Byway (road)

A byway in the United Kingdom is a track, often rural, which is too minor to be called a road.

Despite this, it is legal (but may not be physically possible) to drive any type of vehicle along certain byways, the same as any ordinary tarmac road.

Byways account for less than 2% of England's unsurfaced rights of way network, the remainder being footpaths and bridleways.

[1][2] On 2 May 2006 the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 reclassified all remaining roads used as public paths as restricted byways.

Many former Roman roads were later designated as parish boundaries – unlike the newer enclosure roads which rarely ran along boundaries but were solely designed to give access from a village to its newly enclosed fields and to the neighbouring villages.