Bring back the Packhorse trails!

Packhorse trails - used in the North of England up to the early years of the twentieth century to deliver milk and coal to outlying farms - are under threat. In the South Pennines even the former old packhorse road - the original highway between Halifax and Wakefield, known as the Magna Via, is now designated a mere ‘footpath'. Lanes centuries old are not even recorded as public rights of way. Disrupted by reservoirs, other routes have recently been closed through water privatisation.

Just in time, this ancient network - pioneered even before the monks developed routes between their medieval abbeys - could be saved. The South Pennine Packhorse Trails Project is being launched with backing from the Countryside Commission, the Civic Trust, South Pennine Authorities, UK 2000 and the British Horse Society. Their investment in the next year or so could amount to over £150,000.