The Offa's Dyke Path Improvement Project
- On this page:
- Videos
- Online services and attachments
- Related information
- Contact details
Shropshire Council is continuing to upgrade and improve the Offa’s Dyke Path in Shropshire, building on the work that was started in 1999, although the whole route has now received some attention there are still improvements to be made along certain sections of the National Trail, along with the ongoing maintenance.
These improvements have been mainly up-graded waymarking and off road-side signage, along with surface work on sections of the trail that have been causing problems to Users, one such section that has been tackled by the "In-House" Team is at Middle Knuck in Mainstone to the west of Bishops Castle. This section of National Trail has been rather waterlogged for many years especially in the winter months and had three area of work carried out on it.
Where landowners have permitted, we have started to install either wooden self-closing wicket gates or wooden kissing gate kits to aid access for Walkers and this will hopefully be an ongoing scheme as part of the Council's "Least Resistance Policy" over the next couple of years, as and when stiles are considered for replacement.
Contractors have been called upon for projects requiring specialist skills or machinery, these being the replacement of a footbridge near Garbett Hall in Llanfair Waterdine and the replacement of two flights of steps and associated stile and gates at Orsewdden and Nantmawr, both to the west of Oswestry.
Natural England (formerly the Countryside Agency) has been grant aided a large proportion of this work as part of their network of National Trails that cover the whole of England.
A large majority of the work undertaken recently has been within the Scheduled Area of the Offa’s Dyke Monument, A designation to protect the archaeological heritage of the Dyke. This requires a slightly different standard of specification from that implemented in the areas outside the Scheduled Area and has meant that the surface have had to be "built-up" by stoning to help reduce the wear by walkers to the Dyke itself and to satisfy the scheduling requirements of not disturbing the Monument.