Jake the spaniel, when he s not worrying about disappearing trees, is a bit concerned about our footpaths. Much as he enjoys walking beside the road he s also quite keen to explore Soham s network of alleys and footpaths. The news that footpath 39, oth

Jake the spaniel, when he's not worrying about disappearing trees, is a bit concerned about our footpaths. Much as he enjoys walking beside the road he's also quite keen to explore Soham's network of alleys and footpaths. The news that "footpath 39," otherwise known as Thorn Lane, that runs from Thorn Street to Mereside is under threat depressed him quite a lot.

Apparently Thorn Lane used to be a bridleway, wide enough for a man to lead a horse, but now shows up on the County Council map as a path. The people living adjacent to the Lane are asking that it be deleted from the list of rights of way, possibly because one of them has built a garage on it. If you are not sure where it is it turns off Thorn Street opposite Dadels Hobbs's cottage that burned down in 1909 and comes out on Mereside.

Other paths that worry Jake are Gooseberry Arcade and the alley from the Crescent to Fordham Road. His main worry about these are the amount of rubbish that are strewn about. Although he appreciates the interesting smells that the rubbish harbours he thinks it would be better if it wasn't there, especially the two copies of Yellow Pages in the alley.