I've had a query regarding corpses and the creation of rights of way across private land. On asking our highways seciton this is the reply I got.
Kath
This is an ancient law that has yet to be repealed. For a piece of land to fall within the criteria of a public right of way the body needed to be carried under the arms, if the bearers of the body measured over 6 foot in height or at least two foot above the head if the bearers of the corpse were shorter i.e. 5' 8" .
It was quite unusual for corpses to be carried in this fashion as the families often preferred the bodies to be carried in coffins or shrouds so that the bodies were hidden from view of the public.
When corpses were carried out of the coffin and across land the land in the fashion described above then that piece of land became highway and obtained highways rights the ' r ' in corpse was removed and the highways were named 'Copse', hence Copse Hill Sutton, Copse Hill Purley etc.
In some instances the bodies were so rotten and fragile that they would fall apart or explode and often got scattered over large areas. In this instance the land was designated as a 'super highway', and they were given numbers to identify them, the number was dependant on the number pieces that the body ended up in, these 'super highways' then became motorways and kept the number associated with the 'super highway' hence, M3, M4 or if really bad M25.
Hope that this helps.
How long did it take you??? Seriously - any real comments gratefully received
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