"Modern metalling did not exist 1,000 years ago"

A mistake in the way I phrased the sentence. The metalling is thought to be much later than the lane itself, which is hollowed into the landscape. There is nowhere for walkers or horse riders to get out of the way as the sides are around four feet deep of peat. Drivers can be pretty aggressive, very often they don't wait why you scrabble into the Wimberries in a panic as they surge forward regardless. To be fair, it's not just the tiny willy wagons of the moneyed aspirational middle class that are tearing up the local green lanes; those lunatics on motorbikes are as equally dangerous and destructive. Motors of any kind on green lanes, hollow roads and other ancient byways are like clouds - when they fuck off it's a nice day.


"The vast preponderance of recreational 4*4 users know that they must tread lightly."

How do you "tread lightly" in 3/4 ton of metal and plastic? Do you fit noise suppressors to your exhaust? Scrub the air clean on your way past? Get out and replace the displaced cobbles your 100's of quid-a-pop tyres have dislodged? Do you turn the stereo down? Can you hear the Curlews over the engine?

"You seem to wish only to sanitise and Disneyfy it."

Yeah right. You have no idea where I'm even talking about, and the landscape I walk in is far from Disneyfied. Green lanes were meant for walkers and not for lumbering, unsightly and noisy great 4x4s. I would suggest staying off them in motors would be the way to show respect and understanding for these ancient routes and the people that use them. Is there nowhere we can walk without a fucking car chugging into view and imposing it's soul-sapping noise and fume on us?

Aren't there bits of land put aside for wannabe Clarksons to get their yah-yahs without making the rest of us scramble for safety every time their air-conditioned-cut-off-from-the-environment-they're-wrecking boxy frames hove into view?

Each to his own, and although it's not my thing I can see the temptation in having a mighty car called "Warrior" or "Thunder" to enable you to rise above the rest of the great unwashed. Having used them in the US on dinosaur digs as utility vehicles I can understand their worth. Heck, it is fun being off road in one as I can attest. Thing is, once it's gone it's gone, something the Top Gear crowd seem unwilling or unable to appreciate. Our green lanes and hollow tracks are not the place for these monsters.