Yes, I did mean stiles and not styles as in ranges of fitted furniture.

I thought I would go a bit off-piste today and air a personal rant about the changing styles of stiles on our footpaths. My interest in the functionality and practicality of all types of furniture leads me to ask why our stiles are changing and who decides.

Everybody can recognize the traditional, crossover type of style that has served walkers in the British countryside for centuries whilst forming an effective barrier peripatetic livestock. Because the lower and higher steps cross over each other, if you start with your left (or right) foot on the lower step and then place the right (or left) foot on the higher, you then put your left (or right) foot over the fence and onto the higher level, which is now reversed – right/left, and your right (or left) foot forward onto the lower level before stepping down off the stile; always in a forward facing position.  You can watch your dog, if you have one, look out for livestock if you have just entered a field (particularly useful regarding bulls, rams or Billy goats) and continue on your way in a smooth, flowing action.

However, somebody somewhere has overridden the accumulated wisdom of generations past and decreed that new stiles do not cross over but have two steps facing in the direction of the path and side by side. Now you must place your first foot on the lower step, the next on the higher and rotate your body through 180 degrees in order to put the first foot on the higher level and face backwards to your direction of travel whilst drawing your second foot backwards over the fence and placing it behind you on the lower level and stepping down backwards off the stile. You are now looking back along your line of travel, have no view of what is in the field you may just have entered or what lies under the foot you are now depositing on unknown ground. When country walking, I like to see what is on the ground I am about to step on.

To assist this inelegant pirouette some of the new, linear stiles now incorporate a post beside the higher level for you to hold whilst rotating. Thanks for that but please can I have my old fashioned and aesthetically pleasing stiles back?

Who decides these things and why? Who amongst the great walking public is consulted? Was it broke and did it need fixing?

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest, I will try to get back on track with the fitted furniture market soon.