ROUTE DESCRIPTION - Walk 12, Coombe Hill and the Hampdens
OS Explorer Maps required: 181
Approximate distance: 12.5 miles
Start at car park for Coombe Hill (SP 852063).
ANTI-CLOCKWISE
Go through the gate near the entrance to the car park, then take the path going left. After a few hundred yards go through a metal kissing-gate on the left, joining the route of the Ridgeway National Trail (which is now followed most of the way to Whiteleaf Hill – it is marked by Ridgeway signs or white acorns). Follow the path through the trees to a road (the car park is now uphill to your left) and turn right. After a short distance take the path on the left, which goes a few yards along a track and then over a stile on the right back into the woods. Follow the path through the trees – at each sign or waymark look ahead to see the next one (as it’s possible to go astray at one point when the leaves cover the path!). Eventually the path joins a track which is followed downhill to a road. Cross over carefully and take the path opposite. This crosses a field, then goes across the drive to Chequers (the Prime Minister’s country residence) and continues across another field. At the end, turn right and follow the path beside the wood on your left. At the end, continue across a pasture, passing just right of a solitary tree to reach a stile on the far side. Follow the path through the next pasture, initially with a boundary on your right, to reach a metal kissing gate. Turn right down a track for a few yards, then go left (by a signpost indicating the start of the North Bucks Way). Follow the clear path, with Pulpit Hill to your left. Cross a bridleway, and go straight on ( one alternative of the Ridgeway goes right just after the bridleway) for a few hundred yards until you reach a wooden gate. Go through it and follow the path through a small area of wood with a garden close by on the right, to reach a road at Lower Cadsden (SP 826046).
Now back on the route of the Ridgeway, follow the road carefully to the left, and bear right to pass in front of the pub. Turn right on the far side of the pub, then fork left and take the path that climbs steadily through woods to reach the top of Whiteleaf Hill. Continue on the Ridgeway a short distance further south (left), on a surfaced track, before finally leaving it by turning left onto a bridleway. This runs through a beech wood, close to a field on the right. When the field eventually ends, turn right on a path with the field still close by on the right. At a corner of the wood, turn left on a good path with another field on your right. Again, when this field ends turn right. The path stays close to the field, then goes along the drive of a residence to reach a minor road. Turn left, and after a few hundred yards take the bridleway on the right (with another wood now on your left). This soon turns to the left and continues through another wood, with the hillside sloping down to your right. At the end, turn left for a few yards along a drive, then turn right along the road a short distance to reach the Pink and Lily pub in Parslow’s Hillock (SP 827019).
Turn left beside the pub and follow the lane for about half a mile. Turn left on a bridleway (following the Chiltern Way for a few yards), initially on the drive to a cottage. Beyond the cottage’s garden, turn right on a path which runs through another beech wood, close to gardens and then fields on the right. When you reach a crossing bridleway (after half a mile or so) turn left, keeping to the left of the fence (the path to the right of the fence is for horse riders). The path ends at a crossroads. Take the leftmost of two paths almost diagonally opposite, which runs through Hampden Coppice and beside a cricket pitch to reach Hampden Common. Turn left along a lane for a few yards and cross a minor road. Follow the drive ahead of you and where it turns left, take the footpath continuing ahead. Follow this northward across fields to reach Great Hampden church (SP 848024).
Go through the churchyard, passing to the left of the church. Turn left, then take the path going right, passing in front of Hampden House (this is part of the Chiltern Way again, which we shall follow to Little Hampden). The path goes through a wood, then diagonally downhill through a field to a road in the valley of Hampden Bottom. Cross over and follow the path opposite through a tree belt. When you finally reach a crossing farm track, turn right. The path goes across the corner of a field and on across another field to reach a wooden seat by a new plantation. On the far side of the trees, turn right on a permissive path along the field edge. Just round the field corner, enter Warren Wood. The path almost immediately comes to a junction, where you turn left. On leaving the wood the path runs a short distance between hedges then joins a track or drive that leads to the lane in Little Hampden (SP 859036).
Turn left along the lane, leaving the route of the Chiltern Way, then take the bridleway going right opposite the pub (N.B. the bridleway, not the footpath). Follow this downhill through more woodland, and then up the opposite side of the valley, to reach a bridleway junction at the top of the hill. Turn left and follow the bridleway to reach a lane in Dunsmore (SP 863053).
Cross over and continue along the lane, then bridleway, opposite. Keep left at a bridleway fork. Follow the path through the wood, initially between fences and later with an iron fence on your right, for about three quarters of a mile. Just after passing the large gardens of a house on the right, the fence ends and a short distance later the path turns slightly right (along a line of trees) – here you take the path going ahead (marked by yellow arrows on trees). Continue ahead where a path comes in from the left. Soon you should cross a broad track and see a more open area ahead and to your right - go through a metal kissing gate here and follow the path (with the wood on your left initially) to reach the monument on top of Coombe Hill. Turn left, and follow the broad open area of grass with gorse bushes either side (the Ridgeway runs the other side of the bushes to your right). Follow the path as it goes half-left through some trees and on back to the gate at the entrance to the car park.
Coombe Hilllies just south of Wendover, Buckinghamshire. At 853 feet above sea level, it is one of the highest points in the Chilterns, and there are panoramic views over the Vale of Aylesbury. It is surmounted by a tall column, a memorial to the men of Buckinghamshire who died in the Boer war – the column has twice needed repairing after suffering severe damage from lightning strikes. In 1918 Coombe Hill was given to the National Trust by Lord Lee of Fareham, who also donated the nearby Chequers to the nation for use as the Prime Minister’s country retreat,
There has been a house at Chequers since the 12th century. The name possibly comes from the Chequers (or Wild Service) tree that grows in the grounds, or from the fact that the original owner Elias Ostiarius was an Usher at the Court of Exchequer and so included a chequer board on his coat of arms. The current house is 16th century, and was restored and enlarged by John Hawtrey in 1565. Soon after, he was given the responsibility of keeping a royal prisoner – Lady Mary Grey, sister of the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey. A later owner married a grandson of Oliver Cromwell, and the house still has a collection of Cromwell memorabilia. During World War I the house served as a hospital and then a convalescent home for officers. In 1918, the owners Lord and Lady Lee of Fareham presented the house to the nation for use as a country residence by the Prime Minister
Whiteleaf Hill sits in a prominent position on the Chiltern escarpment overlooking Monks and Princes Risborough. At its top sits a Neolithic Barrow, dating back to about 3500BC. There are also possible round barrows, a bronze-age dyke and WWI practice trenches here. The hill is cloaked in ancient woodland and flower rich chalk grassland. Carved on its steep chalk slope is Whiteleaf Cross, whose origins are unknown although a phallic symbol on the hillside here is recorded in a document of 903. The first reference to a cross was in 1742, and it is known that the shape of the cross and the symbol below it have been changed since then.
The Pink and Lily pub is associated with the poet Rupert Brooke, who discovered it on one of his walks in the Chilterns and became quite a regular visitor in the years immediately before World War I. His most famous poem is possibly The Soldier with its opening lines
“If I should die, think only this of me:
that there’s some corner of a foreign field
that is for ever England”.
Brooke died of blood poisoning in 1915 while on the way to Gallipoli.
Hampden House in Great Hampden is named after the Hampden family (later Earls of Buckingham), who owned the site from before the Norman Conquest until 1938. The present house dates in part to the 14th century, though most of the house is 17th century. The north and west ranges were remodelled by the architect Thomas Iremonger in 1750, clearly in the style known as Strawberry Hill Gothic although this style wasn’t’ invented’ until almost 20 years later by Horace Walpole! This architectural style made the house a favourite setting for Hammer horror films. Visitors to the house are thought to include Edward III, the Black Prince and Elizabeth I. The most famous resident was John Hampden, the leading Parliamentarian in the years leading up to the Civil War, who died from wounds received at the Battle of Chalgrove in 1643. He had earlier earned fame through his refusal to pay the hated tax called Ship Money to Charles I.
Dunsmore is a hamlet in the parish of Ellesborough and, like nearby Little Hampden, is one of the most remote places in Buckinghamshire. It is accessible only by two narrow and steep lanes, and is occasionally cut off in winter. It retains its small community atmosphere, although both its pubs have closed in recent years. The name dates back to Anglo-Saxon times.