A FORMER mayor of a North Cornwall town has marked a decade since the last ‘Beating of the Bounds’ by undertaking his own boundary walk.

Cllr Andy Coppin, mayor of Bodmin between 2014 and 2015 was joined by Selina, his wife and former mayoress, in addition to two friends in the form of David Bidgway, Bodmin Town Council staff member and one of the organisers of the Bodmin Beast marathon and Jamie Thomas.

The group’s boundary walk comes a week after Bodmin Town Council and the town’s rotary club cancelled the event owing to significant issues with negotiating access to privately owned land in addition to health and safety concerns.

The walk sought to get as close to the town’s boundaries as possible without accessing privately own land.

Cllr Andy Coppin said afterwards: “I was hugely disappointed that Bodmin Town Council and Bodmin Rotary made the decision not to uphold the ancient tradition of The Beating of the bounds this May. Having taken part in the event 10 years ago, when I was mayor it was extremely enjoyable.

“I understand the issues around health and safety with crossing private land also being a problem.

“So I took it upon myself to carry out my own boundary walk using public footpaths and roads getting as close to the boundary as possible. I asked several friends to join me and was pleased that a couple did.

“We started at The Borough Arms and ended there for a well deserved pint! We covered about 16 miles although about a mile of that was traipsing around woods looking for the only remaining boundary stone.

“Hopefully by doing this I can convince the council to host a similar event in August. They were planning to do a much shorter walk then as part of a potential “carnival week” that I fully support.”