Pete's Walks - Southeast from Cadmore End (page 1 of 5)
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 walkDownload GPX file of the walk
I did this circular walk of about 13.8 miles on Saturday, 12th November, 2011. The name I've given this walk is a little vague - it passes through Wheeler End very near the start and Frieth near the end, but otherwise doesn't really pass through any villages or hamlets that could sensibly lend their name to the walk. The aim of the walk was to link together some paths I'd used two or three times before with some that were new to me.
I parked near the start of the lane opposite the school in Cadmore End (grid reference SU 783927), and started walking at 10am. It had been very foggy as I'd just driven through Stokenchurch, and it would stay misty for a little while yet. I followed the lane past the church, and followed it round to the left through the village back to the main road. A few hundred yards to the right, I turned left on a footpath along a surfaced drive that immediately crossed the M40 motorway. Another drive soon went right, and a little way along that drive a footpath turned right into the trees of Cadmore End Common. As the photos show, it was a dank and misty November morning as I followed the path eastwards. This part of the walk I'd done twice before in the opposite direction (the last time on a West Wycombe, Fingest, Moor Common walk in January), but doing it this way was new to me. There were a few minor path junctions but I kept quite close to the right edge of the Common. I soon passed a cottage on my left and then a sizable pond on the left, and shortly after passed a more open area close to some cottages. On reaching a road I crossed over and followed a drive or track for a few yards. I then took a path on the left, on the left edge of a grassy area, and almost immediately kept left where another path forked right across the grass. I continued ahead for about a quarter of a mile through an area of scrubby bushes to reach a lane in Wheeler End.
Near the start of the path going east through Cadmore End Common
Pond on Cadmore End Common
The path going east through Cadmore End Common
Near Wheeler End
I went a few yards left along the lane, before taking a footpath on the right that started between gardens and then crossed a fairly big empty pasture sloping uphill to my left. On the far side I entered Denham Wood, an attractive Beech Wood, and it was enjoyable to hear the rustle of fallen leaves under my feet as I walked along. At a path junction on the eastern edge of Denham Wood I turned slightly left onto a bridleway, bordered by young trees and holly bushes, and soon came to the much larger Great Wood.
The very brief lane section in Wheeler End
The path from Wheeler End to Denham Wood
Denham Wood
The bridleway from Denham Wood to Great Wood
Here I turned right (after briefly getting 'temporarily misplaced') on what the OS map shows as a footpath but was in reality clearly marked as a bridleway. It went downhill and then uphill again, initially close to the edge of the wood (on my right). Further on I came to a junction (the OS map shows the left fork here becomes a bridleway), where I kept right.
The bridleway along the south-western edge of Great Wood (this section marked as a footpath on the OS map)
The bridleway in Great Wood
The footpath in Great Wood
The path soon left the wood and ran between paddocks before entering another thin section of Great Wood. On the far side the path continued uphill, following the right hedge of a large pasture or paddock, to a stile in that hedge. A few yards further on, the path returned to the left of the hedgerow, and followed it through a field of maize (a popular crop in the Chilterns this year, it seems). On the far side of this field I turned right on a track that soon led to Fryers Farm.
The path continuing between paddocks
Back in another small section of Great Wood (I think!)
The path continuing uphill through a pasture
The path continuing towards Fryer's Farm