Pete's Walks- Chalfont St Giles and Old Amersham (page 4 of 4)
The drive soon passed a wood called Chalfont Grove on the right. At the end of the wood I turned right onto a path that ran between the wood and a large paddock on my left. On reaching the corner of the paddock, I took a path going back left, diagonally across the paddock to the opposite corner. I crossed over the drive I'd just been on, and continued in the same direction diagonally across another paddock to a gate. The path now went half-right following a left-hand hedgerow past stables and then through a large paddock. It was then enclosed between the hedge and a fence, with a cattle pasture on my right. At a path crossroads I turned right, eastwards, along another enclosed path, with the same pasture on my right. I passed three Highland cattle and a Jersey cow, feeding on straw close to the path where it went by farm buildings on the left.
The path beside Chalfont Grove
The start of the path crossing the paddocks, going northwest from Chalfont Grove
The path going north, near Grove Farm
The path going east, towards Narcot Lane
The path going east, towards Narcot Lane
At the end of this enclosed path I turned right, south, along another path between hedgerows. After a short distance it ended at a path junction, where I turned left and within a hundred yards or so I came to Narcot Lane. Across this minor road a path led on between a wire fence on the left and initially a garden hedge on the right. The latter was soon superseded by a small area of wood, as the path curved from east to north. I passed an old orchard on the left, then the path continued between paddocks on the left and arable fields over the hedge on my right.
The path going south, near Narcot Lane
Approaching Narcot Lane
The start of the path going west from Narcot Lane
The path going west from Narcot Lane
The same path continuing north towards Chalfont St Giles
I crossed over a private drive, then the path went up and down a small grassy dip with a wood a little way to the left. I then passed a bowling club and some sports fields on my left, before the path went round behind a terrace of modern houses and continued down an alley with an open space to the right to reach a road in Chalfont St Giles, almost opposite the Milton's Head pub. I turned right, soon passing the museum at Milton's Cottage and quickly reached the village centre where I had started the walk.
The small 'dip' on the edge of Chalfont St Giles
Passing the bowling green at Chalfont St Giles
The alley dropping down to a road in Chalfont St Giles - the pub across the road is the Milton's Head
Milton's Cottage
Chalfont St Giles
It had been a beautifully sunny day for a walk, a nice way to start the new year. The only problem had been the muddy conditions, which I'd fully expected after so many days of rain recently - the paths across fields were particularly squelchy. It was nice to see the Quaker Meeting House at Jordans again (it's now fully restored after a large fire, it was covered in scaffolding when I first saw it). The walk along the Misbourne Valley and then the path from Old Amersham to Hodgemoor Woods were both good, despite the mud, though the latter stages of the wood weren't quite so good. It was a shorter walk than I usually do, but that was probably just as well, as I found ploughing through the mud quite tiring.