Pete's Walks - Maidensgrove, Shepherd's Green and Nuffield (page 1 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.

Google map of the walkDownload GPX file of the walk

I did this circular walk of about 14.8 miles on Friday, 11th August 2017. It was a new route for me, mainly on familiar paths but with two new paths I'd never walked before. The first half of the route was the same as the Maidensgrove and Greys Court walk I did in April 2015, but then from Highmoor I extended it out westwards to Nuffield, returning to Maidensgrove via Ewelme Park and Cookley Green.

I parked beside the lane that crosses Maidensgrove Common (Grid Reference SU 718886), and started walking about 10.15am. I followed the lane to where it turned right along the edge of the common (heading towards Russell's Water), where I turned left and followed the edge of the common until I reached another lane. Here I turned right and followed the lane almost to Lodge Farm, before turning right down a restricted byway (that started by a semi-circle of grass formed by a track and the lane). The byway ran past the wooded Warburg nature reserve, sloping down to my right, while soon on my left there was a hedge, beyond which was attractive rolling countryside. When I came to a fork I kept right on a bridleway, continuing gently downhill through part of Freedom Wood and then through a more open area where I had views over the nature reserve on my right. Finally the bridleway ran downhill between hedges (where I saw a Silver-washed Fritillary) to reach a lane in the valley of Bix Bottom.

The path along the edge of Maidensgrove Common

The lane through Maidensgrove

The bridleway or 'restricted byway' that starts near Lodge Farm

The bridleway to Bix Bottom

The bridleway to Bix Bottom

The bridleway to Bix Bottom

The bridleway to Bix Bottom, just after I kept right at a fork

The bridleway to Bix Bottom

The bridleway approaching Bix Bottom - the ruins of the old church are in the trees in the centre of the photo

Silver-washed Fritillary

I turned left along the lane, soon passing the ruins of St James's church in trees on my right. On reaching Valley Farm (Valley End Farm on the OS map), I turned right and followed a path between the farm buildings and along a track. After one or two hundred yards I turned left along another footpath, following a fence on my left steeply uphill through an empty pasture to reach a narrow end of a wood (Coney Burrow is the nearest name I can see on the OS map). The path continued almost imperceptibly uphill, at first very close to an edge of the wood on my left, before joining a track. Where this turned right, the footpath went straight on, now in the beeches of Bushy Copse.

The old church of St James's, Bix Bottom

The lane through the valley of Bix Bottom

The footpath from Valley Farm - I soon turned left and went up the green slope to the start of the trees on the left

Looking back over Bix Bottom

The footpath continuing through Coney Burrow

The footpath continuing through Coney Burrow

The footpath continuing through Coney Burrow

The footpath continuing through Bushy Copse