Vale Path Volunteers
Introduction
The Vale Path Volunteers are the footpath maintenance team of the Vale of White Horse Ramblers Group.
We carry out the clearance of vegetation obstructing of footpaths in the Vale of White Horse Group’s Area. This stretches from Kennington, Abingdon, Kingston Bagpuize and Faringdon in the north and west to Wantage, the Hendreds, Grove and the villages as far south as the Ridgeway.
The work is carried out twice a month: the first Monday; and the third Wednesday, with additional ad-hoc sessions when necessary.
We have LANTRA-trained volunteers who use powerful petrol driven brush cutters and other selected volunteers who operate powered hedge trimmers. A miscellany of hand tools, such as secateurs, loppers, bowsaws and spring rakes are also employed.
The team works with the Oxfordshire Country Council's Countryside Access Team, which liaises with landowners. They can also suggest paths for the team to work on. We have also received suggestions for paths to be cleared from walks leaders and members of the public. These are a very important sources of information.
If you have any paths to report, or would like to join the team, please get in touch with our team leader
VPV 2025
Since its formation in 2012, the VPV team has undertaken 204 path clearance sessions and has cleared over 72,000m of paths and other public rights of way and spent almost 4,000 person-hours in doing so.
During 2025 the VPV cleared 9,754m of footpaths and other public rights of way providing 474 hours of volunteer work.
On 15 October 2025, VPV marked the clearance of its 200th path at Mill Road, Abingdon—significantly, the same site as the first path cleared on 13 March 2012 and the 100th cleared again on 2 June 2021.
This year we also have again assisted the Historic Ridgeway Volunteers for the National Trail, Working for the Ridgeway Partnership. This involved clearing work at the historical site of Scutchamer Knob on the Ridgway, South of East Hendred.