The name of my friend, Margaret Bowdery, who has died aged 83, will be forever linked with the public footpaths of east Berkshire.
When she moved to Maidenhead in 1964 the paths were in a dire state. An officer from the former Berkshire county council told her that they were not needed and should not be maintained. Margaret was indignant and swiftly called a public meeting to form the East Berkshire Ramblers’ Group, with herself as footpath secretary.
The group established working parties to clear and waymark the routes, erect bridges and install stiles. Margaret also fought any developments that threatened the paths, lobbying councillors and landowners.
She was born and brought up in London, the daughter of Henry (Harry) Ebbutt, a first world war fighter pilot and then headteacher, and his wife, Jess (nee Gardiner). Margaret attended Gumley House convent school in Isleworth. In her youth she was a climber, rather than a walker. Every weekend she would escape to the hills with a small band of friends in a dilapidated minibus.
After leaving school, she became an assistant to a sales director for Telephone Rentals in Knightsbridge and in 1963 met Bernard Bowdery, who worked in the same office. They spent many weekends walking in the Thames valley and after their marriage moved to Maidenhead.
There Margaret raised their two sons and became a driving force in the establishment of a footbridge over the Thames at Temple, near Marlow, Buckinghamshire, which opened up 16 miles of the Thames Path, and a route under the A4 in Maidenhead’s town centre. She claimed 12ft of missing pathway under Cookham bridge though using paintings by the local artist Stanley Spencer as evidence of its existence.
She persuaded the Environment Department to create a footpath at Bisham under the dangerous A404 Marlow dual-carriageway bypass. It was opened by Theresa May, the MP for Maidenhead, in 2005. The Bowdery archway beneath the road is a public monument to Margaret and her legacy lies in the many safe paths and greenways around Maidenhead.
She is survived by Bernard and their sons, Nigel and Giles, and by three grandchildren.
