Pete's Walks - Maidensgrove, Ibstone, Middle Assendon (page 1 of 7)

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 walk

I did this circular walk of about 15 miles on Good Friday, 19th April 2019. It was a repeat of a walk I first did in May 2016, which I still think is the best walking route I know in the Chilterns. Remarkably for a Bank Holiday, it was a very warm and sunny day, though it was quite hazy so some of the views (and consequently photographs) were a little disappointing.

I parked on the lane that crosses Maidensgrove Common (grid reference SU 717886), just outside Maidensgrove itself and started walking about 9.05am (I'd managed to set off about an hour earlier than usual from home). I followed the lane into Maidensgrove (so the larger part of the common was on my left). Where a lane went right, I turned left along a private drive, soon passing a pond on the edge of the common on my left. At the end of the drive a short path continued into Pishillbury Wood, almost immediately meeting a crossing bridleway where I turned left. It was quite delightful walking through this mainly Beech wood on such a lovely Spring day, with the fresh green leaves emerging on the trees and Bluebells and other colourful wild flowers on the woodland floor. After a while the bridleway started to drop down hill quite steeply, now following the boundary between Pishillbury Wood and Doyley Wood on my left.

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The start of the walk, along the lane across Maidensgrove Common

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The private road through part of Maidensgrove, after I turned left

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Pond on the edge of Maidensgrove Common

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Pishillbury Wood

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Pishillbury Wood

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The bridleway descending, roughly along the boundary between Doyley Wood and Pishillbury Wood (right)

Near the bottom of the slope, the bridleway left the woods and continued on beside a tall hedgerow on my right beside a large meadow. There was short but rather steep climb up the other side of the valley here. The bridleway then joined a drive (merging with another bridleway at this point), which soon became a lane that ran past Pishill church on my left and continued to reach a minor road.

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The bridleway continuing towards Pishill

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The bridleway continuing towards Pishill

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Pishill church

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The lane past Pishill church

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Approaching the end of the lane at Pishill

I went a little way right along the road to where it turned right, at which point I went left along a footpath that was headed north to College Wood. The path followed a track beside a fence on my right along a valley bottom for about a third of a mile. On entering College Wood, it turned slightly right and started to rise slowly up that side of the valley. It levelled out for a couple of hundred yards, before turning right and going more steeply uphill for a few yards, before turning left, now close to the edge of the wood on my right. The path was now level again, and this part of the wood was probably the section of the walk where I saw the most Bluebells

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The path heading north from Pishill to College Wood

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Approaching College Wood

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The path continuing through College Wood

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The path continuing through College Wood

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The path continuing through College Wood

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The path continuing through College Wood

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The path continuing through College Wood

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The path continuing through College Wood