Pete's Walks - The Chiltern Chain Walk, Walk 4

ROUTE DESCRIPTION - Walk 4, Pitstone Hill and Wigginton

OS Explorer Maps required: 181

Approximate distance: 11.6 miles

Start at the car park at Pitstone Hill (SP 956149)

ANTI-CLOCKWISE

From the car park take the path going steeply up a hillock, continuing down the other side and then following a left-hand fence up to Pitstone Hill, where there are excellent views over the Vale of Aylesbury. Follow the Ridgeway path (we will follow its route all the way to Wigginton), descending the flank of the hill alongside part of the ancient earthwork of Grim’s Ditch (notices request you to walk in the ditch rather than on the bank, which is being eroded away). Go through a gate and follow the path that contours through the woods on the north slope of Aldbury Nowers. After about half a mile, ignore a right turn at the bottom of some steps, carry on a few yards further, then turn right at a junction (Ridgeway signpost) and go downhill slightly, then turn left at a crossroads of paths. At the next path crossroads (after almost half a mile) go right, and turn right along the road to reach Tring Station (SP 951123).

Continue past the station (on your left) and then turn left at a road junction. Take the first footpath on the right, which runs in a straight line between fences and/or hedges and takes you to the A4251 (part of the Roman Akeman Street). Go a few yards to your right and take the path on the other side of the road, which crosses the A41 dual carriageway on an impressive modern footbridge. Go through a kissing-gate and continue on a few yards to go through a second kissing-gate. Follow the path until it reaches a narrow lane (‘The Twist’), and continue on the path almost opposite. This follows the right edge of a field, then goes slightly right along the edge of a meadow (with a wood on your right) and continues with a garden boundary on the left to reach a road on the edge of Wigginton (SP 935106).

Turn left along the road (leaving the Ridgeway path). Where it turns left, go through a gate on the other side of the road, and turn left along the edge of a small playing field. In the corner of the playing field turn right. Continue down a street, cross a road and continue to a second road (by Lewin’s Farm on the map). Turn left for a short distance, and take the footpath on the right. Follow this path through a sequence of meadows to Lower Wood, and continue in the same direction through the wood. On the far side of the wood, this walk joins part of the Chiltern Way and goes through a paddock and then a field. At the end of the path, go right on a track to a lane. Turn left, passing under the A41, then take the byway on the right (initially along the drive of a house) to reach Cow Roast (SP 957104).

Turn right and then take the lane on the left, crossing the Grand Union Canal by Cow Roast Lock. Follow the lane as it turns right, then take a footpath on the left after a 100 yards or so. The path goes over a bridge over a main railway line. At the end of the path turn right, and then turn left, passing a metal gate to reach the drive to Norcott Court Farm. Go left to enter the farmyard by a dilapidated stile, then turn right to another stile. The path now goes half-left across a rising field to its far corner. It then follows the right-hand boundary of the next field, to a stile hidden by bushes in the next corner. The path continues across another rising field (again to the far corner and another stile). A short distance into the next field, go through the gate on the right, and follow the byway uphill to Tom’s Hill (where there are a few houses and a small industrial unit). Continue on past the buildings, now on a surfaced lane, to reach a road at a hairpin bend. Go ahead a few yards, then take the path on the left descending through trees. At the bottom of the slope, the Chiltern Way takes a bridleway going right, but ignore this and continue on down a road. After about 100 yards, take the footpath between gardens on the right to a gate into some allotments, turn right along the top of the allotments then turn left through the middle of the allotments. Continue between houses and at the road, turn right to reach the centre of Aldbury, by the stocks and pond (SP 965125).

Turn right (along Tom’s Hill Road) then take the broad footpath going left (signposted to NT tea shop ½ mile). Follow the path steeply uphill. You pass a couple of path junctions, then another bridleway comes in sharply from the right as the gradient eases slightly. After about another 100 yards, fork left onto a bridleway contouring the wooded hillside. This joins a driveway for a short distance (the Monument and NT tea shop is a short distance uphill to your right here) and continues with a garden boundary on the left.  A footpath then comes in on the right, and the bridleway bears left and descends quite steeply It then turns left as it exits the wood at the bottom of the slope. After a short distance, turn right on a footpath. This crosses one field, then goes half-left across a second field to reach the drive to Duncombe Farm. Turn left here, then after 100-200 yards take the path on your right between hedges. Over a stile, the path turns left - it is easy to follow as it curves to the right and gradually rises up the hillside. It eventually reaches another stile where a track continues uphill, soon reaching another track with some kennels a short distance to the right.. Turn left along the track, which descends slightly, then take a path forking left and going downhill (waymarked Ashridge Estate Boundary Trail). Cross a stile and continue downhill, eventually alongside a fence on the left. Continue to a path crossroads with a wooden signpost, where you turn left (back onto the Ridgeway). Follow this path to the road and the car park where you started.

Pitstone Hill has impressive views over the Vale of Aylesbury, and is a good site for wildflowers such as Clustered Bellflower. In the middle of a field to the northwest is Pitstone Windmill. This post-mill has the date 1627 carved on its framework, the earliest date on any windmill in Britain - as this could be the date of repair work, the windmill could be even older than that. It belonged to the Ashridge Estate for many years, but in 1902 it was damaged beyond economic repair in a storm. In 1922 it was bought by a neighbouring farmer who donated it to the National Trust fifteen years later. A keen band of enthusiasts started restoring it in 1963, and it ground corn in 1970 for the first time in 68 years. It is open on Sunday afternoons in the summer.

Grim’s Ditch (or Grim’s Dyke or just Grimsdyke) is the name shared by a number of ancient linear earthworks, mainly in the south of England but also as far afield as Yorkshire. They are believed to date back to the Iron Age, and as they are too small for military purposes are thought to demarcate territory. The name derives from the Saxon word for the devil or the God of the Underground, Grim (or Odin). There are intermittent sections of Grim’s Ditch from Pitstone and Ivinghoe as far west as Bradenham near High Wycombe, a distance of almost 20 miles.

The name Cow Roast is thought to be a corruption of ‘Cow Rest’, as in the 1770’s the inn here was a stopping point for cattle drovers from the Midlands on their way to Smithfields Market in London. The inn is on the site of a Roman settlement, and in a later period of history it supplied horses for pulling the barges on the adjacent Grand Union Canal.

Aldbury is an understandably popular village, with its charming old cottages, village pond and combined whipping post and stocks, all set against the backdrop of the steep wooded slopes of Ashridge. The village is frequently used as a setting for TV and films (several episodes of The Avengers were filmed here, and so too was part of the second Bridget Jones film). The village church, restored in 1867, contains a memorial to Sir Robert Whittingham, slain at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471 (the concluding battle of the Wars of the Roses).