Godalming Town Council is urging people to get involved in a campaign being run by the Ramblers which seeks to identify and preserve rights of way that could otherwise disappear from maps altogether.

The Ramblers charity launched the Don't Lose Your Way campaign last November following the discovery that more than 49,000 miles of historic paths are missing from official maps in England and Wales.

These paths need to be claimed for inclusion on the definitive map (the legal record of rights of way) by January 2026, or could be lost forever.

In the south east of England, volunteers working as part of the campaign identified 6,221 miles of lost paths that could potentially be added to the map.

Paths identified on the map as being under threat in Godalming include one running from the junction of Brighton Road and The Drive, alongside Busbridge Infant School; from Busbridge Lane, across The Drive to Home Farm Road; through Broadwater Park, from Nursery Road and around the lake to Guildford Road; along the edge of the Milford Hospital site; bordering Milford Golf Club, with branches towards Station Lane and Portsmouth Road; past Busbridge Hall and along the edge of Lower Lake; from Upper Eashing to Halfway Lane; and paths running through woodland between Binscombe and Compton.

Jack Cornish, the Ramblers' Don't Lose Your Way programme manager, said: "At a time when, more than ever, we recognise the importance of being able to easily access green space and connect with nature, it is really important that we create better walking routes to enable everyone to explore the countryside and our towns and cities on foot.

"By getting the most useful of these paths back on the map, we will not only be saving a little bit of our history, we'll also be able to improve the existing network, creating new and better walking routes, enabling more of us to more easily enjoy the outdoors."

Mapping project.

The mapping project has for the first time given the Ramblers a true picture of the scale of missing paths, enabling them to start prioritising paths that would be the most useful additions to the definitive map, research the historic evidence and make applications to local authorities to add them to the map. Once legally recorded as rights of way, and added to the definitive map, they are protected under the law for people to use and enjoy forever. If successfully claimed, the missing paths will have the potential to increase the path network in England and Wales by up to a third. While some of the missing paths are still in use, others have become overgrown and unusable, but what they all have in common is that they did not make it onto the official definitive maps that councils were required to draw up in the 1950s. Call for volunteers.

The Ramblers are now calling on people to join its team of volunteers, researching historic evidence and submitting applications to local authorities ahead of the 2026 deadline, to get the most useful paths restored to the map. The charity is also calling on the Government to extend the deadline for registering historic paths by at least five years

Adding its voice to the call for volunteers, Godalming Town Council said in a statement: "A right of way is a path that everyone has the legal right to use on foot, and sometimes using other modes of transport: Our paths are one of our most precious assets, hidden in plain sight, and often taken for granted, they allow everyone to enjoy the countryside, both on our doorstep and across Britain's iconic landscapes. "Can you help by joining the campaign to save our paths? At least five paths in Godalming could be lost. Please visit the Ramblers.org link, sign up, do the training and work towards putting our paths on the map before they're lost forever."