ROUTE DESCRIPTION - Walk 7, Circular walk from Chesham
OS Explorer Maps required: 172, 181
Approximate distance: 14.4 miles
Start at Pay-and-Display car park by Chesham railway station (OS 181, SP 962016).
CLOCKWISE
From the car park, follow Station Road downhill and and at the bottom of the hill turn left along the High Street (pedestrianised). Just before the clock tower, turn right. Cross the dual carriageway at the pedestrian crossing, go a few yards right and then turn left into Church Street. After a short distance turn right into Bury Lane to reach Lowndes Park, and stay on the lane as it turns left, passing to the right of the church. Continue on the path alongside the wall or hedge on the left, carrying on along the edge of a large meadow (part of the park, possibly). Just before the meadow ends, take the path forking left through some trees. On the other side of the trees, turn right onto a path running below a wood on the right. Continue on this path, passing paddocks on the left and then running between garden boundaries, until it ends at a drive, where you go right to soon reach a road. Go left along the road for half a mile into Chartridge, then turn right down Buslins Lane. Follow this as it goes left then right to reach Asheridge Road. Take the bridleway opposite, initially along a farm drive, then uphill into Captain’s Wood. On the far side of the wood, turn left. Keep right at a couple of forks in the path (staying on the very edge of the wood) then go right at the next path junction. Cross a grassy field close to a hedge on the left, go through a sequence of gates and follow the drive from Mount Nugent Farm to a road, between Bellendon and Great Hivings (to the right) (SP 952039).
Take the footpath on the opposite side, which goes half-left between garden boundaries and some small pastures or meadows, then take the first footpath on the right. Follow this as it passes some meadows or paddocks on the left, then goes through Ramscoat Wood . On the far side of the wood, the path follows the edge of the wood downhill into White Hawridge Bottom (where there is an Ostrich farm!). Turn right along the track (byway) to reach a road in Chesham Vale. Continue on the footpath opposite, through Little Passmore Farm and then uphill beside a wooden fence. Continue on uphill and across a couple of small meadows, then follow a drive to reach the A416. Cross this main road carefully, and take the path on the other side, which follows a right-hand hedgerow. The hedge turns slightly right – when it then turns right again, the path goes left and crosses the field to a gate, continuing between hedges. At the path junction where the hedges end, go right, to reach a road on the edge of Lye Green (SP 973033).
Go left a few yards and take the path on the other side of the road. This passes beside some houses on the right, before bearing left across a pasture to reach the B4505. Go a few yards left and take the path on the other side. After two fields, this switches from the right to the left of a hedgeline, joins a farm drive, and continues to reach a road in Botley. Turn right, then left down a lane. At the bottom of the hill turn left into Broomstick Lane. After quarter of a mile or more, take the first footpath on the right, which follows a hedge on the right to a wood. Follow the path through the wood (another path almost immediately comes in sharply from the right), which soon curves to the left. Keep left at a waymarked path junction and then go right at the next waymarked junction. After a few hundred yards, this path turns a few yards to the left to exit the wood. On leaving the wood, the path follows a hedge on the left then passes beside houses on the right to reach a road in Ley Hill (SP 989020).
Go right, and at the road junction at a sharp bend, take the road that has a cricket pitch on the left and part of a golf course on the right.. Follow the road for about half a mile, until a bend just beyond Flounden End Farm, then take the bridleway on the left. Follow this for about a mile to a lane in Flounden Bottom. Turn right and follow the lane carefully for about a quarter of a mile, then take the footpath on the left. Follow this steeply uphill and go through Long Wood. Continue ahead on the far side of the wood on a good track, then turn right at the next junction, to follow another wide track to reach another wood. Continue through this wood on a bridleway, keeping left at a fork. Beyond the wood, the bridleway goes left beside the wood and then turns right to a T-junction of paths in the Chess Valley. Go right here and follow the footpath along the valley to a road, where you go right to reach the triangular green in the centre of Latimer (TQ 004988).
Take the footpath going west from near the leftmost (as you reached it) corner of the green, which soon crosses a meadow (follow the waymarks) and rejoins a lane. Turn right and follow the lane for about half a mile – continue past the entrance to the Parkfield Latimer private estate on the left, and go on for another couple of hundred yards after a house on the left. Take the path on the left. This DOES NOT go past the rusty barn, but crosses the field to the right of the barn diagonally to reach Codmore Wood. Keep left at a fork in the path in the wood. On the far side, cross a field to Blackwell Hall Lane, and continue across a pasture to another lane. Go left, and just round a corner take the bridleway on the right, called Green Lane. Follow this for over half a mile. Just before it turns sharp left, take a path ahead that goes across a small corner of a field to join a similar hedge-lined track (Bottom Lane) – if you miss this turning, just turn right into the track where it joins Green Lane. After about half a mile, another bridleway comes in sharply from the left, and a footpath crosses the track – turn left onto the footpath (part of the Chiltern Heritage Trail). This goes uphill across a small field to a stile, then continues across a much larger field, over the brow of the hill. The path continues beside a right-hand hedge, with a school beyond. Cross a farm drive and continue across a paddock. On the far side the path goes right, and then turns left beside a right-hand hedge. At the end of the field, follow the path going half-right across a large field. Follow this path as it descends towards Chesham. Cross the bridge over the railway line, and immediately turn right to reach your start point.
Chesham is the fourth largest town in Buckinghamshire, with a population of 23,000. In the past, beer, brushes, boots and watercress were among the major industries, but it is now largely a commuter town. Traditionally and locally the name is pronounced Chess-am, although it is more usually and widely pronounced Chesh-am. Rather surprisingly the river Chess takes its name from the town, rather than the other way around. Chesham is first recorded in Anglo-Saxon documents, including in the will of Lady Elgiva, a Saxon Queen. The town’s tube station is the last one on a spur off the Metropolitan Line.
The village and parish of Latimer lies in Buckinghamshire, but borders Hertfordshire. It was originally joined with the neighbouring village of Chenies, when both were called Isenhampstead and there was a royal palace in the area. During the reign of Edward III the land was split between two barons, William Latimer and Thomas Cheyne, from whom the two villages derived their modern names. At the time of the English Civil War the manor of Latimer belonged to the Earl of Devonshire. Charles I was brought to Latimer on his way to London after being captured by the Parliamentarians.