Pete's Walks - Chenies and Chalfont St Peter (page 3 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.
On the far side of the water meadow, I went over a footbridge and turned left. Oddly the Chiltern Heritage Trail no longer really enters Chalfont St Giles (the old route I followed in 2006 did) - I could have gone straight on at this junction, passing the church on my right, and would have soon gone under an archway to reach the centre of the village, but I decided to leave that for my walk back (so I could sit on a seat by the green to eat my packed lunch). The path going left followed some railings past a block of flats (the railings weren't here in 2006, and it wasn't very obvious then where the path went as it crossed a lawn behind the flats). At the end of the railings I came to a path junction where I turned left, the path soon running between tall old hedgerows either side. It then followed a hedge on the left through what had obviously once been an orchard, there being numerous fruit trees to my right (on my way back, there was also a white horse here). I now basically just had to follow the hedge on my left for a mile or so along the Misbourne valley. I'd only walked this part of the route twice before, on the Chiltern Heritage Trail and the South Bucks Way, eleven and twelve years ago respectively, and I didn't seem to remember it very well. Anyway, the path next followed the hedge through a large sheep pasture. It then ran for some distance through a broad band of long grass - soon there was an artificial gallop for horses in the field to my right. Beyond this there was a narrow field, and in the next field the path forked slightly but I stayed with the hedge on the left (as instructed by the guidebook) , the two paths almost immediately rejoining beyond this field anyway.
The start of the path from Chalfont St Giles to Chalfont St Peter
The path from Chalfont St Giles to Chalfont St Peter
The path from Chalfont St Giles to Chalfont St Peter
The path from Chalfont St Giles to Chalfont St Peter
The path from Chalfont St Giles to Chalfont St Peter
The path from Chalfont St Giles to Chalfont St Peter
The path from Chalfont St Giles to Chalfont St Peter
The path continued between the hedge and a fence on the right for a short while, then went through a gate into a small area of trees and bushes. Almost immediately I came to a fork, where I went right (there was no sign or waymark, and I remembered getting confused here once before, so I checked the guidebook again). The oath went through the bushes, passing close to tennis courts on my left. It then emerged into a playing field, where an Under-11's football match was in progress. I walked round to the right of the pitch and found where the path restarted through more bushes on the other side. Further on, the path continued besides allotments on my left. Beyond these I continued ahead along Church Lane to reach the centre of Chalfont St Peter.
The path from Chalfont St Giles to Chalfont St Peter
The path from Chalfont St Giles to Chalfont St Peter, passing the tennis courts after I forked right
The path passing the football pitches
The path continuing into Chalfont St Peter
The path continuing past the allotments, to reach Church Lane
Chalfont St Peter church
This was a reasonable walk, but I can't pretend its one of my favourite routes - I've walked parts of it on four long-distance paths, but I've never used any of it in any of the 150+ walking routes I've created for myself. It's simply too close to too many built-up areas for my liking. But to be fair, the reason its included in this and the other long-distance paths is that there really isn't any sensible alternative way of walking through this rather congested part of the Chilterns. The best part was definitely the walk along the Misbourne valley between Chalfont St Giles and Chalfont St Peter - I didn't remember this very well (unlike the rest of the route, which I'd walked more often and more recently).