The majority of the footpaths across the combined parish have been used for several centuries, and were key routes in the days before motorised transport.
Perhaps the most used route was the route between the two villages, linking the two Manor Houses and also St Peters Church, crossing the River Avon at King’s Newnham Mill, and making use of what have been known in living memory as “The Planks”, and which were replaced / restored in 2018, as discussed in the specific story here. They are also in the discussion of King’s Newnham Mill here, and the picture here (courtesy L Nicholson) shows the Mill after it had been ravaged by fire, and gives a good idea of the state of the planks at that time.
Other routes provided access for farm workers, and links between local villages.
Back in 1998 the Church Lawford and King’s Newnham Villages Footpath group worked with the County Councils Parish Paths Partnership to restore local footpaths. A series of updates in the village magazine highlighted their progress. The group then put in many hours of volunteer time during the following years to renovate and upgrade those footpaths, up until the point the County Council took full responsibility for them (see colour map below).
There is a very useful website provided by Warwickshire County Council showing these public rights of way in the county. It also provides a mechanism to log any issue found on the various routes. Low resolution snapshots of that site are shown below with the routes shown as blue dotted lines. For the appropriate and up to date information please visit https://rowreporting.warwickshire.gov.uk/CAMSWeb/standardmap.aspx
The original sandstone road bridge between the two villages was extensively upgraded in the early 21st century following a number of incidents that had damaged it.
Another bridge of note in the village is the Skew bridge on Rugby Road, which was built when the railway needed to cross the main Rugby to Coventry Road. The height restriction and the drainage challenges have brought more attention than might have been expected.
Flooding at the Skew Bridge has been a regular occurrence over the years – the story below is from “The Advertiser” of March 1931.
The railway bridges in Middle Lane (Coronation Rd) and Limestone Hall Lane are both spanning a deep cutting, so did not need a complete replacement when the railway line was electrified in the 1960s – unlike the bridges in Long Lawford which had to be extensively remodelled.