Pete's Walks- Cholesbury, Great Hivings, Chartridge End (page 4 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.
After the bridleway levelled out at the top of the hill, it switched back to the right of the hedgerow. I soon came to a junction where a path went left through Newsets Wood - before going down this path I chatted briefly with three lady walkers who'd stopped there (I was the only other walker they'd seen, at the time I said I could only remember seeing one other walker but now I recall seeing a group of four teenagers with big packs near the 'Works'). The path led through the wood and then crossed an arable field. It continued along a broad grassy track with young plantations either side (the OS map shows this as fields). On the far side of the plantation I came to a crossing track where I had to follow the track left and round a corner of a wood for a few yards, to where the path forked right into the wood (which has the unusual name of Widow Croft). The path then followed a hedge on the left past another arable field, and ended when it reached the drive to a property named Dundridge Manor.
Newsets Wood
Newsets Wood
The path continuing from Newsets Wood
The path continuing from Newsets Wood
Widow Croft (that's the name of the wood)
The path continuing from Widow Croft
I think this large ditch is actually part of the moat around Dundridge Manor
I turned right and followed the drive the short distance to its end. I went a few yards right along the minor road here, then took a footpath on the other side. This went half-right across a meadow, then across a small corner of a paddock, before going diagonally across to the far corner of a second paddock. The path then ran along the bottom of a valley, initially with garden boundaries on the left, for a distance of about three-quarters of a mile. When it reached a road (named Ray's Hill), I turned left and followed it uphill back to Cholesbury Common. I then just had to turn left and follow the edge of the common back to my car.
The start of the path back to Cholesbury
The path back to Cholesbury
The path back to Cholesbury
The path back to Cholesbury (I've walked this section many times before)
The path back to Cholesbury
The path back to Cholesbury, with Cholesbury Windmill just visible over the trees
Ray's Hill, the road back to Cholesbury
I enjoyed this walk when I did it the other way round at the corresponding weekend last year, and I enjoyed it just as much this time. Again I had the benefit of a very nice Spring day, in fact it was pretty much perfect walking conditions (I was very relieved it wasn't as hot as last weekend, that walk really did me in!). There was nothing spectacular about the route, but many pleasant views over typical Chiltern scenery of alternating hills and valleys with plenty of woods.