Bob Bolton: Yes UK, Yes a modern song about a now outdated practice.

There are examples still in the UK countryside of old drove roads. These were used by the drovers for the movement of mainly sheep & cattle, sometimes over significant distances, in UK and cattle terms at least :-). Poultry, esp geese & ducks were also customarily driven to market on foot.

Many have now been metalled but some remain green. They can often be distinguished by having disproportionately wide verges, few ditches, and solid stock-proof hedges or walls. The idea being that the stock were kept from browsing the crops they passed, but could pick up some sustenance en route.

What has actually saved many of these old roads is their becoming redundant in the new railway age, as descibed in the song, leading to a sort of benign neglect. They make good footpaths where the latest craze of off-roading isn't finally doing for them.