In England and Wales, other than in the 12 Inner London Boroughs and the City of London, public rights of way are paths on which the public have a legally protected right to pass and re-pass. The law in England and Wales differs from that in Scotland in that rights of way only exist where they are so designated (or are able to be designated if not already) whereas in Scotland any route that meets certain conditions is defined as a right of way, and in addition there is a general presumption of access to the countryside. Private rights of way or easements also exist.
Footpaths and other rights of way in most of England and Wales are shown on definitive maps. A definitive map is a record of public rights of way in England and Wales. In law it is the definitive record of where a right of way is located. The highway authority (normally the county council, or unitary authority in areas with a one-tier system) has a statutory duty to maintain a definitive map, though in national parks the National Park Authority usually maintains the map.
Here where the Right of Way crosses a field boundary a stile is in plce for the use of walkers. In the United Kingdom many stiles were built under legal compulsion for Rights of way. For that reason a wide variety of designs exist. Recent changes in UK government policy towards farming has encouraged landowners in upland areas to make their land more available to the public, and this has seen an increase in the number of stiles and an improvement in their overall condition. However, on popular paths, stiles are increasingly replaced by gates or kissing gates – or, where the field is arable, the stile can be removed altogether, as there are no longer any animals to control.
Stiles also sometimes have a ‘dog latch’ or ‘dog gate’ to the side of them, which can be lifted to enable a dog to get through.
There is a British Standard that includes stiles BS5709:2006 Gaps Gates & Stiles (ISBN 0 580 48107 7). It says "New structures shall not be stiles unless exceptional circumstances require them."
An alternative form of stile is a squeeze stile, which is commonly used where footpaths cross dry stone walls in England. Instead of climbing over the wall using wooden or stone crossbars, there is a vertical gap in the wall, usually no more than 25 centimetres (9.8 in) wide, and usually with stone pillars on either side to protect the structure of the wall. The gap must be narrow enough that any livestock in the fields either side of the stile would not be able to fit through.
The church in the background is the church of St. Johnwhich is a cruciform building of flint and stone with a west tower. It was entirely rebuilt in the middle of the eighteenth century, in an interesting Gothic style, and the west tower dates from 1873. The east window of the chancel, and those in the north transept, are of three lights with arched heads and tracery, all the rest being square-headed, with three cinquefoiled lights. The interior as far as the fittings are concerned, the only woodwork being the altar rails with their twisted balusters of eighteenth-century date. There are a large number of floor slabs to members of the Wallop family, and two large mural monuments of eighteenth century date in the south transept. On the south side of the chancel is an altar tomb of sixteenth-century date with quatrefoiled panels, in one of which is the Wallop coat: on the tomb is a Purbeck marble slab with indents of the brass figures of a man and his wife, with what may have been a figure of the Trinity over, and four shields at the angles. At the west end of the nave is the indent of another late brass on a broken slab, the remainder of which is in the chancel floor within the altar rails.
