ROUTE DESCRIPTION - Walk 8, Chenies and Chalfont St Giles
OS Explorer Maps required: 172
Approximate distance: 11.9 miles
Start at village green in Chenies (TQ 017984).
CLOCKWISE
From the green in Chenies, take the lane heading south (initially passing the school on the right). Carefully cross the A404 and continue along the bridleway opposite (joining the route of the Chiltern Way). After half a mile or more you go under a railway bridge, and continue straight ahead, through a wood and then between paddocks. At the end, turn left along a private drive. At the end, cross the road and take Chalfont Lane ahead. At the end, turn right along Shire Lane. When this turns sharp left, continue ahead along Old Shire Lane. Continue on this when it becomes a track, running beside a wood on the right. When it turns sharp left take the SECOND of TWO paths into the wood on the right so that there is a fence of wooden palings on your left. When the path leaves the wood at a stile, it continues alongside a hedge on the right and then a wood. When the wood bears right, continue ahead to a stile in a fence, and turn right along the drive to the entrance of Newland Park. Carefully cross the road and take the path opposite through a long belt of trees. Cross another road and continue on the path opposite. At the end of a garden hedge, go through a kissing gate and continue between fences and hedges (the Chiltern Way goes left here). The path becomes an alley through a residential area. Cross a road and continue down the alley opposite, descending steeply between fences.. Cross another residential street and go down the narrow road almost opposite – at the end, continue ahead down another alley to reach a road junction where the B442 meets the A413 at Chalfont St Giles (SU 993937).
Cross the main road (A413) at the pedestrian crossing, turn right then immediately left at the mini-roundabouts, Follow the road into the centre of the village. Just past the end of the green on your left, take the footpath on the right, initially along a private drive. Where this turns left the path continues ahead (this is part of both the Chiltern Way and the South Bucks Way). On reaching a lane at a sharp bend go straight ahead a few yards to the next bend and go straight ahead on another track. The path soon enters a belt of trees. Continue ahead when the Chiltern Way goes left. Just before the end of the tree belt, turn right onto another footpath, with a wire fence on the right separating you from a pasture. Take great care crossing a rickety footbridge, and follow the path half-left to the far corner of another pasture or meadow. Carefully cross back over the A413. Continue along the footpath opposite, crossing part of a golf course. Carefully cross some fairways with a green and a tee to your right, continuing on beside a small wood. When this ends, again cross fairways with a green and a tee to your right, to reach a waymark post. Immediately behind this post go a few yards right through a narrow gap between bushes, and turn left on a path just inside a wood (with an old fence on your right). Continue in the same direction along the path, just feet from the golf course, for a considerable distance. Twice the path almost comes out onto the golf course, only to immediately go back into the trees. Just after the second time it does this there is a waymarked path junction, where you go left. Cross part of the golf course, walking between greens on either side to a white post beside a green notice board. Continue on a path between fences to reach a minor road, which you follow to the right. Before the next bend, take the footpath on the left, initially along Cokes Farm Lane and then alongside the right-hand hedge of a large arable field. Go a few yards right along a lane, then continue on another footpath. This is initially between a wooden fence on the left and a hedge on the right. It then crosses a sequence of horse paddocks or pastures, in the first two the path follows the hedge on the right, in the third the path follows the hedge on the left. In the corner of this third field you go through a gate in the hedge on your left into a larger field. Go across the field diagonally to the far corner, then turn sharp right in the corner, to follow a path through the same field with a hedge on your left (so you end up at the corner that was to your right when you first entered the field!). Follow this path through another field, then through allotments and along a drive until you reach a main road (A404) between Amersham and Little Chalfont (SU 981978).
Turn right, and then take the first footpath on the left. This follows the edge of a small field and goes over a railway line, then continues with a field boundary on the right. After a couple of fields, it continues between hedges on either side. At its end, turn right along a bridleway, which soon enters Lane Wood where it immediately forks right. Follow the bridleway right, staying close to the edge of the wood on your right. This eventually reaches a short drive and a lane. Cross the lane and immediately leave the bridleway, going over a (currently broken) stile on the left (no signpost here). Follow the broad track ahead, gradually going downhill. After a few hundred yards, where the track turns right, turn left onto an unsigned path. Follow this downhill and then along the bottom of the wood. Turn left where the path meets another one coming in sharply from the right. Keep left at a minor fork. Go through a metal kissing gate and follow the path across a field to reach a minor road. Cross it carefully, and continue on the footpath opposite, across a paddock. Continue along a private drive which soon crosses the river Chess near a weir on the left, with Latimer House on the hill in front of you. Turn right immediately after crossing the river, on a path which is initially parallel to the river, before moving further left to reach a road immediately south of Latimer (TQ 004987).
Continue on the path opposite, through a large pasture and then a small field, then between hedges and fences until it goes through Mill Farm to a lane. Turn right, following the lane as it crosses the river and soon reaches a junction (keep right at the traffic island at the end of the lane). Take the leftmost of two footpaths starting opposite (signposted Chiltern Heritage Trail), going steeply uphill near the left edge of a wood. Continue to the end of the path, by Chenies Manor. Turn left, passing the church on your left to return to the village green in Chenies.
Chenies (originally Isenhampstead Chenies) derives its name from Thomas Cheyne, shield-bearer to Edward III, who was given the manor in 1326. There was once a royal palace here, that both Edward I and Edward III used. There were once several paper-mills in the village, powered by the river Chess.
Chenies Manor was built around 1460 by Sir John Cheyne, and in 1494 was inherited by the Earl of Bedford. It was restyled in 1560 by Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford. Both Henry VIII and Elizabeth I stayed here. It remained in the Russell family until 1954, and there is a Bedford chapel in the adjacent church of St Michael. The house is open to the public at certain times, and has a mediaeval well,a priest hole and a dungeon. It is noted for its gardens, which include two mazes.
In 2004 a government survey of 32,482 neighbourhoods concluded that Chorleywood Westhad the highest quality of life in England, based on thirty seven criteria (the other top nine locations were also in the London Commuter belt, so as far as I’m concerned it’s yet more proof that there are ‘Lies, damn lies, and statistics!’). There was a Roman village at Chorleywood, with a villa thought to lie under the M25 here. In Saxon times it grew into a major town, with the border of Wessex and Mercia running through it. The town is famous for its Quaker conections – non-conformists flocked to the town, promised sanctuary by the towns inhabitants. William Penn settled the Pennsylvania colony with people from Chorleywood, Ricksmansworth and the surrounding part of Buckinghamshire, though this had disastrous financial results for the town. It boomed again in the 19th Century through the paper and printing industries. The coming of the Metropolitan Line in the 1890’s led to an incredible population rise, which continued until the 1960’s. Sir Jon Betjamin described Chorleywood as “essential Metro-land”.
Chalfont St Giles is mentioned in the Domesday Book, the name Chalfont meaning ‘chalk spring’ . The parish church dates to the 12th century, and has some fine 13th century wall paintings, a rare example of painted battlements (dating from the 15th century), and also 17th century inscriptions of the Ten Commandments, the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. The poet John Milton fled to Chalfont St Giles in 1665 to escape the Great Plague of London, and it was here that he completed ‘Paradise Lost’. It was also here that a local friend persuaded him to write its sequel, ‘Paradise Regained’. Milton’s Cottage still exists and is open to the public. ‘Chalfonts’ is the cockney rhyming slang for piles.
The current building called Latimer House dates only from 1838 after a disastrous fire gutted the previous building. That had been acquired by Sir William Cavendish in 1615, and had remained in his family for almost 350 years. In the late 18th century, houses were removed from the valley and a lake created in order to improve the view from the house. From 1847-1971 the house was home to the military Joint Service Defence College, and it is now a conference centre.