Text 1: Keeping the ridge path open, by Imogen Rees

An original contemporary online feature.

At eight on Saturday morning, six of us meet ranger Ellis at the gate to the ridge path. A rota on Ellis’s phone lists the sections and jobs for the day. Two of us start on the drains, while the rest cut back brambles and repaint waymarkers. There is one long-handled cutter and one pair of loppers, so we pass them along as we move down the path.

The rain has left one drain blocked with leaves and mud. We clear it by hand, then carry the mud in buckets to the path edge. Each time the cutter reaches us, walkers stop to ask whether the path is open, and we put the tools down to answer. By lunchtime, our section is only half finished. Ellis notes what remains on the rota for the next group.

Text 2: A parish path in my keeping, by Arthur Bell

An original memoir written in a nineteenth-century voice; a period simulation, not an archival document.

In this extract, the writer recalls looking after the footpaths of a country parish in the 1880s.

In the year 1884 I was appointed to look after the footpaths of our parish. I went about with a spade upon my shoulder and a tin of paint in my bag. On my rounds I mended loose stones, cleared nettles from narrow stretches and marked wooden stiles where a walker might otherwise miss the turn.

After a wet spell, the water would often cut across the path. One such morning I had intended to repaint two stiles, but the water had washed soil over a long stretch. I dug a channel to lead it away, working until the ground was firm enough to take a boot. It took most of the day; the stiles had to wait until my next round. Farmers sometimes pointed out fallen branches or damaged stiles as I passed.

Using information from both texts, explain briefly what looking after footpaths involved and how the organisation of the work affected the repairs that could be completed. You should make it clear which text you are referring to.