Footpaths to the past: ‘We must keep our ancient tracks alive by walking them’

Path across the North York Moors – ‘over long periods, paths become distinct ecosystems, quite different to the surrounding landscape.’ All photographs: Jim Leary Photograph: Jim Leary

It’s not lost on me, the irony of writing about mobility while sitting at my desk for hours, with a bent spine and cramped stomach. I’ve spent the last few years writing a book about past movement and mobility; footprints becoming trails that turn into a torrent of trods and roads.

My body wouldn’t allow for this stillness, so I went for walks. My lunchtime stroll was through a small wood on the top of the Chiltern hills, on the edge of the south Oxfordshire village where I lived at the time.