18/06/16 - Cookham to Gerrards Cross

Distance - 9.9 Miles
Walk Inspiration - Time Out Country Walks Near London - Walk 40
Geocaches - 8
Pub 1 - The Jolly Woodman, Littleworth Common, Sharps Coaster
Pub 2 - The White Swan, Hedgerley, Little London Pryde
Pub 3 - The Ethorpe Hotel, Gerrards Cross, Black Sheep

The guide book suggests that this linear walk should start at Gerrards Cross and finish at Cookham. They are 100% correct.

Cookham has history stretching through Ancient Briton, Saxon and Roman times and is detailed in the Doomsday Book.  Famous artists are buried in its 1140AD Church.

Gerrards Cross has a mega Tescos.

Still, its a four train epic between home and Cookham and I decided to get any travel problems out the way, early doors.  I needn't have worried, with efficiency that could only be dreamed of, everything was on time - with the last two trains waiting on the platform for me to join them.

It's with a spring in my step that I am finding my first sidetracked geocache at 9:45am.

I walk through Cookham.  It's very, very pretty.  I count off the pubs.  By the time I reach the Thames, I have used all of my right hand digits, noticed several nice restaurants and tea rooms and they even have a bonus village fete on Cookham Moor - complete with a huge Marquee labelled "Beer".

I've been to Gerrards Cross before.  I know it cannot compete with this smorgasbord of delights.

Cookham - History and Bunting

Pick of the Pubs - C17th Kings Arms

Over the Thames

This walk is mainly through woodland, following several Long Distance Paths, including Shakespeare's Way (on the bucket list) and initially Beeches Way.  There's a castle on the top of Harvest Hill that some describe as the only thing worth looking at in Buckinghamshire.  Even that's not authentic - a sham castle built in 1793 in memory of mad King George III and known as Lord Boston's Folly.

Beeches Way - Alongside the Thames

Lord Boston's Folly

Woodland provides good walking but little to photograph.  Only a police operation can add an element of frisson to the walk.  Just what are they investigating?  My money - doggers.

Police Operation - Hopefully, Operation Strimmer

Its only 11:23am and I need something to report on.  The Jolly Woodman in Littleworth Common has the potential, but will it be open?  Pleased to report that it's an early riser.

Its Cask Marque accredited, although despite a thorough search, I fail to find its barcoded sign for app logging in.  As the only punter, I must assume the staff must think they are providing service to a rambling nutter.  Eventually I give up on looking around and sit on a Chesterfield and sup my Sharps Coaster in front of a well stocked and lit wood burner.  In June.

Loved the signs outside.  I followed the instructions to remove my muddy footwear.  I noticed that they have a Jazz night on Mondays.  I noticed that they are closed on Mondays.

Post pint research shows that I need to watch Carry On Dick again, where the exterior was used in the film and called the Cock Inn.

A beacon in a sea of trees

Front Sign - Live Jazz on Mondays.  Rear Sign - Closed Mondays.

Sharps Coaster

Back into the trees.  I am now in Egypt Woods, part of Burnham Beeches.  I love guide books - Egypt Woods is so called as it used to be a Gypsy encampment.  The name Gypsy, derives from Egyptian.  I live in a town that is subject to annual mass invasion of our public parks by Egyptians and I didn't know that.

Pleasant walking, but with the exception of the odd deer and geocache - little to comment on.

Egypt Wood

What I like about long(ish) linear walks is the increased chance of discovering something new.  When I headed out at 6am this morning, I had no idea that I would be arriving at Buckinghamshire's Best Kept Village later in the day.

That's what Hedgerley is - and they are very proud of it.

1994 - 1999 - The first of the Hedgerley Lean Years

I am wildly optimistic that a best kept village must have a best kept village boozer and I am delighted when I stumble on the Good Pub Guide entry, the White Swan.

I de-boot for the 2nd time today, admiring a window full of award stickers.

White Swan, Hedgerley

A choice of left or right on entry.  I make the initial mistake "Right" - I am in a restaurant that appears to have a chiller cabinet full of delightful nibbles that wouldn't look out of place in Gerrards Cross Tescos.  I have my own pork pie, buried deep in my rucksack, so I back away gently and head "Left" into the Public Bar.

Its proper old school.  Wooden everything and a small little serving hatch, with the beers detailed on little star shaped fluorescent cut outs.  There's around 8 and I have only previously heard of the Rebellion IPA.  I ask the bar man for a recommendation and after discussion on the type of thing I like, we have narrowed it down to the aforementioned IPA and a Little London Pryde.  In the interests of experimentation and a new check in on Untapped, I take Pryde.

Oh dear.  What a mistake.

I should have noticed that there were no pumps for these 8 starred ales.  Instead, the barrels are behind the bar and its open tap and let gravity do the work.  I hate my real ale like this.  It reminds of the dull and lifeless stuff you get at beer festivals.

By the time I have taken the obligatory arty photo with dart board background, the head has disappeared.  A taste and I am getting hints of vinegar.  I really should have taken it back, but you know how it is when you are a barefooted stranger in town.

Things are not helped when the village Octogenarians come in with their pint and a half of delicious looking, and headed, Rebellion IPA.  They say that knowledge comes with age.

Last we saw of that head

A shame, but on with the walk.  Up to the church and through some (you've guessed it) woods to cross the M40 and enter Bulstrode Park.  Its impressively huge and the headquarter for WEC.  I have no idea who WEC are until I consult the guide book - the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade.  I knock their door and ask if they have considered adding hand pulled ales to their manifesto for evangelizing.

Huge grounds, where the only person I meet is a dog walker.

Bulstode Park Grounds

A few streets of very pleasant housing and I am in Gerrards Cross - delivered to the door of the station, under the neon glow of the supermarket.  A bit of time to kill before my pre bought ticket home - so I close the walk off with a nice bit of symmetry by finding a Sidetracked geocache.

Then I fire up the Cask Marque app and see there is an entry around the corner.  I do not let the fact that it has Hotel in the name put me off.  Its a Chef and Brewer.  There is nothing to write about.  The beer was not vinegary.  They didn't have a dart board.  I couldn't find the bar code.

Ethorpe Hotel - Gerrards Cross

Black Sheep - Palate Cleanser