form can be downloaded here.

2) Keep off Parklife / Yoghurt Pots for now.
The trail from the top of Holmbury Hill enjoys lots of swoops – and those swooopy bits are actually a scheduled ancient monument – an Iron age Hill Fort. English Heritage has the power to do all kinds of nasty things if we don’t stop riding – and damaging it. So lay off for a bit, please.

3) Get involved in Hurtwood.
If you’re willing to help move earth, or even put some of your non-biking skills to use helping organise things, drop mtb(at)hurtwoodcontrol.co.uk a line.

If you want to know more, drop us a line, or ask around – don’t take our word for it. This is really important stuff!
I saw a lot of people from local bike shops at the meeting, including Dave from Cycleworks, Dan from Head for the Hills, and Jackie from Nirvana. Richard from Surrey Hills MTB tours, Ian Warby from CTC, and a chap from IMBA UK were also in attendance. Ask them what happened, how you can help and what they think.

Alternatively, take a look at these accounts:

Chocolatefoot

STW

More STW

Yet more STW

NIrvana

Government hears the call of cyclists

The government has been revising the Highway Code, which for those mountain bikers who train on the road or commute on a bike is of importance.

Rules 61 and 63 were causing some concern in the cycling world and led to a campaign to ensure that the revisions initially proposed did not enter the code. A revised version of the revions of rules 61 and 63 has now been agreed. The initial one basically led the bike community to fear that it would have to use a cycle lane even if there were problems with it. The revision now states:

61 Cycle Routes and Other Facilities. Use cycle routes, advanced stop lines, cycle boxes and toucan crossings unless at the time it is unsafe to do so. Use of these facilities is not compulsory and will depend on your experience and skills, but they can make your journey safer.

63 Cycle Lanes. These are marked by a white line (which may be broken) along the carriageway. When using a cycle lane, keep within the lane when practicable. When leaving a cycle lane check before pulling out that it is safe to do so and signal your intention clearly to other road users. Use of cycle lanes is not compulsory and will depend on your experience and skills, but they can make your journey safer.

Provided that there are no objections in Parliament to the proposed revisions we should be able to publish the new edition of the Highway Code by the end of September. Any delay in issuing the Code would mean delaying the benefits of applying all the improved advice for all road users that it contains, including advice to motorists to be more aware of vulnerable road users such as cyclists.

Update on Foot-and-Mouth scare

The BBC is reporting that initial tests show that there is not a case of Foot-and-Mouth in Wotton near Westcott.  Its report says:

"Meanwhile, the BBC has learned the first batch of tests at a suspect farm outside the existing surveillance zone have come back negative."

DEFRA has placed a map of the area covered by the temporary control zone here: http://www.gisdiseasemap.defra.gov.uk/intmaps/FMD/map.jsp?xyRef=514031.5129805455,148772.565872486&scale=20000&label=&xylabel=%20%20%20&zoomOrID=zoom

Redlands Trails will place further updates on this blog as they come in.

Suspected case of Foot-and-Mouth in Wotton

There is a suspected case of foot-and-mouth in the Surrey Hills near Dorking. Described by government officials as a "clinical suspicion"; a temporary control zone of 1.8 miles has been put in place around the farm at Wotton, near Westcott.

The control zone has been set up after an initial assessment of the herd was inconclusive. The farm is leased by Laurence Matthews who has told the BBC that he is confident that his herd is not suffering from the disease. Tests are being carried out today in what the government are calling a "developing disease situation".

Two local bike shops in the area have reported that at present the main trails onto Leith and Holmbury Hill are open. Last weekend the National Trust’s Longbarn Farm off the Pilgrims Way placed disinfected straw matting down near cattle grids onto its property.

If you are riding in the area, please respect any signage from DEFRA, farmers or land owners asking you not to use trails and bridleways, it is better that we nip this thing in the bud before we have to suffer a total ban on land access.

Redlands Trails will check the trails tonight and place a further update on this blog as soon as possible.
This BBC article has all the facts and a good map of the exclusion zone.