Pete's Walks- Chenies and the Chess Valley (page 1 of 4)

If you are considering walking this route yourself, please see my disclaimer. You may also like to see these notes about the maps and GPX files.

Google map of the walkDownload GPX file of the walk

I did this circular walk of about 8.5 miles on Monday, 28th December 2015. It was a new route, though almost entirely on paths I've used before on other walks in the Chess Valley with just two short sections of path that were new to me. I've just looked through my walk diaries and, incredibly, it seems it's over three years since I last walked here!

 I couldn't park by the small green in the middle of the village (there are only a few spaces) so parked further along the road (between the hotel and the pub, which are shown on the OS maps). I started walking about 10:30am, heading back towards the green. Where the road turned right I took another road going straight on, passing the green on my right, and then continued straight on along a bridleway when this road turned left. I soon had the grounds of the impressive Chenies Manor on my right. The bridleway turned right at a path junction, then turned left when it reached a yard in the grounds of the big house.

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The pump on the green in Chenies

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The start of the bridleway past the back of Chenies Manor

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Chenies Manor

A short distance further on views opened out on my right, over and along the Chess valley. I could see the village of Latimer straight away, and a little further on could see Latimer House. After a few hundred yards the bridleway ran through Walk Wood and then ended at a lane. Here I went a short distance right, before a bridleway started on the other side. This ran just inside the edge of a wood, with fields a few yards to my left. After about a third of a mile I forked right on a path that descended through the wood at an angle (there didn't seem to be any signs or waymarks at this junction but it was shortly before a junction where a public footpath came in on the left). At the bottom of the slope I turned right through a gate, and followed a path through a meadow or pasture to reach the road that runs through the Chess Valley.

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The bridleway from Chenies Manor, alongside the Chess Valley

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Looking along the Chess Valley, from the bridleway from Chenies Manor

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Latimer, from the bridleway from Chenies Manor

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The bridleway from Chenies Manor

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The bridleway that starts across the lane

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The path descending through the wood

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The path continuing through a meadow to reach the road through the Chess Valley

Across the road, a footpath continued diagonally across an empty paddock I then continued along a drive over two bridges - there are two waterways here, part of the river being diverted to feed some ornamental ponds. On my left was a weir topped by a statue, and on the top of the hillside in front of me was Latimer House. Just past the second waterway, I went through a gate on the right and started along a path following the waterway on my right.

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The path after I crossed the road

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Looking right - there are two parallel waterways here

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Looking left, to a weir surmounted by a statue

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The statue on the weir

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Latimer House

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The path alongside the river