Pete's Walks - Christmas Common, Cookley Green, Ibstone (page 4 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.
The bridleway turned left along a track in the valley bottom, but I went straight on along a footpath, which now rose up the other side of the valley. Just before I finally reached the end of the woods, a path came in from the right and I stopped to sit on a tree trunk at the junction to eat my packed lunch. I then carried on, leaving the wood and crossing a meadow to reach a track called Hollandridge Lane (I could have shortened the walk considerably by going left along it, my car was parked within yards of where the track ends in Christmas Common). The path continued the other side of the track, following the right edge of a field then going half-left across the field and soon dropping downhill to reach Fire Wood. It continued downhill through the wood to reach a path crossroads where I went straight on, now on a bridleway. When this left Fire Wood it continued along a valley bottom for several hundred yards, passing a solitary tree. On reaching a hedge corner, I turned right, the path soon turning half-left to run between fences to reach some properties at Northend, where I went straight on to reach a minor road.
College Wood, after the third and final valley in the woods
College Wood
The path from College Wood to Hollandridge Lane
The path from Hollandridge Lane descending to Fire Wood
The path descending through Fire Wood
The bridleway in Fire Wood
The bridleway continuing from Fire Wood
The path to Northend after I turned right from the bridleway
I turned right along the road and followed it for about a quarter of a mile to a junction where the road turned right. I went straight on for a few yards down Holloway Lane, then turned left onto a bridleway that ran along a track (initially the drive to Northend Farm). The track soon turned right, passing through a gate where a sign said I was entering the Wormsley Estate. After a hundred yards or so the track turned left - there was a nice view from a gateway on the right here, towards Turville, and i was also surprised to see my first lambs of 2018 here. After a few hundred yards the track turned half-right, and here there was a nice view on the left over part of the Wormsley Valley. The track now dropped downhill quite steeply. When it turned left, the bridleway left it and continued downhill with hedgerows either side.
The road through Northend
The start of the bridleway from Northend down to the Wormsley Valley
View right from the bridleway, looking towards Turville
The bridleway from Northend down to the Wormsley Valley
View left from the bridleway, over part of the Wormsley Valley
The bridleway from Northend down to the Wormsley Valley
The bridleway from Northend down to the Wormsley Valley