Pete's Walks- West Wycombe, Fingest and Horsleys Green (page 7 of 7)
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.
I followed the drive - the part of the wood on my right soon ended, to be replaced by a couple of large sheep pastures, beyond which I reached Nobles Farm. The path continued straight on, now in Hearnton Wood. Just under half a mile from Nobles Farm, I came to a path crossroads where I decided to vary my route again and turned left. I'd used this path a couple of times before, but when after a few hundred yards I turned right at a waymark post I was entering what was new territory for me.
The drive to Nobles Farm
View left from the drive to Nobles Farm
A dip had been cut in the hedge so that people could see the view in the previous photo (perhaps they did it specially for me, I'm sure I've taken that shot every single time I've been here!)
The path continuing from Nobles Farm
The path continuing from Nobles Farm
The path after I turned left in Hearnton Wood
The path after I turned right in Hearnton Wood (another new path for me)
The path continued through Hearnton Wood for about half a mile, very level with just a few slight undulations. On finally leaving the wood, the path continued straight on along the edge of a huge field sloping down to my left - there was a view ahead towards part of High Wycombe. After a while the path turned right (there was no sign or waymark but it was obviously where most people left the field) and passed through a small group of trees (including some yews) to an open grassy area where I went slightly left to reach the car park behind St Lawrence's church on West Wycombe Hill.
The path through Hearnton Wood
The path through Hearnton Wood
The path through Hearnton Wood
The path through Hearnton Wood
The path through Hearnton Wood
The path continuing to West Wycombe Hill
Close-up shot towards High Wycombe, from the same place as the previous photo
I walked through the car park towards the church gate, then took the obvious path going round to the right of the churchyard. This soon brought me to the Dashwood family's impressive Mausoleum on top of West Wycombe Hill. I headed down the hill, with a long straight section of the A40 heading into High Wycombe ahead of me, but after a short distance turned right. This path initially went down some steps (agony on my very dodgy knees, unfortunately), before the gradient eased and it ran down fairly gently to reach a road, opposite the entrance to the car park where I'd started.
St Lawrence's church, West Wycombe - according to Wikipedia "St Lawrence's Church is known as the 'Summer Church' and St Paul's in the heart of the village is known as the 'Winter Church'. This is because until 1928 there was no road up to St Lawrence and no power until the 1970s" (I took this path before going back out of the churchyard and taking a path that goes round to the right)
The Mausoleum on West Wycombe Hill
From the Mausoleum on West Wycombe, looking along the A40 entering High Wycombe (I would turn right where someone is standing)
The path down to the car park in West Wycombe (not a great shot, looking into the sun - but at least my shadow isn't in it!)
The walk took me almost six hours, which is very slow for just over 14 miles and half an hour longer than when I last did this route (the three variations I did actually made it slightly shorter). I can only think it was due to the fact that I took over 220 photos, about twice as many as I normally do on a walk of this length.
It had been a cold day, but after the first forty minutes or so there was hardly a cloud in the sky, almost wall-to-wall sunshine. For much of the walk the ground was frozen, which was preferable to the usual mud at this time of year. This really helped me to enjoy the walk, which I did more than I'd expected to. It was a nicer route than I'd remembered, and the three short sections of new paths that I walked made it more interesting for me. I don't think I'll use the first new section (from Toweridge Lane) again, but the other two I'm sure I'll include in future walks.