Pete's Walks - Maidensgrove, Ibstone, Middle Assendon (page 4 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.
Where the bridleway started to turn slightly left, I took a path forking right. This dropped a short way downhill through a small area of scrub, then continued downhill back into the Wormsley Valley through a large sheep pasture. It then passed through a narrow wood to reach another of the Wormsley Estate drives. I turned left and followed the drive to its end, on Holloway Lane. I crossed the lane and followed a footpath alongside a fence on my right, gradually climbing up to Idlecombe Wood. On entering the wood, the path continued uphill on a flight of 'steps' for a short way to reach a path T-junction, where I turned left.
The path after I turned right, dropping back down into the Wormsley Valley
The same path, approaching a Wormsley Estate drive
The Wormsley estate drive after I turned left
The path from Holloway Lane to Idlecombe Wood
The path through Idlecombe Wood, after I turned left
This route links together several of my favourite paths in the Chilterns, and I was now on one of those paths. It was a broad track that 'contoured' along the wooded hillside (i.e. stayed very level as if following a contour line on an OS Map). I last walked it just six weeks ago, when there were no leaves on the trees, but now the leaves were appearing which meant there were fewer unobscured views out across the attractive valley on my left. After almost half a mile, just before reaching a path T-junction, I spotted some Fallow Deer in the trees on my right, and when I then turned right at the junction I saw 20-30 deer cross the track in front of me. It was roughly at this junction that I moved from Idlecombe Wood to Churchfield Wood. After a few hundred yards the path turned left and came to a junction where a bridleway came in on the left - I went straight on here, now on the bridleway rather than a footpath. The bridleway soon left the wood (another one went left just before this one exited the wood) and ran between hedges for a few yards to reach the end (or start) of a lane at Turville Court.
The path through Idlecombe Wood
The path through Idlecombe Wood
The path through Idlecombe Wood
The path through Idlecombe Wood
The path through Churchfield Wood, after I turned right at a path T-junction
The path through Churchfield Wood
The bridleway from Churchfield Wood to Turville Court
I turned left through a gate here, and followed a bridleway between a paddock on my left and the boundary hedge of Turville Court on my right. Beyond the paddock I stayed beside a hedge as I passed through a meadow. Through a gate way in the corner, I continued beside another bit of Churchfield Wood on my left for a short distance, before the bridleway dropped steeply downhill to a gate in a long hedgerow. As I descended here, there was a fine view ahead of me to where five valleys meet near Fingest.
The bridleway after I turned left at Turville Court
The bridleway after I turned left at Turville Court
The bridleway after I turned left at Turville Court, looking ahead to the valley junction near Fingest
The bridleway descending steeply, near Turville (to the left)