The Public Footpath Mystery
The Public Footpath Mystery
About
This activity looks at the issue of public spaces, focusing on the mysterious disappearance of public footpath signs in a countryside village, the conflicts that can arise between members of the public and landowners as a result of confusion, and the importance of knowing your rights.
The video leads into an activity encouraging the class to break off into groups and discuss the mystery in further detail, looking at the suspects and their motives.
The video is accompanied by a slideshow which contains information about possible suspects and their various links to each other and the surrounding community. The characters are open to interpretation so the class will be encouraged to flesh out the details of each character and their possible involvement, creating a collection of evidence including social media posts/threads by the characters, before culminating in a class-based courtroom drama where evidence can be cross-examined. Included in the slideshow, for reference, are some relevant links to an article about private land in the UK, and a link to the official UK ramblers website which contains a breakdown of the law surrounding public rights of way.
Resources and links
Downloads
Click on the document title to download the resource.
These pdfs are compatible with screen readers and other access features in Adobe Reader. For more information on how to access these features, click here.
Resources Required
- Laptop/Projector/TV etc
- Pen
- Paper
Simple Acts
- Take a Walk
Area of Learning and Experience
- Language, Literacy and Communication
- Health and Wellbeing
- Humanities
Created by
Liam McKenna has written and performed a series of comedy shows with Pembrokeshire-based group Fire Donkey Productions (winners of the ‘Best Original Piece’ Award, Swindon Fringe 2017), with whom he has toured various theatres, festivals, pubs and barns in the UK, and also appeared once at the Stockholm Fringe Festival, completely on purpose. Liam has recently been performing with comedy collective Unpronounceable Comedy, helping to bring live comedy to the people of Pembrokeshire. When there isn’t a pandemic, Liam runs the St Davids comedy walking tour, the first of its kind, and has recently got into foraging and researching medieval monks for a book he plans to write. He lives in a field in north Pembrokeshire with a dog and some geese and has had a bad year growing beans.
