Pete's Walks- Bradenham and Studley Green (page 2 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.
Just a few yards to my left a bridleway started on the other side of the lane. It went past the grounds of a very attractive old house on my right, then continued gently uphill between hedgerows. The bridleway steepened as it approached the end of Chawley Wood (as when I did the walk in 2015, I noticed how the spelling Chorley or Chawley seems to be used somewhat randomly round here, the latter spelling appearing three times on the OS map, the former twice.), and continued as a 'sunken lane' or 'hollow way' as it rose through the southern end of the wood. On reaching the far side of the wood the bridleway turned left, but I followed a footpath through a hedge gap ahead of me, then turned left and followed the hedge on my left. This path eventually went left through the hedge, then turned right for a few yards to a field corner, where it crossed a stile and turned left along a fence (a waymark here seemed to suggest the path continues on the left of the fence, but the presence of the stile and a waymark at the next path junction confirmed that I was on the correct side of the fence).
The start of the bridleway from Chorley
The bridleway from Chorley
The bridleway from Chorley, now running along the edge of Chawley Wood
The footpath that started from the corner of Chawley Wood
The path now followed the wire fence on my left through a huge cattle pasture (it seemed to be empty today, but I've seen cattle here on previous occasions). On eventually reaching the field corner, the path went through a gate and then over a stile a few yards further on, before descending steeply through a sheep pasture, following a hedgerow on my left - there were nice views ahead of me and along the valley to my right. The path then went through a small gate in the next field corner, across a track and through another small gate, then followed a fence on the right through another sheep pasture to reach a farmyard (at Ham Farm) and then a track, where I turned right.
The path following the fence of a huge cattle pasture
Further along the same path
The path now descending through sheep pastures
The path goes through two small gates and follows a fence on the right down to a farmyard
The path descending to Ham Farm
I turned right along the track, which was heading to Bottom Wood, a nature reserve managed by the Chiltern Society. After a few hundred yards I took a path that forked left (straight on really)from the track (where the track passed through a hedge gap). This path soon entered a wood (not named on either the Google or OS maps, possibly it's all part of Bottom Wood). It was immediately apparent that the path was another sunken lane or 'hollow way', a route that had worn a groove in the hillside over centuries of use. But as it turned left and continued quite gently uphill through the wood (at an almost constant gradient), the banks on either side got bigger - I can't remember walking a sunken lane that had worn such a deep and wide groove. The bank on my right was about 12 feet high, the one on my left possibly reaching 18 foot high (I'm estimating by comparing my own height of just over six foot). I had exactly the same thought as I had in 2015, that as this path ended on a lane called Old Oxford Road, which was clearly once part of the Oxford-London road before a slight change to what is now the A40, perhaps this path was the route of the Oxford-London road before the lane was. I have walked along many hollow ways in the Chilterns, but can't remember any as deep and wide as this one, and it just seems too big to have been caused solely by foot traffic. However, my theory is weakened by the fact that this is a footpath - surely it would be a public bridleway if it was formerly part of the Oxford-London route?
The track to Bottom Wood
The fork where I left the track (I went straight on, the track goes slightly right)
The path through the unnamed wood, heading to Old Oxford Road - note the steep banks either side
The path through the unnamed wood, heading to Old Oxford Road
The path through the unnamed wood, heading to Old Oxford Road
The path through the unnamed wood, heading to Old Oxford Road
At the top of the hill the banks disappeared, and the path soon turned left and reached Old London Road (on the Google map it's named Old Dashwood Hill). I turned right and soon reached part of Studley Green. When I reached a bridleway sign on the right, I stopped to eat my packed lunch (it was now about 1:40pm) on a convenient bench (a memorial to a Frederick Cavender). I then followed the bridleway quite steeply downhill through the same unnamed wood to return to the track I'd been on before (from Ham Farm), where I turned left to progress through Bottom Wood.
Old Oxford Road
The bridleway going back down to Bottom Wood
The bridleway going back down to Bottom Wood