Pete’s Walks

Today’s walk was shorter than usual at about 10 miles. For the third time in less than a week my brother Tim went with me. The walk was also unusual for me, in that it seemed to ‘evolve’ as we went along – the walk we ended up doing wasn’t anything like the one we’d set out to do!

We started at the car park for Coombe Hill, near Wendover. I originally planned to do a similar walk to the one I did at Coombe Hill a few weeks ago, so instead of taking the path to the monument on Coombe Hill we started by following a path going further left, until it reached the Ridgeway path. We turned left along the Ridgeway until we reached the road to the car park, where we turned right and then took a path on the left after a couple of hundred yards.

We were still following the Ridgeway as we walked through the beech trees. The leaves on the ground completely obliterated the path, and I managed to go slightly wrong at one point, but generally we were OK heading from one waymark post to the next. After a few hundred yards the Ridgeway turned right to head steeply downhill. I had planned on turning left near the bottom of the hill and following the South Bucks Way to Little Hampden, but Tim had expressed an interest in walking past Chequers (the Prime Minister’s Country House), so we continued along the Ridgeway.

We crossed a road (where a man was doing something to a security camera) and followed a fence through a grassy field, then crossed the drive to Chequers by another security camera. We followed another fence through a grass field, slightly uphill, then turned right along the edge of a wood. Soon we had a view to our right of Chequers, with Coombe Hill and its monument in the background. At the end of the wood, we continued across a large empty cattle pasture, with views over the Vale of Aylesbury opening out ahead and to the right of us. We continued through another large pasture and passed the point where the North Bucks Way starts.

Again we changed the route here – I had thought of going over Pulpit Hill and on to Little Hampden, following part of the route I’d used through the Hampdens a couple of weeks ago, but Tim mentioned that Whiteleaf Cross was mentioned in a song by one of his heroes, the legendary John Otway (‘Beware of the flowers …’,’Really free’), so we decided we’d follow the Ridgeway as far as Whiteleaf Hill.

We continued through a rather scrubby area at the foot of Pulpit Hill, where I’d been looking for wildflowers in the summer and where I first got interested in wildflowers last year when I saw what turned out to be a Common Spotted Orchid. Tim spotted a Red Kite here, the only one we’d see today (he must have better eyesight than me, because it was him who first spotted the two deer we saw today as well!). We crossed the road at Cadsden, and then followed the Ridgeway as it gradually climbed through the trees to Whiteleaf Hill – one of the longest bits of uphill I know in the Chilterns. We stopped for some water (and a breather) just before the top, then emerged from the trees onto the grassy top of the hill.

We had  quick look at the neolithic barrow on top of the hill, at the chalk carving of Whiteleaf Cross, and at the new information boards that I noticed when I was here a couple or so weeks ago (sadly there was no sign of Louisa on a Horse … ). We admired the view over Princes Risborough and the Vale of Aylesbury, and I pointed out Waddesdon Manor, Brill Hill, Bledlow Cop, Quainton Hill and a few other features I recognised from my walks.

We then followed the Ridgeway for another quarter of a mile, before finally leaving it and turning right on a bridleway. This took us back into the beech woods, going round the top of a wooded valley called The Hangings on the map (we’d seen it from the far side as we’d struggled up Whiteleaf Hill). At a fork we took a path going slightly left, then joined another bridleway. We soon turned right, leaving the woods behind and following a path alongside a hedgerow through a series of fields growing winter wheat (I was now retracing the early part of the circular walk I did from Pulpit Hill recently).

We crossed a road (Chequers was now a short distance up the valley to our left) and went down a private drive, following a permissive path that avoided going through a garden, then continuing uphill to enter another wood. The path went slightly to the right through the wood, and on emerging from the trees followed the edge of a field to the right. In the field corner we switched to the other side of a hedge and at the end of that field entered more woods, where we shortly turned right to reach Little Hampden by The Rising Sun Inn (we’d gone past here on our Saturday walk as well).

We took the footpath going left here, descending steeply through more woods, and then along a hedgerow across the valley bottom (we saw a female Muntjac deer here), then climbed steadily through more woods up the opposite side of the valley. We turned left at a crossing path, and enjoyed a section of path between rather scattered beech trees, giving glimpses of the attractive valley topped by woods on our left. Near the end of this path we saw a male Muntjac deer.

We then joined a bridleway (we’d walked on part of it from Cobblershill on Saturday) which took us to the remote and attractive village of Dunsmore. We continued on the other side of the village, following a bridleway through more glorious beech woods for a mile or more, before bearing right and following a path that emerged from the trees onto the scrubland at the top of Coombe Hill. We sat and ate our sandwiches at the monument, before walking the short distance back to the car park.

This was a very enjoyable walk on a cold but lovely day – we started off under clear blue skies, though it clouded over later. The temperature was only 6-8C, and this was the first time this autumn that I wore my warm Paramo coat.

Today I did a circular walk from Chesham, a fair bit shorter than usual at about 10 miles. I parked at the car park by Chesham station and walked through the town centre (it was obviously market day), leaving the town via Lowndes Park. I crossed a field to a lane, then crossed two large paddocks to a second lane.

I’d originally thought of walking along a valley called Herberts Hole, which I’d enjoyed walking through on the Chiltern Link a couple of years ago, but instead decided to follow a bridleway that ran along the hilltop south of Herberts Hole. This proved to be a good decision, as I enjoyed walking the bridleway, generally a good path between ivy- and holly-clad hedges, with occasional views over Herberts Hole to my right and another valley to my left.

I saw my one Red Kite of the day where the bridleway became a farm track. Beyond a farm the track became a lane, which soon reached a T-junction with another lane. I turned right for a short distance before taking a footpath going half-right, descending through a wood to the floor of Herberts Hole. I continued straight up the other side of the valley across a grass field, pausing to take photos up and down the valley (and to get my breath back!).

I crossed a lane and continued northwards on a path through a sequence of sheep pastures, descending steadily into another valley. Across another lane, the path rose steeply up the other side between a hedge and a wood on my right, then through a cattle pasture. The path then ran between hedges or fences to reach the village of Chartridge (I was here a week or two ago, on my walk that started at Buckland Common).

I turned right and followed the road through Chartridge for about half a mile, then turned left down a lane going steeply downhill. This turned right along the valley bottom, then went left to reach a road. Across this, I followed a farm drive and then a bridleway going back uphill into Captain’s Wood (where I’d been on that Buckland Common walk). Beyond the wood, I followed a path past a farm to reach the edge of Little Hivings, a ‘suburb’ of Chesham.

I now followed a path that took me through Ramscoat Wood and down to the Ostrich farm in White Hawridge Bottom. Here I turned right and followed a byway to another road, running through a valley called Chesham Vale. I was now due north of the centre of Chesham. I continued westwards on a path through a farmyard, then uphill again across a couple of fields to reach the Berkhamsted-Chesham road, south of Ashley Green. I continued the other side, along a hedge and then across a field of winter wheat, following tractor tracks. The path was then enclosed between hedges for a while, before I turned right down a similar path to reach a road in Lye Green.

I went a few yards left, then took a path on the other side of the road, at first alongside a fairly new residential area, then across a large pasture to another minor road. Across this, I continued alongside field boundaries to another farm drive and a road in Botley. I turned right, then went left down a lane, turning right at the bottom of a hill into Bottom Lane. The tarmac surface soon ended and it became a green lane between hedges, running along the valley bottom.

Where a footpath crossed, I turned right. I was now on the final section of the Chiltern Heritage Trail (which I walked last year), heading back into Chesham. At the top of a slight rise, I stopped to eat my lunch on a stile, then continued across a large fallow field that spread across the top of the hill. I followed the path for some way beside the grounds of a school (very noisy as it was the kids’ dinner break) then crossed some more fields to reach Chesham. I was disappointed that the cairns had disappeared from the last field – last year the route across the field was marked by small piles of flints, like the cairns marking paths in the Lake District.

I crossed a footbridge over the railway line, and turned right to pass the station and return to the car park. It was only about 1.45pm, a very early finish for me. It had been a pleasant but unspectacular walk, certainly one that I’d be quite happy to do again.

Today I decided to do one of my regular local walks, from Kensworth to Totternhoe and back. I took loads of photos with the intention of putting the walk on my web site, but as it was such a grey and mirky day I’m in two minds about doing so – the conditions meant that the views from Dunstable Downs and Totternhoe Knolls were nowhere near as good as usual.

I started by going down Hollicks Lane to Church End, the old part of Kensworth. I then followed Beech Road a short way towards Dunstable, before following the long path around Kensworth Quarry to Dunstable Downs. The views here were very restricted, maybe 10 miles rather than the usual 40 miles, and the top of the downs was rather untidy as the National Trust are putting in a new path. I descended into Dunstable, and followed Green Lane back out into the country, before turning right on  a track towards Sewell (following the route of the Chiltern Way and the Icknield Way).

Instead of turning right into Sewell, I continued ahead on a good track between hedges – to my left was a former quarry, now partly a nature reserve where I enjoyed looking for wildflowers this summer. The track took me to the cement works at Totternhoe, from where I followed paths that took me to the top of Totternhoe Knolls. This is a prominent hill, the site of a motte and bailey castle and now another nature reserve (where again I looked for wildflowers this summer). It was still a grey and misty day, and so again the views here were disappointing compared to normal.

I followed the path from the Knolls into the village of Totternhoe, then took Wellhead Road back towards the Downs. Nice views as I walked the road, along the Downs from Five Knolls to my left all the way to the White Lion at Whipsnade Zoo to my right. I crossed the main road at the foot of the Downs, and continued on a path beside the London Gliding Club (there were just a couple of gliders in the air today). I then turned right, and followed a path for about a mile along the bottom of the Downs, before taking a rising path that took me up to the car park on Bison Hill (so called because of the large enclosure containing Bison, part of Whipsnade Zoo).

I had lunch sitting on a fallen tree near the car park (I watched a ‘dogfight’ between a jackdaw and a black-headed gull as I eat my sarnies), then took the path from the car park towards Whipsnade. I turned left to go past the Tree Cathedral, then crossed the large green in Whipsnade and took the path through the churchyard. This took me to Holywell, where I took a path that ran parallel to Buckwood Road (the minor road between Markyate and Whipsnade), then turned left down Dovecot Lane. I could have followed the narrow lane all the way back into Kensworth, but as usual I turned off it to cross a couple of fields, then turned right along the road from Whipsnade to get back home that way.

I got home about 2.30, having walked about 12 miles or so.

This morning I did a 40-minute walk round the footpaths here in Kensworth, again with my brother Tim. I hadn’t planned on walking today, but it was such a lovely day it would have been a shame to spend it entirely indoors.

We walked up the road and took the footpath that goes across and then along the valley towards the quarry. There was a car rally being held here, with a number of cars (ranging from old open-top sports cars to modern hatchbacks) being driven around a course. There were a couple of points where they had to go up a very steep bank, then reverse down.

We walked up the steep path beside the quarry, and turned right to head towards Church End, the old part of the village around the 12th century church. We went a short distance along Hollick’s Lane, then took a path back to the main part of the village close to where the petrol station used to be. It was then a short stroll up the road, passing the Farmer’s Boy, back home.

This afternoon I did a 2-hour walk with my brother Tim.

We started at the picnic site near Cobblershill (off the Wendover-Great Missenden road) and followed a bridleway uphill through Cockshoot Wood to reach the hamlet of Cobblershill, which I’ve passed through on both the Chiltern Way and the South Bucks Way. We then followed a bridleway north, soon seing a pair of Muntjac deer across a pasture. The Bridleway then entered another wood – it was marvellous walking amidst the trees in their autumn splendour, with the sound of the freshly fallen leaves underfoot.

We eventually turned left off the bridleway, remaining in the trees as we descended into a valley and then up the other side to reach Little Hampden (I’d walked this path in reverse on my walk from Coombe Hill a few weeks ago). We then took a pleasant field path (one I’d not walked before) that followed a hedgerow gradually downhill to reach a minor road in a valley. There was a T-junction a few yards away, and we too the road almost opposite for a few hundred yards before turning right on a footpath.

This path followed ‘The Glade’, a long avenue between narrow strips of wood leading to Hampden House at Great Hampden, some distance behind us. We turned left on a path through a wood which took us back to the road we’d crossed earlier. We now followed Cobblershill Lane as it gradually went back up hill (this was the reverse of my recent walk from Pulpit Hill to Little and Great Hampden).

We turned left along a path that followed close to the top of a hill, running through trees with occasional views of the valley to our left. We then turned right on a bridleway that ran between fences, with pastures either side – we again saw a Muntjac deer, and their were four Red Kites here (the reason I took Tim for a walk here was I thought there was a good chance of seeing Kites). There were also three Microlights flying over.

The bridleway took us back into Cobblershill, and we retraced our steps through Cockshoot Wood back to the car. A very pleasant walk for an autumn afternoon.

Today I did a walk from Chalfont St Giles. I walked past Milton’s Cottage (where John Milton wrote Paradise Lost) for the first time – it was closed and partly hidden by scaffolding. I then followed some footpaths, mainly between hedges and fences, towards Jordans – I wanted to see the Quaker Meeting House there again, as it was covered in plastic sheeting and scaffolding when I went by on the Chiltern Heritage Trail in September last year. This time the plastic sheeting was gone, but it was still closed with building work going on, and some scaffolding and fences around it.

On the way to Jordans I’d met and chatted to another walker for a few minutes – he was a member of the Hillingdon branch of the Ramblers Association (I’m sure I’ve met one or two other people from that group on my walks before). I met him again as I now headed north – we were going the same route so we walked together for about an hour or so. We followed a good route, mainly field paths with  a couple of wooded sections, over the hills just west of the Misbourne valley (which I’ve walked on the South Bucks Way). We met an American walker who was lost, and we managed to point him in the right direction to get back to Chalfont St Giles.

Just short of Old Amersham, we turned left and started back south along the route of the South Bucks Way through the Misbourne valley. The gentleman I’d met was going to follow that route all the way to Chalfont St Peter, but I soon turned left to cross the valley (I noticed there was a lot of water in the Misbourne, which had been totally dry in September last year). I followed a path up the hill on the far side of the valley, passing close to schools and a college. Having crossed the road between Amersham and Little Chalfont, I followed a path that took me to a wood above the Chess Valley.

I sat on a tree stump here to eat my lunch, then went back the way I’d come for about half a mile, before turning left along a path through trees to reach Little Chalfont. I turned right, and followed a lane heading back towards the Misbourne valley. Most of the rest of the walk was a descending path through the edge of a wood next to a golf course. I crossed the road running through the Misbourne Valley, went over a couple of pastures and turned left along the Suth Bucks Way route, soon returning to Chalfont St Giles.

Not the best walk I’ve ever done, but not bad and very good in parts. It was a nice warm autumn day, generally bright although it did cloud over briefly once.

Wonderful walk today, in an area of the Chilterns spread across the Oxfordshire/Buckinghamshire county boundary southwest of Stokenchurch. Just driving to the walk, I could see the trees were more advanced into their autumn colours, with some brilliant yellows and golds, with occasional reds for variety.

I parked at Cowleaze Wood, where there is a sculpture trail which I’d see on my way back. The walk got off to a great start when I saw two Red Kites as I crossed the first field of the day. I then followed a fairly steep path down the escarpment of the Chilterns, with Didcot Power Station straight ahead in the distance, out in the Oxfordshire plain. The path went left along the foot of the wooded hills – a third of a mile away across the ploughed fields was a section of the Ridgeway path that I walked recently on my Swan’s Way walk. I saw three Fallow deer as I walked along here.

I turned left on a private road – this was part of the Oxfordshire Way, a long-distance path I’ve come across before but not walked myself (most of it is too far from my home). At the end of the road I continued on the Oxfordshire Way, going quite steeply back up the escarpment (I saw another eight Fallow deer here) and then across a couple of small sheep pastures to a road in the quaintly named Christmas Common. I followed the Oxfordshire Way through the village, passing the attractive old Fox and Hounds pub. I took a slight detour to see the church (marked on the map), but it has been converted into a private home (with gravestones in the garden!).

I went through a small wood, along another drive, and then onto a bridleway going through a wood. I followed the bridleway for about two miles, sometimes in quite a large wood, sometimes in a fairly narrow belt of trees – it was always a delight, with the trees in their gorgeous atumn foliage. Eventualy the bridleway left the trees and soon passed a farm in a pleasant valley, then continued alongside a hedgerow. A farmer was ploughing a large field to my left, with woods on the far side. I noticed one or two Red Kites here, then suddenly there were about 10 of them!

I turned left on a path going uphill between ploughed fields. There were good views to my left back along the valley I’d just walked down, and further up even better views to my right along the Stonor valley – I could see where I’d crossed that valley on the Chiltern Way earlier this year. I saw a buzzard fly out of a tree here. I then followed a path to Turville Heath, from where I took a bridleway downhill through another beech wood. Across a lane, I went downhill across a meadow with good views all around of a lovely wooded valley. The path went quite steeply up the opposite slope, joining a bridleway that became a tarmac lane leading into Ibstone.

I followed the edge of the large common here, detouring to look at a large stone in the middle of the long grass (there was no plaque or anything saying what it was for) and had my lunch on a bench by the cricket pitch. I then went back into the trees, briefly following part of the Chiltern Way as I descended a long way into the Wormsley valley. Here I saw the cricket pitch where the late Paul Getty used to arrange matches when he owned the Wormsley estate. I followed a bridleway that started as a track between hedges, then joined the drive through the estate.

There was quite a commotion in the sky above me as I followed the drive past a tall and colourful beech tree – rooks, jackdaws and pigeons were flying about, and then I saw two buzzards come out of the tree and start circling. Just beyond a farm, I turned left on a bridleway that went steadily uphill into more woods -again this was a really colourful and attractive part of the walk. At a path crossroads I went left, quite steeply downhill, emerging from the trees to cross a small meadow down to another farm.

It was then a long climb back up the other side of the valley, through a large empty sheep pasture. Near the top of the slope I re-entered Cowleaze Wood, and followed the path back to the car park, passing one or two ‘interesting’ sculptures on the way.

My feeble description hardly does the walk justice – it was one of the best I’ve ever done in the south of England, probably even better than my recent walk at Little and Great Hampden although it didn’t have the sites of historic interest that that walk had. It was a lovely day today, cool but not cold, with several large white and grey clouds in the sky but generally bright. The walk was very up and down, lots of it through delightful woodland, there were some very nice views, and I enjoyed every single section of the walk.

I’ve updatede my web site this morning!

The main change is a new ‘Chiltern Hills’ section with photos from four walks (including my ‘local’ walk round Ashridge). I’ve renamed the ‘My journals’ page to ‘Long-distance paths’, and done some general tidying up that I’ve been meaning to do for some time.

Today’s walk was probably a mistake. I’ve decided to add some of the walks I’ve been doing in the Chilterns to my web site, and thought I should also include some of my ‘local’ walks. So I did this walk today, despite having done it just a couple of weeks ago, with the intent of taking lots of photos to put on the web. Unfortunately, today was a grey and dank day, a bit misty at times, and so although I took 95 photos, the weather conditions mean they don’t do the walk justice. All the views are severely restricted. So I’m not sure whether to add them to the site or not – I probably will, and then replace the photos if I do the walk again in better conditions.

Nothing really to add about the walk, having described the route already just recently. There were no wildlife sitings to report, which was most unusual. There were the usual phasants, rabbits and squirrels which I don’t normally mention as I almost always see them. I did see a Green Woodpecker in Whipsnade churchyard, but again that is not an unusual bird for me to see on a walk.

Today I continued my tour of Iron-age hill forts … well, that’s what it seems like! Having recently seen various Iron-age forts in different states of preservation at Ivinghoe Beacon, Pulpit Hill and Boddington Hill, today I chose to do a walk that would enable me to revisit Cholesbury Camp. I went there on my Chiltern Heritage Trail walk, and it is the most impressive fort I know in this area.

I started the walk at Buckland Common, where I started my penultimate walk on the Chiltern Way this spring. In fact, for the early part of the walk I followed the Chiltern Way northwards, soon passing an Alpaca farm (fewer Alpacas than usual, and no sign of the two pigs I met on the path when I was last here). I passed through Drayton Wood, crossed Shire Lane and soon reached the ancient earthwork of Grim’s Ditch, which I’d followed for about four miles on my last walk.  This time I just followed it a few hundred yards northwest, before heading southeast on a broad track between hedges (it’s not named on the map, but the Chiltern Way guide says the track is called Brown Lane).

The track soon entered High Scrubs Wood. It was very pleasant walking through the trees, with the bright sunlight filtering through the leaves. After about half a mile I turned left and followed a hedgerow across a grass field with showjumping fences. I crossed a road and took a path on the other side, then turned left crossing a couple of paddocks and passing through a small wood to arrive at Cholesbury Camp.

I followed the path that goes all round the oval-shaped prehistoric enclosure. The southwest part of the oval has been encroached upon by the village, and the path passed through the churchyard of St Laurence’s church (13-14th century, but largely restored in the 1870’s). Here I got talking to the church warden, who kindly showed me the grave of a sailor who’d fought at Trafalgar. He lived to the age of 99, but was in great poverty towards the end of his life until the vicar appoached the Admiralty on his behalf and he was awarded a pension. There was a lot of poverty here in the 1800’s, and Cholesbury became the first parish in the country to go bankrupt, because it could not afford to support the poor of the parish.

I continued south from Cholesbury, then went southeast, now following the route of the Chiltern Heritage Trail which I walked a year ago. I walked along the valley of White Hawridge Bottom for about two miles – I had to change my route slightly, because the track past the Ostrich pens was impassably muddy (Alpacas and Ostriches on the same walk – I really must set up a Chiltern Safari company!). I went west through Ramscott wood on a good bridleway, then south on a path between paddocks on my left and garden fences on my right.

Across a road and down a farm drive, I crossed a grass field and passed through another wood. There was then a nice view north along a steep-sided valley. I followed  a hedgerow down and up the other side of this valley, heading west. After walking right a couple of hundred yards on a road, I turned left and repeated the process, descending another steep-sided and attractive valley and rising up the other side to reach the village of Chartidge.

I followed the road to the right for about half a mile, then turned left. I had my lunch on a seat by a playing field, then continued west on a bridleway. There was soon another good view of a green and attractive valley – I think this is one of the most scenic parts of the Chilterns that I have come across. I then had a nice lengthy stretch of woodland walking, before crossing a couple of empty pastures to a road. I followed it to the right for quarter of a mile to a T-junction, where I carried on northwards on a footpath – here I saw my first Red Kite of the day! The path went down into a small valley, and rose up the other side with a wood on my left. Again the scenery here was very charming, with rolling hills and valleys and lots of woods, part green and part gold in their early autumn foliage.

I crossed Arrewig Lane (it’s name goes back to the Saxons, if I remember the Chiltern Way guide book correctly) and continued northwards on pleasant field paths, to reach a road leading me back to my car in Buckland Common. The walk had taken about 4.5 hours plus stops (lunch and talking to the very helpful and informative church warden at Cholesbury). It had remained a gloriously sunny day throughout, and it had been a real pleasure to walk through this charming countryside.