Includes a polite argument about land access and the right to roam.

I sat down on an overgrown, underused bench outside a derelict timber-framed pub to squeeze out my socks. The men in hi-vis jackets from the water board had warned of a deep flood on the road, but I thought, ‘Come on, lads, how deep can it be?’ and pedalled on. 

‘Pretty deep,’ was the answer. 

Now I had wet shoes and socks for squelching around today’s grid square. Well done, me! 

Unique on my map, but very welcome, was a long strip of grass beside the road. It would not have been of much interest except that it was marked on the map as ‘land available for access on foot’. Beyond the slender threads of footpaths and the declining municipal parks, this was a rare example of the 8 percent of England that is open-access land for anyone to roam freely.