Pete's Walks - Old Amersham and Beaconsfield (page 2 of 3)
I crossed the road by a pond on the green, and followed a footpath down a gravel drive where I saw a Sparrowhawk flit across garden hedges as I made my way out of Penn Street. I was now following another familiar section of the Chiltern Heritage Trail, which led across a large ploughed field and then through Priestlands Wood and the adjoining Tragoe's Plantation, before crossing a field and passing some allotments (on my right) to reach Winchmore Green.
Approaching Priestlands Wood
The path to Winchmore Hill, from the edge of Tragoe's Plantation
Winchmore Hill - the skies were ominously grey
I crossed a road and walked staright ahead, soon having a road and a sports field on my right. The skies were ominously grey now as I left the route of the Chiltern Heritage Trail and headed straight on down Fragnall Lane. Indeed there was a slight drizzle for the next few minutes as I followed the lane gradually downhill to the valley of Marrods Bottom. Where the lane turned right along the valley, I continued ahead, following the drive to Seagrave's Farm up the opposite side of the valley.
Fragnall Lane
The drive to Seagrave's Farm
View eastwards from just before Seagrave's Farm
Beyond Seagrave's Farm, a footpath continued, first as a track following hedgerows and then diagonally across a field. It then followed the edge of Knotty Green, on the edge of Beaconsfield (Forty Green, where I started the Berkshire Loop of the Chiltern Way a couple of months ago, is on the other side of Knotty Green). At a path junction I turned left, still with the back gardens of Knotty Green on my right, and soon entered Netherlands Wood.
The path from Seagrave's Farm to Knotty Green
The path from Seagrave's Farm to Knotty Green
The path around the edge of Knotty Green
The gardens on my right soon ended as I got further into the wood. I turned right at the first proper footpath crossroads (not the one by the end of the garden fences), the new path seeming to follow the boundary between Netherland's Wood and Brown's Wood. I eventually reached some more garden fences, but soon turned left, heading further into Brown's Wood. As I remembered from coming the other way last March, a series of white arrows was painted on the trees (as so often where paths go through woods) but the clear path on the ground here actually ran a few yards to the left of the arrows.
The path into Netherland's Wood from Knotty Green
This path seems to be on the border of Netherland's Wood (right) and Brown's Wood (left)
The path through Brown's Wood - the visible path is actually a few yards left of the line of white arrows
Beyond Brown's Wood, the path followed a hedgerow, turning slightly right. In the field corner the path went a few yards left, then turned right and followed part of a drive (from a house named The Grange on the map) to reach the A355 (the main road between Amersham, to my left, and Beaconsfield). I had to wait a short while before I could cross, then continued on a fenced path through a wood called Birchen Spring. I thought this an odd name for a wood when I came this way last month, but now realise that there are many woods called 'something Spring' in the Chilterns (and presumably elsewhere) - there are 5 or 6 just round Flamstead and Redbourn alone.
The path from Brown's Wood follows this hedgerow to the drive to The Grange
The drive to The Grange
Path through Birchen Spring