Physical Character
From Somerton Road the footpath follows the service road at the back of the Bensley Road properties. It is about 15 feet wide with a hardcore surface. At the end of the houses it becomes a green lane and curves northwest narrowing to about nine feet wide between cultivated land with gradually a rising bank about six feet high on the east side, and farther on, on the left a hedge of holly, oak, ivy, hawthorn, elder, elm and ash. The green lane then becomes the road named Damgate Back Lane which is a surfaced road in front of houses.
After the houses the track becomes a green lane again, 12 feet wide, with a hedge on the north side of hawthorn, blackthorn, elm, maple and elder and on the south side crab apple and hazel are also included. On the north side are three trees as shown on 1884 map. This green lane continues eastwards towards the boundary with Somerton with no hedges alongside, finally becoming a path across a cultivated field to the Parish boundary with West Somerton where it continues along the edge of a field beside a bank where there was once a hedge.
Historical Ecology
This green lane is shown on Faden’s Map and on the Enclosure Map of 1812, however it is not numbered on that map. This may be because it was already a well established route and therefore no comment or reference was needed.
