What is the best thing for muddy gateways?

[kit279]

Looking ahead to our new property (fingers crossed to be moving soon), it's on clay/loam soil and although it drains well, the field gateways do get a bit poached. Ideally I'd like to address this during the summer before it all turns to bog and wondering what people think of the various options - hardcore, road planings, field mats?

Also, I doubt we'll have time or machinery suitable for hardcoring the gateways - who would be someone who might do this for us? We are moving to Buckinghamshire if that makes a difference.

 

[martlin]

I think I would go for ground stabilising mats. I mean, hardcore/planings would be great, but they will just move the problem further into the field and are fairly expensive to do properly.
Alternatively, I found accidentally, load of pea gravel works well, without a membrane, so the grass grows through it.

 

[juliette]

if you are on clay soil mats in the gateway will sink and disappear!