Pete's Walks- Coombe Hill and Prestwood (page 3 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.
I turned left along the road, which immediately turned right. I soon came to a crossroads, where I went straight on. When the road then turned left, I carried straight on, along the long gravel drive of Hampden House. I passed Hampden church on my left, and carried straight on past Hampden House on the right. A bridleway continued straight on along a broad strip of mown grass between hedges and fences. When this ended, the bridleway continued along a track, but I forked left from it onto a path that went at an angle across a huge corn field. The path passed through a small copse in the middle of the field and then passed a solitary tree, before entering a wood called Barnes Grove on the other side.
The minor road (this is running along the line of Grim's Ditch)
The drive to Hampden House
Hampden church
The bridleway continuing from the drive to Hampden House
Looking back at Hampden House - once the home of John Hampden, one of the leading Parliamentarians who opposed Charles I, it is now a wedding venue. It's a bit of an architectural curiosity as it looks very much to be in the style known as 'Strawberry Hill Gothic' but was remodelled this way some years before Horace Walpole 'invented' that style.
The path to Barne's Grove
The path to Barne's Grove
I followed the path for a few hundred yards through the wood. Another path joined in sharply from the right at one point, beyond which the path was on the line of an ancient earthwork called Grim's Ditch. On the far side of the wood I reached a road junction at the hamlet of Redland's End, where I turned right (I've shown a better alternative on my Google map). For about half a mile there were woods either side of the road (I saw the largest amount of Betony I've ever seen along here), then the wood on the left ended (this is where the alternative I suggested rejoins the route) and a short while further I reached the hamlet of Green Hailey.
Barne's Grove
Barne's Grove
Barne's Grove after two paths merged, now on the line of Grim's Ditch
The minor road going northwest from Redland End
The minor road going northwest from Redland End
The minor road going northwest towards Green Hailey
Rather than take the footpath on the right as I entered Green Hailey I decided to continue through the hamlet and then take a bridleway on the right. This crossed part of a green field, continuing beside a hedge on my right. Beyond this field I went straight on at a slightly staggered bridleway crossroads, the bridleway now running just inside Sergeant's Wood with a field close by on the left. I then went straight on at a path crossroads, now with woods either side. The next crossroads was also a staggered one, where I had to go a few yards right and then turn left (where a footpath went straight on). The bridleway continued through Ninn Wood, then carried on for about a quarter of a mile just inside the eastern edge of the wood, with paddocks beyond the trees and fence on my right.
The bridleway from Green Hailey
View from the bridleway crossroads near Green Hailey
The bridleway continuing through Sergeant's Wood
The bridleway continuing through Sergeant's Wood
The bridleway continuing through Ninn Wood