Return to the Chiltern Hills

Saturday 23rd June 2018

Last summer, several months after my Easter holiday in the Chiltern Hills and beyond, I returned to these fabulous rolling wooded hills. Parking in the village of Stokenchurch I immediately joined the route of the Chiltern Way that I had often followed the previous April, but after passing underneath the motorway I branched off and headed south through a wonderfully wooded valley that provided me with pleasant walking under tall trees with dappled shade and rich overgrown plants, even if mostly nettle. It was a great to be walking in such warm weather and bright sunshine through lush woodland. The weather last summer was great in its sustained, settled conditions that aided many walks to be done and I was eager to make the most of it. After a while I reached a crossroads of paths and even though I checked my map I still took the wrong one that gradually climbed out of the valley, which should have told me immediately that I was going the wrong way, but it wasn’t until I reached some houses on the outskirts of Ibstone that I realised I had gone completely the wrong way. Rather than retrace my steps back into the valley I walked along the road for a bit before descending back into the valley on another footpath to rejoin the bottom of the valley that I should never have left in the first place.

Eventually the valley began to the broaden and just before I reached the road at Gravesend I turned right and took a path that climbs steeply up over Turville Hill and steeply down the other side into the lovely little village of Turville. This descent was so steep I was worried about my knees after the pounding they had sustained while I was in the Lake District not long before, but I had such no problems with my knees as they failed to complain about such a short, though sharp descent. Upon passing through the beautiful village of Turville I was now back on the Chiltern Way (southern arm) as I gradually climbed beside a gorgeous meadow that was filled with many wild flowers especially ox-eye daisy that got me excited and full of joy to be back in the Chiltern Hills. The wonders came thick and fast but when I reflected back on the walk several hours later for this blog I wished I’d made notes of the highlights as I was passing them. It could be my age, though I’ve never had a great memory, but although this was an enjoyable walk I can’t remember much about what happened at this point in the walk.

This was a lovely walk with the weather not too hot, and certainly not as hot as it had been last summer, which made for a much more pleasant walk. Continuing along the Chiltern Way I passed Southend Farm and through the foxglove-rich Kildridge Wood to enter Stonor Park. The centrepiece of this deer park is the grand Stonor House that looks an amazing place and made me feel really inappropriately dressed. According to Wikipedia this was the location for the Bladen safe house in the Bond film "The Living Daylights", although I didn’t know this when I passed. It looked like it was being used for a wedding so even though I was on a public footpath some distance to the south of the house I still felt like I was intruding. Passing out of Stonor Park and through the village I eventually reached the point where I wanted to come off the Chiltern Way and onto the Oxfordshire Way heading north through Pishillbury Wood. Further on, after passing through meadows rich in wild flowers, I reached College Wood, which I had passed through a couple of months earlier when I remember it was full of infant bluebells, but these were all now sadly long gone.

Turning right I was back on the Chiltern Way (northern arm) and a route that I had taken previously, but just for one field. At Hollandridge Farm I kept on the Chiltern Way whereas previously, going in opposite direction, I had headed along Hollandridge Lane. Passing through Fire Wood and a meadow full of purple flowers that to me looked like some sort of vetch/pea I eventually headed into Blackmoor Wood and rejoined the route that I had taken at Easter. Ground that had been muddy just a couple of months before was now completely dry including the rutted path in Commonhill Wood that I remembered previously straddling either side of a deep mud-filled rut was now an easy walk uphill. This path brought me up to Ibstone Common not far from the point where I had come into Ibstone by mistake earlier in the walk, but now no mistake was made as I continued along the Chiltern Way retracing my steps of last Easter to head down into Hartmoor Wood and eventually back to Stokenchurch.

This walk wasn’t particularly long, but it was good taking advantage of the good weather and to reacquaint myself with the delights of the Chiltern Hills especially the wild flowers that grow abundantly in this area. It was amazing to see the difference in the condition of the paths between Easter when the ground was very muddy and on this walk, just a couple of months later, when the ground was bone dry. It was the woods that were the delight in spring, but now as summer had come it was the turn of the meadows to show their best and in the Chiltern Hills there are fabulous displays of wild flowers that will always keep drawing me back.