Pete's Walks - Chenies, Ley Hill, Chipperfield Common (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 13.3 mile circular walk on Sunday, 15th July, 2012. It was the reverse of a walk I did last September, this time I was walking in the clockwise direction.

I started off walking very early for me about 8.55am (I'd got up at 4.30am to check my moth trap, and had spent an hour or so photographing moths before breakfast). From the centre of Chenies, I followed the gravel drive past the church on my right to Chenies Manor. Immediately in front of the gate to the grand house I took a path on the right, initially between high brick walls. At a junction just inside a wood I ignored two paths going left and went straight on,  dropping steeply downhill through the wood. At the bottom of the slope I crossed a road (the one from Chesham I'd just driven along to reach Chenies), and took a lane opposite to reach Chenies Bottom. I soon crossed the river Chess, and then turned left onto a footpath starting through a gravel farmyard.

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Approaching Chenies Manor

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The path from Chenies Manor down to Chenies Bottom

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The river Chess at Chenies Bottom

The path followed the Chess valley westward. The river was initially close by on my left, but soon veered away. The path continued through a meadow and then entered a huge irregularly shaped pasture, with the site of the old church of Flaunden off to my left (one reason it was finally abandoned was that it was often flooded by the adjacent river). I saw a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly here, and numerous Meadow Browns (which I'd see in large numbers throughout most of the walk).

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The path going west along the Chess valley from Chenies Bottom

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The path going west along the Chess valley from Chenies Bottom

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The path going west along the Chess valley from Chenies Bottom

At the end of the huge pasture I crossed a lane, with the village of Latimer a few yards to my right. A footpath continued along the valley, rising slightly through another pasture, then levelling out as it ran between fences and passed in front of Latimer House (I saw 20-30 Marbled White butterflies here). The path had attractive views along the Chess Valley, with the woods around Chesham Bois ahead of me on the other side of the valley. After a while, the path turned right then left, and followed the edge of a huge corn field with a wood on my right.

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Approaching the lane crossing at Latimer

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The path continuing westwards from Latimer, nearing Latimer House

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Latimer House

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The path continuing westwards from Latimer House

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The path continuing westwards along the Chess Valley (the path follows the edge of the wood on the right)

After some distance, the path entered the wood and ran downhill just inside the edge of the wood. At the bottom of the hill it left the trees and followed a left-hand hedgerow through three pastures sloping up the hillside on my right (there were brown and white cattle in the first one, Herefords perhaps). I then reached Blackwell Farm and a lane through a hamlet (presumably Blackwell as the map also shows a Blackwell Hall) where I turned left. A path then went up a gravel drive on the right, turning left to reach a long thin paddock. Beyond that the path crossed another meadow or pasture to reach a hedge-lined track (just setting off from the road at Broadwater Bridge a few yards to my left).

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View across the Chess Valley - this is taken at the point the path enters the edge of the wood on the right and drops downhill

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The path along the Chess valley, just before the three pastures leading to Blackwell Farm

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The pastures before Blackwell Farm (behind the trees in the centre of the photo)

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The paddock west of Blackwell (I assume the hamlet is called Blackwell, as there is a Blackwell Hall and a Blackwell Farm)