Pete's Walks - Cholesbury and Whelpley Hill (page 6 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.
At some point here the byway became a surfaced drive or track. When it turned left, I went straight on along the left-most of two paths starting here, following the left edge of a large meadow. Further on, the path ran between a tall hedge on my left and a fence. On reaching a path junction in a field corner I turned right, soon reaching another path junction where I went left along the edge of a field with different types of sheep and a solitary small cow. The path then continued along the hedgerow, with pigs in enclosures to my right, across which I could see other animals such as Alpacas, a donkey and white geese or ducks, the property here being aptly named Animal Farm. Across a track (Hawridge Lane), I continued along a bridleway between tall hedges for a quarter of a mile or more. On reaching a drive I went right, then took a path going left, which ran along the left edge of a field to what the OS Map describes as 'Works' (I think it's a Builders Merchant, there are pile of bricks and an enormous heap of sand).
Start of the path from Bellingdonr
View right from the path from Bellingdon
The path after I turned right at a junction in a field corner
A view right, back towards Chesham Vale and beyond
The path continuing past Animal Farm
The bridleway continuing northwest from Animal Farm
The bridleway continuing northwest from Animal Farm
The path to the Works
I turned right along a path on the edge of the Works, and at its corner turned left (another path went straight on here). This path soon veered away from the Works and followed the edge of a wood on my left for a while, before entering the wood. I kept left at a path fork, and continued gradually downhill through the wood (which contained a lot of holly). In the valley bottom I turned left along another path, soon passing a smallholding on my right. On reaching a road, Ray's Hill, I turned right and followed it uphill (when I did this walk in 2011 I took a parallel path to the left, But I know it can get unpleasantly muddy). On reaching a junction, close to where Hawridge and Cholesbury meet, I simply turned left to return to my parked car.
The path beside the Works
The path on the edge of the wood
The path continuing through the wood
The path continuing through the wood
The path along the valley, approaching the smallholding
Muntjac Deer
Ray's Hill
Cholesbury Common
I'm glad I did this walk. When I'd left home, I'd actually intended to do another walk closer to home but I decided I should leave that for another day when I might have less time for a walk (the nights are really drawing in now!). This isn't the best of walks, but it's by no means bad and the section from Hockeridge Wood to Whelpley Hill was almost new to me, only having walked it twice before and only once in this direction over seven years ago. I was lucky with the weather with blue skies, and the trees were still very colourful - most of the trees have lost most of their leaves now, but the oaks have still got theirs and really stood out in the woods and hedgerows today.