06/05/24 - Chiltern Chain Summary

 

Distance walked on Circular Walks - 254.5
Geocaches Found - 191
Stages Completed In - 20
Start - Dunstable Downs - 26/08/18
Finish - Goring - 06/05/24

I stumbled on the Chiltern Chain Walk through Google. Its not an official Long Distance Path but has been meticulously put together and documented by someone called Pete. He created a route that covers the length of the Chilterns AONB through 20 Circular Walks that are ever so slightly interconnected, so a chain is formed. He writes;

I don’t really expect anybody else to walk the Chiltern Chain Walk, and I don’t intend to do much to publicise it. It was simply a challenge for my own purposes, to plan, design and create a long-distance path and then walk it. However, I have documented the route, by writing reasonably detailed route descriptions for each of the 20 walks. I would hope that maybe one or two people might find some of the walks of sufficient interest that they would do them themselves – indeed, I think that some of the walks are so good that it would be a shame if nobody else ever tried them. 

Sounds like he handn't budgeted on people like me having time on my hands.  So thanks Pete - appreciate your diligence in putting this together.

The route and the interconnected 20 routes

Highlights

The Chilterns provided fine walking and the walks - between 10 and 15 miles - provided enough justification to warrant the fuel to get down there.

The website was informative, well written and although .GPX files were not available, on-line resources allow the easy conversion of Google .KML files.

The Ridgeway was revisited, which is always a pleasure to walk. Ivinghoe Beacon a highlight.

Lots of pretty villages - Chesham, Chenies, West Wycombe, Amersham, Hambleden and Goring to name a few. The pubs were often ancient and full of character. The beer a touch more pedestrian, with lots of Brakspear.

Cache laden routes - often stumbling on some great circular trails, which probably had the CO wondering why I had only found a percentage of those available. A few ALCs in the villages, keeping the numbers up.

Lowlights

Lots of woodland. The footpaths through them were perfect for walking but disappointing for photographs.

The Stages

Stage 1 - The Dunstable Downs

Stage 2 - Studham

Stage 3 - Ivinghoe

Stage 4 - Pitstone Hill

Stage 5 - Wendover Woods

Stage 6 - Buckland Common

Stage 7 - Chesham

Stage 8 - Chenies

Stage 9 - Chalfont St Giles

Stage 10 - Amersham

Stage 11 - Prestwood

Stage 12 - Princes Risborough

Stage 13 - Parslows Hillock

Stage 14 - West Wycombe

Stage 15 - Hambleden

Stage 16 - Cowleaze Woods

Stage 17 - Christmas Common

Stage 18 - Stoke Row

Stage 19 - Exlade Street

Stage 20 - Goring

The Flickr Album

07/04/23 - Chiltern Chain Walk - Stage 16 - Cowleaze Woods

 Another beautifully boring yomp through the Chilterns

Only snippets of drama on this leg of the Chiltern Chain Walk. An Adventure Lab Cache in Cowleaze Woods tells me of the WWII crash site, taking me off path to find the memorial to 7 lost aviators. The information board summing it up best when saying "Tragically, having survived thousands of miles flown across Europe, they crashed here when they were so nearly home"  

Cowleaze Woods Memorial

Cowleaze Woods Inscription

The next 12 miles are so typical of the Chilterns. Super walking, amazing views, valley descents and climbs. Unusually for a Bank Holiday, its gorgeous blue skies and it would be a real curmudgeon whose mood is not lifted by the sight of new born lambs and walking along a valley floor under the shadow of soaring red kites.

Stokenchurch Tower - a marker along the M40 that means I am 90 minutes from home

Frequent views like the Oxfordshire Plain, towards the end of the route

The route runs through Wormsley Valley to the dry village of Ibstone. With the exception of the Barn restaurant at Turville Heath - pre-bookings only - there are no refreshment stops of any kind on this route until Christmas Common. And this requires a long pull uphill through Fire Wood.

I have never been so pleased to see a Brakspear Pub.

Water had expired 2m before arrival

The Fox and Hounds is a quintessential country pub, appealing to ramblers and diners in equal quantities. A small bar offers the smallest choice of drinks (wine excluded) that I think I have ever seen. Four keg fonts and a single cask hand-pull. At least the Brakspear Gravity session bitter will be fresh.

I take it outside for a choice of seating, either inside or outside a massive wigwam.

Think Nan is wondering why I photo my pints

Enough signal for Untappd, where I am surprised this session bitter scores so low.  2.9 may well be the lowest rating I have noticed. Yes, it 3.4%. Yes, I've purchased it four times previously and don't remember.  But it was clear, foamy refreshment that was most enjoyed. Maybe beer is all about circumstance. I was parched, the sun was shining and I knew was just a mile and a half from getting out of my walking boots and into comfort.

Alas, I hadn't expected that last mile and a half to be a drop down to the Oxfordshire plain and climb back up.

1450ft ascent in the gentle Chilterns.

Walk Information

Distance - 12.5 Miles

Geocaches - 3 and an 8 ALCs

Walk Inspiration

Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8, Stage 9, Stage 10, Stage 11, Stage 12, Stage 13, Stage 14, Stage 15

01/01/23 - Chiltern Chain Walk - Stage 15 - Hambleden

Scouting Film Locations on the Chiltern Chain Walk

The villages in this part of the Chilterns make a fine place to kick off 2023 walking. Completely unspoiled, timeless and a shoe-in for cinema location scouts. Hambleden, where the walk starts, was used in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Sleepy Hollow. Turville, the half way point, used in the Vicar of Dibley.

An Adventure Lab Cache to get my bearing in Hambleden. Locals keen to wish me "Happy New Year" and then point out the error of my ways in paying for parking, when I could have just slammed it in between a couple of land-ies, on the roadside.

An ALC Location - Hambleden

Like most of my discoveries on the Chiltern Chain Walk, this is fine walking - possibly the best so far - but once the walk is over, I am left with little of photographic interest.  Things to note - tracks through woods, many ups and downs, mud and a long, flat walk back Hamblden Valley from Ibstone.

Oh, and such a high volume of Geocaches that by the end of the walk, I am well trained at writing 2023, as I date the logbooks.

Metaled Track providing access to the first woodland - Great Wood

Into Great Wood, where the Geocaching starts

Heading towards Turville, Cobstone Windmill ion the distance

Too early for the Vicar of Dibley's local - Turville's Bull and Butcher

13 miles done and the first Good Beer Guide Tick of 2023 awaits..... Hambleden's Stag and Huntsman.

Now to find the way in.

The front door would seem an obvious access point but the had written sign says "please use the rear door". The rear door has a hastily created barricade stating "please wait to be seated".

The "2023 death of the pub" appears to have missed Buckinghamshire.

A chef agrees that I am allowed a drink and many rooms are navigated to find a narrow strip of a bar, with just the one seat available. I'm almost too scared to leave it to find the wifi password for my first of the year cask Untappd checkin.

Its a LocALE Rebellion Huntsman Red Ale

The name gave it away - specially brewed (or specially renamed) for this place. All Untappd checkins have been made from here.

Pub Scores
Appearance	4/5	Traditional, multi-roomed gem
Drinks	3/5	Two Rebellion Beers and a Doom Bar.  Huntsman in fine condition.
Atmosphere	2/5	Mostly diners and the special occasion pub go-ers.  Extra point for being packed.
Delightful Surprises	1/5	Barricade fortifications to stop punter access, do not count.

Walk Information

Distance - 13 Miles

Geocaches - 26 and an ALC

Walk Inspiration

Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8, Stage 9, Stage 10, Stage 11, Stage 12, Stage 13, Stage 14

02/06/22 - Chiltern Chain Walk - Stage 14 - West Wycombe

Distance - 15 Miles

Geocaches - 7 and an ALC

Walk Inspiration

Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8, Stage 9, Stage 10, Stage 11, Stage 12, Stage 13

God Bless The Queen.  A four day weekend, although by Sunday, no-one has any idea what day it is.

This lengthy walk in the Chilterns was completed at the start of the holiday, when optimism was fresh and the sun was shining.

West Wycombe is where all the glory and interest is - and an Adventure Lab Cache takes me to five locations to tell spooky stories.

• A headless horseman at the golden sphere topped church of St Lawrence
• The heart of Paul Whitehead, stolen in 1837 by an Australian soldier
• The phantom monk at the Hellfire Caves
• Suki, died at the George and Dragon following injuries sustained from trickster locals, who she now haunts dressed in all in white
• A traveller, murdered at the George and Dragon, whose footsteps can be heard at the pub

I probably should have completed the walk at dusk.  At the end of October.

Church of St Lawrence.  Golden sphere a beacon for the route home

The Mausoleum 

Entrance to the Hell Fire Caves.  C18th Drinking Den

Entrance to West Wycombe.  C21st Drinking Den(s)

This walk is so typical of the Chilterns and I have said it before on this Long Distance Path.  It's superb to walk but not so great to photograph.  Pretty paths through mature woodland.  The ups and down of several pretty dry valleys.

You get the idea - it's lovely

But I'm sure you are here for the misery.  And pubs.

At 11:30am, I reach Fingest for a handsome looking pub - the Chequers.  At least its still going, even if its doesn't open for another 30 minutes.

Not the only traveller contemplating waiting for the scrape of the bolt

Forget Cask Marque Plaques - this is a TV Location

The water runs out at Studley Green. The OS Map shows the big blue cup of joy but Google is less enthusiastic.  If you look hard enough, you will find an entry for the Studley Arms but no picture or reviews.  Hitting the road about 500m away, a pub sign can be seen.  It has been repurposed to say "Welcome to Studley Green".  The Studley Arms died many years ago.

It's a 3 mile plod back to the car.  When very thirsty, its easy to mistake the red kites for vultures.

West Wycombe has a couple of pubs.  The aforementioned haunted George and Dragon.  The only Buckinghamshire entry in my CAMRA Heritage Pubs book, the Swan.  In the interest of new experiences, I make the short journey along the A40 to the Dashwood Arms.  A biker friendly roadhouse.

And Car Friendly

Rebellion Smugglers - and Water

The garden is being taken advantage off by bank holiday revellers.  The staff were being run ragged - sacrificing manning the bar in preference of delivering meals to hungry sunbathers.

If only I had known there was a second bar in the garden.  But would they have had the hand pulls on?

28/12/21 - Chiltern Chain Walk - Stage 13 - Parslows Hillock

Distance - 14 Miles

Geocaches - 4

Walk Inspiration

Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8, Stage 9, Stage 10, Stage 11, Stage 12

The hard part when planning Stage 13 of the Chiltern Chain Walk was deciding which pub to end at.  A potential 5 available on first double digit mile walk for a long time.

The reality was I need not worry - through a mixture of being too early (expected) and bad luck (unexpected), not a single one was open.

Too early for the Black Horse at Lacey Green and Red Lion at Bradenham.  The Boot at Bledlow Ridge has temporarily closed for Xmas - reopening two days later.  The Whip Inn at Loosley Row closed for refurbishment.

Too early for the this handsome freehouse - which may well be a Tearoom!

And that's lunch at the Boot cancelled.  An Xmas break

Most disappointingly was the Pink and Lacy, where I chose to start/end the walk.  I had passed it on Stage 12 and additional research showed that it is in the Good Beer Guide.  A 300 year old boozer with an historic bar dedicated to the war poet Rupert Brooke sounded just up my blogs alley.

The sign saying closed Mondays/Tuesdays was unnoticed until my weary return.  Even when a Tuesday is a Bank Holiday.

Timeless Boozer

Failing to find the "Except Bank Holiday" small print

A 14 mile route march in poor weather conditions, without stopping is how I spent my bank holiday.  On a positive note, the paths were good when not muddy and there was some variety between woodland and expansive views along the dry valley floors.  Revisiting the Ridgeway Long Distance Path is never a chore, even if I am going to have to look at the blog for a reminder.

Horsehoe Artwork at Kingswood House

Spirits not allowed to drop when there is festive cheer

Looking back over Bradenham from Slough Hill

The CAMRA GBG App came to my aid.  A quick look at the nearest (open!) pub showed the Golden Cross in Saunderton was not too far away.

The day saved by a Wye Valley HPA and Tuna Baguette - about three hours later than expected.

Thank the lord for Technology

Much needed - and the likely last Good Beer Guide Tick of 2021

30/08/21 - Chiltern Chain Walk - Stage 12 - Princes Risborough

Distance - 13 Miles

Geocaches - 11

Walk Inspiration

Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8, Stage 9, Stage 10, Stage 11

A typical late summer bank holiday Monday, weather-wise.  Low cloud, drizzle, the feeling that Autumn is coming.

I'm back on the Chiltern Chain Walk - having started it on this same weekend three years ago.  This is the trail in a nutshell - good walking, good paths, near constant woodland - enjoyable in execution but providing little photographic opportunities to fill a blog.  

Woodland Walking

With occasional entertainment options

So what do we have on this stage?

Architectural delights at Hamdpen House.  Tracing its history from the C14th to C20th.  If you think its looks familiar, you may have been watching Hammer Horror movies on Talking Pictures.  They owned it through the 70s and used it as a location in films and the TV series.  Rather boringly, it's now in the hands of a financial services organisation.

Hammer Horror

We also have the Coombes Hill Monument - dedicated to the South African Campaign at the turn of the C20th.  Views over the Vale of Aylesbury and family friendly with an optimistic ice-cream van.

Coombe Hill Monument

When not in woodland, I am on the Ridgeway - a pleasure to return to.  This part runs through the grounds of Chequers.  Plenty of dogs but none were Dilyn.

Ridgeway Signage

Chequers, in the shadow of the Coombes Hill Monument

Plenty of pubs too....

At Parslow Hillock - War Poet Rupert Brooke a regular

Hampden Inn - advertising past events.

I've planned the walk to end near the Plough at Cadsden.  I was too early when completing the Ridgeway.  It looked a fine Country Boozer and initially, I was delighted with a good quality Hook Norton Old Hooky.  Waiting 50 minutes for a sandwich, where the only entertainment was watching the same teenage staff drop glasses, trip over a stick and inform me that my ordered sausage was off the menu only slightly soured the visit.

No wonder the Cameron's famously left their daughter behind.  Sam was probably yelling at Dave to "leave it, there's no point in complaining".  

Between the dogs, the stick trip hazard

Post pub refreshment, a stiff climb up Whiteleaf Hill for the same views of the Vale of Aylesbury.

Chiltern Views

15/05/21 - Chiltern Chain Walk - Stage 11 - Prestwood

Distance - 13 Miles

Geocaches - 5

Walk Inspiration

Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8, Stage 9, Stage 10

Two things are guaranteed as a Rambler;

Guarantee 1 - If you don full hardshell waterproofs, top and bottom, it will not rain. This is regardless of how angry the sky looks or the forecast.

Guarantee 2 - If a walk shows a high number of big blue cups of joy (BBCOJ) on the OS Map, they will have no doubt have disappeared, been converted into houses or you are passing them too early.

Stage 11 of the Chiltern Chain Walk promised 4 watering holes. I came home dry, both within and without.

The walk is very typical of what I have found in the Chilterns. It is pretty. There are excellent paths.  There's little of real interest.

This is a mixture of interchangeable dense woodland and agricultural fields.  If you like bluebells, then mid May is the time to do it. 

Plenty of Bluebells - This in Peterley Woods

When you're not in woods, you're looking at these sort of views

So the pubs.  Far too early in the day, the Full Moon in Little Kingshill.  Garden Marquee that will be functional for at least two more days and an idyllic looking country pub.  10am is not the time to be walking past - so note to future self - do the route in reverse.

The Full Moon - Little Kingshill

The next one of note required a little investigation as to its fate.  My elderly OS Map has the BBCOJ at the end of a dead end lane in Little Hampden Common.  Its now about 1pm and the water supply is perilously low.  However, all I can see are a row of houses.

Its not necessarily a surprise that a pub in such a remote location has gone and I do find a couple to ask of it's fate.  The lady launched into a diatribe about how criminal it was that the Rising Sun had been converted into a private house around 10 years ago.  If she had been canvassing for votes last week, she would have had a convert.

The Rising Sun - as it was. 

Her information gives me something to work with when I get back on line.

One of the last reviews on Beer In The Evening in 2012;

drove all the way up to find this pub, only to find out im a couple of years late. sad.

Looking further on that site it talks about a miserable landlord who wouldn't let ramblers eat their own sandwiches in his garden and moaning about them coming in with muddy boots.  Who'd be in hospitality eh?  Although £3 for half an orange juice and lemonade sounds expensive now but this was 2008.

And it could have been a Good Beer Guide Tick, if I had a time machine.  This from 1983 - where it must have been the same angry, muddy boot hating landlord..

Splendidly placed for walks in the Chilterns, this pub has a big inglenook fireplace to stretch your legs in front of in its quarry-tiled public bar (get the mud off your boots first, though, or they won't let you in). There are comfortable seats around the tables in the Turkey-carpeted lounge bar, which does a brisk trade in big helping of ploughman's (£1.10), jacket potatoes filled with cottage cheese and fruit (£1.50), smoked mackerel (£1.80), moussaka, lasagne and herby sausagemeat pie (£2.30). A separate restaurant which opened in the spring of 1983 specialises in fish (closed Sunday evening and Monday). Well-kept Adnams, Brakspears Special, Greene King Abbot and Sam Smith on handpumps; darts, shove-ha'penny and dominoes in the public bar. A pretty back garden slopes up behind the plain brick house, and there are tables among some roses on the sloping grass in front. Though the lane peters out here, bridle paths lead on through the woods both to Coombe Hill (National Trust - with fine views) and to Dunsmore, about a mile away.

I'm sure there is a German word for missing something you never knew.  I am feeling it now. 

27/03/21 - Chiltern Chain Walk - Stage 10 - Amersham

Distance - 12.5 Miles

Geocaches - 9

Walk Inspiration

Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8, Stage 9

Stage 10 and half way through the Chiltern Chain Walk.  Like many people, I'm not meeting targets that I set myself but I am expecting 2021 to improve from this point on.

This is a fine section of the route - linking a number of pretty flint stone villages together.  The start is Amersham Old Town, which was thoroughly explored in Stage 9 through an Adventure Lab Cache.  Returning to this timeless village at the end of the walk, I couldn't help but feel disappointed that I missed the chance to sample some of the fine looking watering holes.

The Swan and Eagle demonstrating how easy an Amersham Pub Crawl would be

I hit the countryside early, heading to the villges of Coleshill, Winchmore Hill and Penn Street - all seemingly wet led, with a country pub in each.   Penn Wood provides the first terrain variety, leaving flint strewn fields for dense woodland.

The Way to Coleshill

Penn Wood

Holmer Green leads to Little Kingshill via an unending series of stiles, with the prize being the highlight of the walk.

The Misbourne Valley has everything a rambler needs.  An unofficial lunch before dropping down to the valley floor to the South Bucks Way.  However, my prepared lunch may have been hasty.  Both pubs in Little Missenden were open - with the frankly bizarre site of a pub garden fully occupied by coffee drinking pensioners.  When will this madness end?

And to keep me going as the miles kick in and I feel every step of the last 10 miles in my knees?  A series of family friendly geocaches to keep the mind occupied.

My lunch spot, overlooking the Misbourne Valley

But the Bucks Pensioners were taking coffee at the Red Lion

The Misbourne Valley

And the Geocache laden South Bucks Way

Just as I reach civilisation, I can hear Sister Sledge's "Lost In Music" belting out from a teepee, learning where everyone walking towards me had got their takeaway coffees from.  A bargain, at nearly half the price the Grocers ripped me off for in Old Amersham on Stage 9 - with the added bonus of seating in a disco atmosphere.

Feel So Alive

In a twist that needs recording to show there is a higher power - I catch up on a couple of spotify albums on the journey home.  Once Arab Strap and Nick Cave's new albums are over, Spotify resorts to random selections.

First up - The Fall's cover of Lost in Music.  He quit his ten till five.