Pete's Walks - Cholesbury and Ashley Green (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.
Soon after leaving the wood the bridleway switched to the right of a tall hedgerow of mature trees, now heading in the direction of Berkhamsted (where I could soon see the impressive former water tower). After a few hundred yards the bridleway switched to the left of the hedgerow. Eventually it turned right at the end of a field, following a surfaced farm track parallel to the A41 dual carriageway a short distance to my left. This brought me to a lane, where I turned right for a few yards before taking a footpath on the other side of the lane that entered Hockeridge Wood.
The bridleway continuing eastwards towards Berkhamsted
The bridleway continuing eastwards towards Berkhamsted
The bridleway after it turns right alongside the A41
This was the first time I'd walked through this part of the wood in this direction, and whenever I'd come the other way I'd failed to find the public footpath shown on the OS map. So I was interested to see if I could follow it from this side of the wood. I soon came to a fork, where a white arrow on a tree indicated the public footpath took the right fork - I was pretty sure the track I'd followed previously from the other side of the wood came in as the left fork here. It wasn't long before I came to a path T-junction, where I turned left - so far so good, this junction was on the map (which showed I could also have got to it by walking further along the lane and then turning left). On a previous visit to Hockeridge Wood I'd asked someone I met about the footpath I'd been unable to follow, and they confirmed it did exist but was 'very marshy' - so I was relieved to find the path through the wood was clear and only slightly muddy in places (but then it's been a remarkably dry winter after a freakishly hot and dry summer). After about a third of a mile, I went straight on when another path went left at a point where the path I was on crossed a track (again this matched what the OS map shows). But then I came to a T-junction, where the crossing path followed a track - there was a path going straight on, but when I followed it it came to a dead end a few yards short of the edge of the wood and some way right of where I should have come out (which I knew was by the left edge of a field). So I went back to the track and turned right (so to the left as I'd first reached the track). I soon reached a large track junction, where I knew I just had to turn right (I stopped to eat my lunch on a convenient bench first). There were no footpath signs or white arrows at all here, so it's not surprising that I couldn't follow the path from the other direction).
The path through Hockeridge Wood
The path through Hockeridge Wood
The path through Hockeridge Wood
Pond in Hockeridge Wood
The path through Hockeridge Wood
The path in Hockeridge Wood, after I turned left along a track
The track in Hockeridge Wood after I turned right
Having turned right at the track junction, I soon reached the edge of the wood at the correct place where the path continued beside a hedge on my left. Just after both hedge and path turned left and then right, the path switched to the other side of the hedge, going through some bushes and then following the edge of a meadow before running beside a garden on my left to reach Hog Lane in Ashley Green. I went straight on here, down a bridleway with Holly growing either side, to reach Flamstead Farm. Here the bridleway turned half-right, then turned half-left and ran between hedgerows for a few hundred yards. It then turned right, gradually dropping downhill and passing a a small clump of Beech trees on the left, before turning left and following a track for about a quarter of a mile to reach the minor road through Chesham Vale.
The footpath leaving Hockeridge Wood
The footpath after it switches to the other side of the hedge, approaching Ashley Green
The bridleway to Flamstead Farm
Approaching Flamstead Farm
The bridleway continuing from Flamstead Farm to Chesham Vale
The bridleway continuing from Flamstead Farm to Chesham Vale
The bridleway continuing from Flamstead Farm to Chesham Vale, after it turns right
The bridleway continuing from Flamstead Farm to Chesham Vale
The bridleway continuing from Flamstead Farm to Chesham Vale
The bridleway continuing from Flamstead Farm to Chesham Vale