Pete's Walks - Maidensgrove Common and Moor Common (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.
As always it was a real pleasure to follow the path through the deer park around Stonor House. For about three-quarters of a mile it drops gently downhill, with one or two flattish or even slightly uphill bits. At first it runs mainly in trees, with glimpses to more open parkland to the right, then continues through typical park land, grass dotted with occasional mature trees. After a while the grand Stonor House with its chapel appears over to the right, and the views ahead towards the woods around Maidensgrove and the valley leading to Pishill get better and better.
The path through Stonor deer park
The path through Stonor deer park
The path through Stonor deer park
The path through Stonor deer park
Stonor House
View from Stonor deer park towards Pishill
The path through Stonor deer park
The path through Stonor deer park
The path through Stonor deer park
On finally leaving the deer park, at a high gate in a green metal fence, I turned right along the minor road through Stonor (the B480). Shortly after leaving the village I took a footpath on the left, which ran between old hedgerows, gradually going uphill. It steepened slightly as it continued through Pishillbury Wood. On eventually reaching a path junction on the far side of the wood, I turned left for a short distance then went right at the next path junction (these two junctions appear as a single crossing of paths on the OS map). This path quickly left the wood and continued along a private drive in Maidensgrove. At its end (at a crossing lane, where another lane continued ahead), I turned right and followed a lane back to where I'd parked at the start of the walk, on Maidensgrove Common.
The road through Stonor
Near the start of the path from Stonor to Maidensgrove
The path from Stonor to Maidensgrove
The path from Stonor continuing through Pishillbury Wood
The path from Stonor continuing through Pishillbury Wood
The path from Stonor continuing through Pishillbury Wood
The path from Stonor continuing through Pishillbury Wood, now approaching the edge of Maidensgrove
The private drive at Maidensgrove
The lane just before it starts to cross Maidensgrove Common
I'd forgotten just how good this walk is! I took about 320 photos, far more than on any other walk and about twice the average number - and that is after excluding the 50 or so I took while looking at the orchids on Moorend Common. There were no end of fine views to photograph, and I also decided to take photos of all the wildflowers I saw today. Then there were the numerous butterflies that put in an appearance and just begged to be photographed. The number of photos accounts for the fact that this 14.3 mile walk took me six hours and ten minutes (exactly the same as last year, when I also took a large number of photos).
Apart from the views, the route included some charming Chiltern Villages such as Fingest and Turville, plenty of woods (just as well, I really needed their shade today!) and some interesting buildings (Stonor House, Fingest church, Cobstone Mill above Turville). The deer park at Stonor and Moorend Common also added further variety. It was a shame the temperature was just 1 or 2 degrees hotter than I feel comfortable in (if I'd remembered to take a bit more water with me, it wouldn't have bothered me so much). But it was lovely to see so many summer wildflowers and a decent number of butterflies. I've never come across Painted Ladies so often before, I'll remember this walk for that reason if for no other!