HAMPSHIRE's top private school lost a High Court test case battle today to keep 4x4s and trail bikes off its land.

Winchester College and a neighbouring landowner had tried to stop rural routes across their land being declared "byways open to all traffic".

The court heard that up and down the country "green lanes" have become "potential battlegrounds" between walkers and horse riders and those who use offroad recreational vehicles.

The challenge at London's High Court was triggered by successful applications made by the Trail Riders' Fellowship for two paths in the parishes of Chilcomb and Twyford in Hampshire to be recorded as byways open to all traffic.

The case raised the question of whether the applications could be treated as "exceptions" under new laws brought in to halt the rapid spread of offroad activities into green lanes, angering many rural residents.

Today Deputy High Court Judge George Bartlett QC ruled both applications had been validly determined as exceptions.

The judge said the concern over the damage done by motor vehicles to the two unmade rural ways was "understandable", but the warden and fellows of the college and neighbouring landowners, Humphrey Feeds Ltd, had "failed to make out their challenge".

The test case will now provide guidelines for other similar green lane disputes up and down the country, unless the judge's ruling is overturned on appeal, potentially opening up these routes to 4X4 vehicles of all types.

The judge said he recognised "the potential wide implications" of his judgment, but refused the college permission to appeal. However, the college's wardens and fellows can still ask the Appeal Court to hear the case.