Pete's Walks- Hawridge, Chartridge End, Great Hivings (page 3 of 4)
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.
Beyond this meadow, I turned right along a hedge-lined track. When this turned left, the footpath continued straight on between a wooden fence and a hedge. This brought me to a huge meadow, where I turned left to head south-east once more. The meadow ran for over half a mile towards Captain's Wood, and sloped down into a valley on my right. The path followed the hedge along the top of the meadow, then continued beside the northernmost part of Captain's Wood. I could now look along the valley towards the outskirts of the town of Chesham.
This is where I briefly turned right (southwest) for a shortwhile
The path continues southwest through this gate
This is where I turned left, southeast, to continue along this footpath to Captain's Wood - I entered the wood where the hedgerow meets it in the centre of the photo
A close-up shot, looking along the valley towards the edge of Chesham
The path now alongside part of Captain's Wood
The path entered Captain's Wood at a point where a hedgerow came in from the right - I was now back on familiar ground. I followed the path through the wood for maybe a hundred yards or so, keeping left at a very narrow fork in the path, then turning left a few yards further on to take a path that left the wood and went past Mount Nugent Farm (on my right), passing through a sequence of gates and along the farm drive to reach a road on the edge of Great Hivings. Across the road, a footpath went half-left (north), beside some garden fences on the left and small enclosures on the right (I'm not sure if this is still Great Hivings, or the beginning of Bellingdon). The path then continued along the left edge of another large meadow, with Ramscoat Wood over on my right. Part way through the meadow the path turned slightly left to head north-westwards, the general direction I'd be following for the rest of the walk.
The path continuing through Captain's Wood
The footpath past Mount Nugent Farm
The footpath going north, between gardens on the left and a series of enclosures (I'm not sure if this is in Great Hivings or Bellingdon)
The footpath going north, between gardens on the left and a series of enclosures
On reaching a corner of the meadow, the path continued between hedges and garden boundaries. It then continued along a public byway - I was now definitely in Bellingdon. When the byway turned left, I went straight on through a gate into the corner of a meadow where two footpaths started - the only time I'd been here before (on this Cholesbury and Whelpley Hill walk in August 2011), I'd taken the path going straight on, so today I took the path going half-right (north) across the meadow just for the sake of walking a new path. I passed a corner of a hedgerow on my right, then went up and down a small dip.
The footpath continuing through a very large meadow, with Ramscoat Wood to the right
The path continuing between garden boundaries in Bellingdon, now heading northwest
The public byway in Bellingdon
The footpath going north from Bellingdon
The footpath going north from Bellingdon