Stowupland's Footpaths and canseys
Our village Green and our surrounding fields are criss- crossed with many footpaths, and in the past there were many more.These would have been the tracks used by local people to get to work and visit friends and relatives. In the winter they must have been extremely muddy.
In the 20th century it has become the responsibility of the parish council to ensure these are safe thoroughfares.
For Telstar 374, Neil Langridge shared his research into ‘cansers and their repairs. He explained Carnser, Caunsey, Cansey or Karnser was described by A.O. D Claxton as the Suffolk Dialect name for a raised path or causeway, usually through marshy land.
In the parish account books he found examples of regular payments being made for maintaining some village causeways. In 1690 a Robert Page was paid 5 shillings and 6 pence for”mending the cansey in Saxham Street” and 5 shillings and 4 pence for ” repairing the cansey at Thorney Green.” There were also regular references to ‘the rayle cansey’. Although the location of this is unknown Neil adds it was presumably provided with a hand rail.
It should also be remembered that before 1937 Stowupland’s boundary was much nearer the River Gipping and so for many Stowuplanders even after Holy Trinity Church was built, the church in Stowmarket would still had been the nearest church. Neil queries whether the reference he found in the account book to ‘the church cansey’ could refer to the raised footway opposite Stowmarket church in what is now Station Road and still known as The Karnser.
In the 1930s the parish council opted to use cinders or cinderdirt rather than gravel to surface footpaths, but it was not always available. And as can be seen, even a hundred years ago, vehicular damage to the Green was a problem.
Though not sure whether the parish council has had any recent problems with poulty in the cemetery.
{See SLHG Archives/OS2/scrapbooks}
In the 1970s footpaths were giving the parish council headaches. The dangerous riding of ‘motorcycles by young lads on the village Green and on footpaths’ and very poor attendance at a public meeting to discuss the new definitive map regarding parish footpaths. The meeting was intended as a forum of farmers, landowners and members of the public to air their views. Only 2 members of the public turned up.
More recently the pedestrian footpaths across the green have been hard-andscaped as it has become increasingly necessary to provide safe walkways for pedestrians away from fast moving traffic.
They also provide an essential safe route for residents with limited mobility who can now use mobility scooters and for parents pushing prams and pushchairs. However conflict arises between cyclists who also wish to use them to avoid fast moving traffic but can create their own hazards.
In 1963 the parish council decided to ask the County Council to signpost 3 footpaths that ran through the parish
- one from the boundary of Stowmarket, from a point near Spoonman’s barn to Saxham Street
- another from Preston Hill via the Green to the School (primary)
- the third from the school to Creeting St Peter.
This invoice for repair work carried out on Stowupland footpaths in May was found in a 1965 diary of Jack Carter. No mention of the work is made in the diary entries so we don’t know where the footpaths were.
