Author: Chorleyanalytics

Incident number: 907

Response  ID: 304,899,542

Date: 15.07.24

Location: On the Cotswold way in the first field just above Thrift Wood farm just outside Wood Stanley.

“As we entered the field, we saw there were young cattle across the path. The dog was on a very short leash. We walked slowly and calmly up the field. The cows who were already quite close and on the path itself. They started to show an interest in us and the dog, coming slowly towards us then running and mooing. We let the dog off the lead and she ran up the hill. The cows started coming towards us very quickly. Luckily there was a closed metal farmers gate of the side of the field and we made towards that with the cows very close and climbed over. Luckily the dog could squeeze under it as I am sure she would have been stood on. It was very scary and we then spent a long time trying to find an alternative route.”

Incident number: 902

Response ID: 304,618,394

Date: 30.06.22

Location: Near the M1 in Derbyshire when walking from Scarsdale Abbey to Bolsover Castle.

Jennifer P’s story: “My husband and I were walking from Scarsdale Hall to Bolsover Castle along public footpaths on a route we’d found online. As we neared the M1, the route took us into a field of cattle with a wire fence along one side. It was soon after an episode of Doc Martin had aired where Doc Martin had to jump over a barbed wire fence when he was being pursued by a herd of cattle, and I joked to my husband that we’d end up doing a Doc Martin if the cattle came for us. I have to admit I was wary of them. My grandad was a farmer and kept cattle. I used to play with them as a child and wasn’t scared of them at all, but there was something about the way these cattle looked at us that I didn’t like. Sure enough, we were half way through the field and they began to charge. We were near the fence and managed to get over it without injuring ourselves. But we were then trapped on a steep slope of brambles. Even if we’d fought our way up through the brambles, it led to the motorway so not an ideal escape route for pedestrians. The farmer was a hundred metres or so away cutting hedges on a tractor so we yelled and he eventually spotted us and came over. He waved the cattle away with a stick and we climbed back onto the path and went to safety. He wasn’t apologetic – he said they were just curious. They were stampeding and we could have been crushed. I wish I’d reported it to the HSE at the time but I didn’t know that you could. This is one of four near misses we’ve had with cattle in the last four years and I’m now too scared to walk anywhere near them.”

Incident number: 853

Response ID: 302,464,247

Date: 16/05/24

Location: Hadlow, Tonbridge

Dudley’s story: “I was walking on my own with my dog. Having walked dogs through cows fields for the last 40 years it was just another walk with a dog, on the lead, through a cow field. As per usual the cows were inquisitive and came up to sniff my dog’s nose, who in turn, licked the cows nose. After a couple of minutes I decided to carry on my walk. Like most days the cows follow us for a bit, about 4/5 of them. But today, as I was trying to leave them, the cow reared up making weird snorting noises!! This was some sort of call to all the other cows in the field and 20 odd more came running over, mainly huge cows with full udders. Their tails were flicking and heads swaying from side to side, they looked very agitated and virtually surrounded us. I shouted at them to move like I usually do, this time they wouldn’t. The snorting cow was still rearing up, like a horse, about 6 feet away and still looking mad! Eventually with lots of shouting and clapping I managed to slowly edge away to the gate, with a slightly pounding heart!! I have never seen the cows like this before!”

Incident number: 852

Response ID: 302,416,861

Date: 12/05/24

Location: Two incidents in North Yorkshire Moors on popular walking routes/ Cleveland Way.

Kevins Story:

“The first incident was in a field in Middleton-on-Leven that leads towards the road to Hutton Rudby, near Middlesborough. The second instance was around the Wainstones whilst walking a stretch of the Cleveland Way. The Wainstones are a place of scenic interest and the Cleveland Way is a national walkway.

The Middleton on Leven Cows: I was on the path from Bullister Gill as it meets with Scarth Wood and then emerges at Middleton on Leven. The field is the public walkway that forms the last part of this stretch. I was hiking through to the N.Yorks Moors. I saw the field and that the cows had young with them. I couldn’t see an alternate route. When I entered the field there were some moos, but nothing too severe. Once I dipped out of sight behind the gorse bushes, following the hedgerow to the exit point, the mooing became more alarmed. They weren’t charging, and were cautiously continuing to approach. I hopped the style without further incident.

The second encounter was trivial for myself personally, however the potential risk of harm or injury from cows is definitely above average. From the opposite hill these cows were visually larger than average,. Once the visible ones had grouped, I made my way to the Wainstones without incident. I thought that once up in the stones the cows wouldn’t be likely to handle the steeper terrain. I was wrong! There were huge hoof prints up through the Wainstones and right along the moortop until the next boundary wall, something like a quarter of a mile or more! Given the isolated terrain, the cliff edges and difficult terrain, plus this being a scenic point of interest and a national hiking route, these cows pose a significant risk. I’m uncertain of the breed, but they were twice the size of dairy cows and could handle mountainous terrain like a walk in the park. The calves cleared 50 metres or so in a matter of seconds. And with such a wide roaming area through gates into different boundaries there is few options for escape. Again no incident here for myself, but the risk assessment of the scenario definitely places this area above the average.”

Kevin wants “Balanced laws and public insurance policies by law for farmers, safe and secure boundaries that protect both cattle and people from harm by law, signs of risks of injury or death to humans by law where boundaries would be difficult or where scenic beauty ruined. All maps and apps to include cattle risks by law, no livestock dangerous to humans to be kept on places of scenic interest, national trails, or public rights of way by law, no livestock dangerous to humans to be kept on land more than half a mile from the farm of ownership by law, and farm ownership and contact numbers to be placed visibly clear on risk associated signs at entry and exit points to the walkways and on all cattlefields as rights to access aren’t always easy to discern.”