The lure of the countryside can be as strong for disabled people as everyone else – and often the only barriers to enjoying it turn out to be man-made.
“I have nearly always been disabled, with a disorder which has developed very slowly over many years,” explains Michael Bruton MBE, the founder and first Chairman of Disabled Ramblers. “At school I was unable to take part in sports, and in my teens I looked for alternative activities, mainly cycling and walking. I could ride 40 miles, or walk 10 miles in a day, and went away youth hosteling with my brother.
“On a cycle tour of Wales in 1953 I fell in love with Snowdonia and, for the next six years, I went up mountains every year – culminating with a climb involving my fiancé. This was in 1960. We attempted to climb Sgurr Dearg, one of the peaks in the Black Cuillin range on Skye. We nearly reached the summit, but were defeated by a very exposed final 60 feet up to the top.”
The Cuillin climb proved to be his last but, with a walking stick for support, he and his first wife continued to take on slightly easier routes. By 1990, though, his mobility had become very restricted; not a problem in his career with British Airways but, when looking for a challenge to raise funds for charity, certainly a potential barrier to completing a 50 mile walk along the Ridgeway National Trail through the North Wessex Downs and the Chilterns.
“I couldn’t walk it, so with the help of colleagues at BA, we decided to do it by rickshaw, using four teams of friends, tasking each team to pull me along very rutted tracks for 12 miles or so,” he adds. “BA apprentices built me a luxurious sprung machine, fitted with an economy class airplane seat. There were stainless steel pulling bars, and places to push – just right for six attendants at a time, all working hard.”
Shortly after this “ramble”, Michael retired from BA and joined the Disabled Drivers’ Association (DDA) as Executive Director. Around the same time, he noted that mobility scooters were becoming increasingly available, and began looking into the possibility of using them for country rambling. In 1992 Michael organised a ramble along 40 miles of the Ridgeway trail, attended by around 10 scooter- and wheelchair-using DDA members.
The next step was to establish an affiliated group attached to the DDA, called the Countryside Access Group. “Over the next five years I organised an annual challenge ramble open to anyone interested. After three years on the Ridgeway, we moved to the New Forest, keeping the weekend 40 mile format unchanged.”
By 1997 the group had expanded significantly, with up to 200 active members encouraged by a reduction in average distances undertaken on rambles as well as an increased choice of routes – including the Thames Valley, and Kielder Forest in Northumbria. With support from fellow members Robin Helby and Rosie Norris, the group evolved into an independent registered charity, Disabled Ramblers.
This coincided with a new breed of mobility scooter – the Tramper, developed by Wiltshire-based design and development company Beamer Ltd, with significant input from Michael, Robin, and other members of Disabled Ramblers. In the first instance, the company built five bespoke off-road scooters as a “proof of concept”; word of mouth quickly spread, however and the scale of demand – along with an inability at the time to find a partner company to take on their scooter construction – ultimately persuaded Beamer to start making these heavy-duty scooters themselves.
“Another key thing was the opening of the Thames Footpath, a long distance path from Oxford down to London,” explains current Director of Disabled Ramblers, John Cuthbertson. “Michael, Robin and three other members – Roger Fitzwater and John Hill and I – decided to do it over two or three days. On a recce they encountered so many stiles, they knew they couldn’t do it. Ever inventive, Robin designed and build a pair of ramps that would go over the stiles.”
Michael adds: “Starting with a bespoke lightweight trailer, Robin designed and built a comprehensive bridge structure which could be quickly assembled and enabled our scooters and wheelchair to be helped over all the obstacles encountered en route. We had great fun and mercifully avoided falling into the river. Robin was almost without fear and I was more than happy to follow his wheel tracks over treacherous ground, where often the overgrown vegetation hid deep holes in the river bank!”
At the end of their expedition, the Disabled Ramblers were met by a representative from the then Countryside Commission – now Natural England – which had set up the path, along with a government minister. The necessity of the team’s somewhat precarious bridge aid made a significant point.
“It started people realising that the countryside could be accessed by disabled people,” John explains. “By then we had the Disability Discrimination Act which also gave us a bit more leverage. Michael and Robin used to attend lots of different committees. One of the things that came out of this was a Countryside Commission document called ‘By All Reasonable Means’ – it said the countryside should be made accessible to everyone, by any means possible.”
It’s important to remember that disabled ramblers are no less keen than their non-disabled peers to go off-road, to get away from bespoke, manicured pathways. “All we’ve been asking for,” John insists, “is the removal of man-made barriers. We’re definitely not asking for the countryside to be tarmaced over; what we want is natural countryside that doesn’t stop us because there are stiles, steps, bridges that are too narrow, or gates which are locked. It’s just man-made obstacles that we want removing.”
Nearly two decades on, however, John recognises that such barriers are often still in place; while stiles are now being removed, too many are being replaced with gates and bridges which even smaller mobility scooter have difficulty passing through.
“I think that, unless there’s an national directive, it’ll just carry on,” he says. “A gate that’s smaller than a larger one is going to be cheaper, and takes up less space in the farmer’s fence. Stiles can generally only be replaced with the farmer’s permission and, depending on the area that you’re in, there’s often a paranoia about motorbikes getting through. What we say is: if you’ve got to have a barrier, then a larger gate – which can only be opened by undoing a padlock for which you need a RADAR key – is a fairly secure way of ensuring we can get through while keeping cars and motorbikes out. But of course they cost a bit more, take up a bit more space and so the easiest thing is to put in something smaller.”
Luckily, John local authority, Worcestershire County Council, is an example of what can be done; they recently opened an “Easy Access” route between March Hare and White Ladies Aston, devised in conjunction with Disabled Ramblers and the local Round Table. “Myself and my wife, who is disabled, walked round with the council before they started any work, and showed them what we needed, and then they designed the bridges and put in the gates to suit our needs. A lot of the problem is not understanding what is possible, what they can do.”
Disabled Ramblers (www.disabledramblers.co.uk) runs more than two-dozen regional and national rambles every year across England and Wales, taking place in all weathers and across a variety of terrains. Some are suitable for standard shopping buggies and power chairs while others require large scooters capable of traveling over rough ground.
North of the Border, disabled people keen to get out and about the countryside in the company of likeminded people can join either Forth and Tay Disabled Ramblers (www.forthandtaydisabledramblers.org.uk) or Highland Disabled Ramblers (www.highland-disabled-ramblers.org), depending on their geographical location.
First published in Walk #Autumn 2015.
