Christopher Somerville

Search Results : Buckinghamshire Bucks

Cadsden, Chequers and Coombe Hill, Buckinghamshire

Jun 052010

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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It was hard to leave the comfort and good cheer of the Plough at Cadsden, but the sound of rooks cawing among the blossoming treetops fetched us out at last along the Ridgeway into a cool, cloudy Buckinghamshire afternoon. Large edible snails were crawling on the grassy slopes of Grangelands hill, where half a dozen hungry red kites wheeled overhead. What a fantastic success story the re-introduction of red kites to the Chiltern Hills has been! Twenty years ago there were none of the big fork-tailed birds here; today there are so many pairs – 300 at least – that they can’t even be counted accurately.

If you are looking for a wildflower walk, this circuit is a slice of heaven. In the beech and oak woods, where the new leaves gleamed a shiny lime-green, we found yellow archangel, wood sorrel, delicate white anemones and carpets of blue and white bluebells. Out in the cornfields, groundsel, scarlet pimpernel and beautiful yellow and violet heartsease. As for the chalky grassland of the open downs – cowslips and primroses, jack-by-the-hedge and herb Robert, speedwell and forget-me-not, guelder rose and early purple orchids …

Rounding the corner of Whorley Wood we came suddenly on the sublime prospect of the shallow valley where Chequers sits, the handsome red brick Elizabethan manor house making a centrepiece for some very subtle landscaping. It seems extraordinary, and admirably English, to be able to stroll across the driveway of the Prime Minister’s country retreat without so much as a by-your-leave – though the CCTV cameras tell you that any private enterprise in the shape of a detour would likely be discouraged with extreme prejudice.

Up through Goodmerhill Wood we went, following the Ridgeway to the tall Boer War monument at the prow of Coombe Hill. A pause here for a glug of water and a stare over what must be a hundred-mile view, away over fields, woods and hill ranges, as far as Salisbury Plain and the Malvern Hills on a good clear day. Then we quit the Ridgeway for a woodland track along the edges of Low Scrubs, where twisted beech and hornbeam made a dark and mysterious Grimm’s fairytale of the old coppice wood.

Peewits were tumbling over the beanfields around Dirtywood Farm, and a pair of crows swooped on a red kite like fighter boys from Biggin Hill. Bandits at Angels Five! We dropped steeply down through Ninn Wood, brilliant in late afternoon sunshine, until the Plough Inn hove up ahead, a cosy port in a green sea of leaves.

Start & finish: Plough Inn, Lower Cadsden, Princes Risborough HP27 0NB (OS ref SP 826045).

NB Pub car parking only for walkers who are customers; please ring, book a table and ask about parking

Getting there: Train (www.thetrainline.com; www.railcard.co.uk) to Monks Risborough (1½ miles); Bus (www.arrivabus.co.uk) Service 300 Aylesbury-HighWycombe to Askett roundabout (2/3 of a mile); Road: Cadsden signed from Askett roundabout on A4010 (Princes Risborough-Wendover)

Walk (7½ miles, moderate, OS Explorer 181): From Plough, left along road; in 10 yards, right, and follow Ridgeway path (fingerposts, white acorns) for 3¼ miles to pass Coombe Hill monument (849067). In 300 yards, through kissing gate; right off Ridgeway up sunken lane (‘Bridleway’) for 150 yards to wide crossing track. Left for 100 yards; right (853067) along wide track. In 200 yards, left on woodland track (yellow arrows/YAs on trees). Follow path with fence on left for 1 mile past Upper Bacombe to road at Dunsmore (862052). Right past pond; in 50 yards, left over stile; take left-hand path (fingerpost) to cross 4 successive stiles in fences. Keep above Dunsmore Old Farm. At foot of slope, left along track. At end of fence, right (860048; blue arrow/BA) uphill through wood to Little Hampden Common (857040). Right along road past cottages; up track (‘South Bucks Way’); in 150 yards, left (‘Riders Route’, BA)’ in 20 yards, left (YA) on footpath out of trees. Forward (YAs) along 2 field edges and into wood. Follow wood edge; in 200 yards, just past deep hollow on left, fork left (851039; yellow arrow on tree) to edge of wood. Skirt Dirtywood Farm (signs, arrows) to cross road (845037). On up lane (fingerpost) for 300 yards; on left bend, forward through gateway (842037; YA) along field edges, past Cross Coppice and on into Ninn Wood (YAs). Cross trackway (833041), over stile (YA), on to descend to T-junction of paths. Right (YA); descend and bear left (YA); in 100 yards, at meeting of 4 tracks, right (YA) to pub.

NB – Detailed directions, online map, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk

Lunch/B&B: Plough Inn (01844-343302; plough-at-cadsden.co.uk) – welcomes walkers

More info: Princes Risborough TIC (01844-274795); www.visitbuckinghamshire.org; www.chilternsaonb.org; www.ramblers.org.uk

NB Lincolnshire Wolds Walking Festival until 6 June: www.woldswalkingfestival.co.uk

Blickling Park & River Bure, Norfolk

Walks No Responses »

Nov 042017

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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Ill-fated, black-eyed little Anne Boleyn lived as a child in the north Norfolk countryside at Blickling Hall. But the Tudor mansion she knew is not the one we admired as we crunched down the grave drive – these pepper-pot turrets and huge central clock belong to the following century, as do the curly Dutch gables.

Blickling Hall is magnificent, and so are its widespread grounds. We followed a waymarked walk which skirted the inverted comma of the ornamental lake. Storm-splintered cedars spread their wide dark skirts in the pastures, and the carcases of dead oaks lay as pale and massive as elephant corpses among the long grasses.

We passed a signature beech, its smooth grey bark incised with lovers’ names and initials – SDF & Di, AW loves BW, Olly hearts Dolly. A cold west wind drove wavelets against the northern shoreline of the lake, where we took to well-trodden tracks among fields full of the glinting leaves of sugar beet.

Boardwalks spanned the squelching woodland of Moorgate Carrs. We crossed the dimpling water of the River Bure where whorled mint gave out a savour half minty, half sharp. The blackberries in the green lane hedge were sharp on the tongue, too.

In the corner of a field by a margin planted to please the palates of pheasants with goldenrod, mayweed and purple brassicas, we lay on our backs for half an hour for the pure pleasure of watching the sky. Then it was up and on, heading south through pastures grown tufty and lumpen. We recrossed the Bure, a skein of rushy watercourses dried to trickles in the grass where tangled curls of water plantain pushed up their flowers, each with its three pale blue petals.

From the southern skirts of Itteringham a dusty lane ran east between stubble fields. Pheasant poults went scurrying away up the rows, too flustered to feed, too young to fly. The wind rose and shoved at our backs, and we were glad to get into the shelter of Blickling Park’s Great Wood.

On a grassy ride in the middle of the wood we came on a bizarre structure, a sharply pointed pyramid as tall as a house. Over the eastern portal posed a fine stone stag, brandishing real antlers. Within this eccentric mausoleum John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckingham, lies alongside his two wives.

The plaque on the western face of the pyramid, topped by a great bull, seemed to suggest that the Earl had married his own daughter. Perhaps I misunderstood it. In any case, I can report that the north- and south-facing openings of the tomb make great echo chambers. They allow one to sing harmonies with oneself, to truly eerie effect.

Start: NT car park, Blickling Hall, Aylsham, Norfolk NR11 6NF (OS ref TG 176286)

Getting there: Blickling Hall is on B1354 Saxthorpe road, signed from Aylsham (A140 Norwich-Cromer)

Walk (7 miles, easy, OS Explorer 252): From car park walk down road to Blickling Hall. Down drive towards house; just before buildings on right, turn right through hedge, up steps. Keep right of Courtyard Bookshop; half right to map notice; from here follow waymarked Estate Walk (blue arrows). At top of lake (179295), left along gravel path. In 150m fork right (orange arrows). In 400m, right at 3-finger post (174295, ‘public footpath’).

In 500m, right on road at Moorgate (174300); in 100m, left (yellow arrow/YA). Boardwalk crosses Moorgate Carrs and River Bure (175301). In 250m path turns left along field edges (YA), and on to road at Fring Wood (174308). Left, in 700m, fork right (167308) up drive past White House Farm; on along field edge tracks westward for ½ mile. Descend through gate to broad green strip at The Rookery (152309). Don’t go through gate with YA opposite; bear left along wood edge; in 100m through gate, follow hedge on left southward for 2 long fields / ½ mile to cross several channels of River Bure and reach road opposite Orchard Farm (154299).

Left, in ½ mile on left bend (161297), ahead through Woodgate car park; past 5-bar gate, follow stony track on outskirts of wood (orange arrow). In 600m, sandy track on left (165292) leads to mausoleum (166295).

Lunch/Accommodation: Buckinghamshire Arms, Blickling NR11 6NF (01263-732133, bucksarms.co.uk)

Blickling Hall: nationaltrust.org.uk/blickling-estate

visitnorthnorfolk.com; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk

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