Pete's Walks- Chenies and Chalfont St Giles (page 4 of 5)
After half a mile or so the path reached a corner of Mill Lane, where I went straight on, Within a hundred yards the lane turned left, a path continuing straight on along a drive and then into another tree belt. Soon I joined a private drive, which led on into the centre of Chalfont St Giles.
The bridleway going south-southeast to Chalfont St Giles, from Mill Lane
The bridleway going south-southeast to Chalfont St Giles, just beyond Mill Lane
The private drive in Chalfont St Giles
Chalfont St Giles
Chalfont St Gilesis mentioned in the Domesday Book, the name Chalfont meaning ‘chalk spring’ . The parish church dates to the 12th century, and has some fine 13th century wall paintings, a rare example of painted battlements (dating from the 15th century), and also 17th century inscriptions of the Ten Commandments, the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. The poet John Milton fled to Chalfont St Giles in 1665 to escape the Great Plague of London, and it was here that he completed ‘Paradise Lost’. It was also here that a local friend persuaded him to write its sequel, ‘Paradise Regained’. Milton’s Cottage still exists and is open to the public. ‘Chalfonts’ is the cockney rhyming slang for piles.
I turned left, crossing the road at pedestrian crossing, and passed a duck pond on my right. At a roundabout, I crossed over and took a path along an alley on the other side, which led steeply uphill between fences. The path continued down a short street to a road junction, then went up another alley. Emerging back into countryside at the top of the hill, the path continued between hedges and fences with meadows or paddocks either side. At a path junction I continued ahead (now back on the Chiltern Way, which took a different path out of Chalfont St Giles - I'd now be following it for the rest of this walk), between a wire fence and a hedge (of Ashwell's Farm, I think) on the right - this section was very muddy indeed.
Duck pond, Chalfont St Giles
Alley heading east from across the A413
PAth continuing along a street
The next stretch of alley
The path continuing eastwards
The very muddy path near Ashwell's Farm
Across a minor road,, a path followed a former drive towards Newland Park through a belt of trees. Across another minor road, I went a few yards down the drive to Newland Park and the Chiltern Open Air Museum (I really must get round to visiting it sometime) before taking a path on the left. This followed the left edge of a large meadow, with the buildings of the museum beyond the hedge over to my right. I soon spotted a Buzzard here. On reaching the corner of the meadow, the path entered a wood called Newland Gorse, going half-right and dropping downhill. At the bottom of the slope it turned further right, now in Philipshill Wood (owned by the Woodland Trust).
The former drive to Newland Park
The former drive to Newland Park
The path through the large field by the Chiltern Open Air Museum
The path through Newland Gorse
The path through Philipshill Wood
The path through Philipshill Wood