Pete's Walks- Chenies and Chesham (page 2 of 3)
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 continued along the path, now with a a large wood on my right, and fine views over the Chess valley to my left. After a while the path turned right, then went left after a short distance, still following the edge of the wood. After a few hundred yards, shortly after the path and wood started to descend towards the valley bottom, I went through a gap in the fence on my right (there used to be a stile and waymark here, marking a path junction) and continued downhill just inside the edge of the wood. At the bottom of the slope, the path continued through the wood for about a hundred yards, then followed a hedge on my left through three cattle pastures that sloped up to my right (there were a few young cattle at the top of the first one). The path then continued a short way along a farm track to reach a lane in the hamlet of Blackwell, where I turned left.
The path along the Chess Valley, from Latimer to Blackwell
The path along the Chess Valley, from Latimer to Blackwell
The path along the Chess Valley, from Latimer to Blackwell, looking across the valley towards Chesham Bois
The path along the Chess Valley, from Latimer to Blackwell
The path along the Chess Valley, from Latimer to Blackwell
The path along the Chess Valley, from Latimer to Blackwell
I followed the lane through Blackwell, and on across the valley floor for several hundred yards until it ended at a junction with Latimer Road (the minor road through this part of the Chess valley). Across the road a path continued, soon going through gates either side of a drive, and then continuing for several hundred yards with fences either side. As I reached some farm buildings to the right of the path I spotted a Wheatear, which is a bird I've only seen a few times in the Chilterns. The path then went under a railway bridge and entered Blackwell Stubbs Wood. I soon came to an apparent fork in the path, the right of way taking the right fork and heading gently uphill.
Blackwell Hall Lane
The river Chess, seen from Blackwell Hall Lane
The path from Blackwell to Chesham Bois
The path from Blackwell to Chesham Bois
The path continuing through Blackwell Stubbs Wood
The path continuing through Blackwell Stubbs Wood (it takes the right fork here)
The path continuing through Blackwell Stubbs Wood, approaching Chesham Bois
The path emerged from the wood and finished on St Leonards Road, Chesham Bois, where I turned left. I turned left again at the end of this road, into Hollow Way Lane, and then left again at its junction with Bois Lane. I followed this for a few hundred yards then, just past a parade of shops on the left I turned right by a War Memorial into North Road. I followed a path on the left of this road as far as Bricky Pond (thought to be a flooded clay pit, it is now a haven for wildlife - I spotted some Purple Loosestrife here, again something I've not seen often in the Chilterns).
St Leonards Road, Chesham Bois
Bois Lane, Chesham Bois
War Memorial, Chesham Bois
North Road, Chesham Bois
Bricky Pond, Chesham Bois