Pete's Walks- Little Missenden and Forty Green (page 1 of 6)
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 circular walk of about 15 miles on Saturday, 8th October 2016. It was a repeat of a walk I did in January 2012, but in the opposite (anti-clockwise) direction. For about 40% of the route this would be the first time I'd walked the paths in this direction.
I parked opposite Little Missenden church (Grid Reference SU 922989) and started walking about 10am (the church bells started ringing after I'd only gone a few yards). I followed the road westwards, away from the village centre, and just after the last house on the left I took a footpath that went half-left across a large empty paddock. After crossing a hedge-lined bridleway the path continued gently uphill beside a tall hedgerow on my right, with a ploughed field on my left. When the hedgerow turned right, the path continued across a part of the same field and then carried on uphill through a much larger ploughed field, now with a small valley on my left. This path goes to Little Kingshill, but I wasn't going that far - as I crossed the field I started looking for a path that would go half-left to the corner of a hedgerow I could see. Eventually I could see a green streak of grass leading the last few yards to this hedge corner, but as there was no marker or cairn indicating where that path forked from the one I was on, in the end I just made my own way in as straight a line across the field as I could.
On reaching the hedge corner, I followed the hedge uphill (with the hedge on my right), reaching a patch of maize growing at the top of the slope. The path then switched to the other side of the hedgerow., continuing beside the hedge through a couple of paddocks to reach Affrick's Farm.
Little Missenden church - from here I followed the road leftwards
The first field on the path from Little Missenden
The path from Little Missenden (it goes to Little Kingshill, though I didn't go that far)
The path to Little Kingshill
Looking back towards Little Missenden
The path after I forked left (it follows the grass strip to the corner of the hedge, then follows the hedge uphill)
The path after I forked left
The path continuing towards Affrick's Farm
I went straight on through the farm and along it's drive. Just before the drive reached a road, I turned very sharply left onto a bridleway, almost doubling back on myself. The bridleway, named Featherbed Lane, dropped steadily downhill through a wood, then passed some paddocks in a valley bottom. On the other side of the valley it entered Haleacre Wood, where after a short while I took a footpath forking very slightly left and running almost parallel to the bridleway. When the path left the wood, it crossed a drive, and continued through a large grassy field, following the hedge on the right (with Featherbed Lane on the other side of the hedge). In the next field, the path went half-left and just beyond this field I reached a street in Holmer Green.
The start of the bridleway from Affrick's Farm
The bridleway from Affrick's Farm
The bridleway from Affrick's Farm
The path after I forked left in Haleacre Wood
The path continuing, parallel to Featherbed Lane on the right
The path approaching Holmer Green
The end of the path, in Holmer Green
I went a short distance left and took a footpath on the other side. This soon passed some garages on the right. A little further on I turned left onto a path that ran between garden fences to reach another street. Here I went right, but very soon turned left into a cul-de-sac where I took a footpath starting at its end. After passing between some garden fences, this ran for some distance between fences and hedges, with mainly paddocks on either side.
The path from Holmer Green to Beamond End Lane
The path from Holmer Green to Beamond End Lane