Discovering Green Lanes

This is the essential handbook for anyone interested in green lanes. Valerie Belsey shows how to identify them on the ground, how to recognise them on antique maps, and how to locate documents and other records which will reveal who used them in past times. She also discusses their ecological value, the current controversy about who should be able to use them, and how to get involved in restoring and protecting lanes in your area. Discovering Green Lanes includes useful contact information, key dates in highway history and sample survey forms for recording wildlife in your local green lane.

Valerie Belsey

Valerie Belsey gained her love of exploring country lanes from her father, a cyclist who thought nothing of cycling from London to Combe Martin and back for the weekend – a round trip of 395 miles. On a much more modest scale she managed an MSc Government project on green lanes in the 1980s, and later worked for Devon County Council as the only ‘historic highway monuments surveyor’ ever. She is an ardent enthusiast and archivist for our countryside. Her other books include Exploring Green Lanes: North and North-West Devon, The Green Lanes of England, Discovering Green Lanes, Exploring Green Lanes in the South Hams and Devcn Roads, Past and Present.