Pete's Walks- Bradenham and Studley Green (page 3 of 4)
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.
I turned left along Old Oxford Road. I soon left the houses here behind, and after another couple of hundred yards turned left onto a footpath. This started through a glade in a wood, then entered the trees and immediately turned right at a waymark post. The path was soon running downhill in a 'sunken lane' or 'hollow way', with large banks rising on either side. When I came up this path in 2015 I wondered if this was an even older course of the Oxford Road, but it seemed odd that it was only a footpath rather than a bridleway. The path curved right near the bottom of the slope, then left the wood and followed a farm track a few yards before rejoining the bridleway I'd been on earlier in Bottom Wood. I followed it a short distance to reach the edge of the outbuildings at Ham Farm - the track split int two either side of a hedge here, and I followed the bridleway along the track to the right of the hedgerow.
Old Oxford Road, Studley Green
The start of the path from Old Oxford Road
The path from Old Oxford Road, just after it turns right
The path from Old Oxford Road
The path from Old Oxford Road
The path from Old Oxford Road, just before it joins the bridleway from Bottom Wood
The bridleway passing Ham Farm
Where the hedge ended, I turned left through part of the farmyard to a stile, over which a path headed uphill beside a fence on my left that divided two sheep pastures. This was the start of today's fifth uphill, and the one I found most tiring. There was a steady gradient through the sheep pasture, then after going over stiles either side of a track the path steepened as it followed a hedge on my right along the edge of a stubble field. On reaching the next field corner I stopped to admire the views behind me. The path then went over a stile into the corner of another sheep pasture, passing an old bit of hedge on my right. Over another stile, I followed a fence on my right through a huge cattle pasture. When I came to junction where another path crossed, I wasn't sure if I had to just go on or if the path switched to the other side of the fence here. I continued with the fence on my right, and this proved to be the correct decision as at the end of the fence where it met a hedge there was a pedestrian gate, where the path turned right.
The path going northeast from Ham Farm
The path going northeast from Ham Farm
View back from the path going northeast from Ham Farm
The path going northeast from Ham Farm
The path going northeast from Ham Farm (the dots on the skyline on the left are cattle)
After a few yards the path went through a gap to switch to the left of the hedge, continuing alongside it as it curved slightly left to reach a field corner by a wood. Here the path joined a bridleway, and I continued downhill, initially with the wood to my left. Beyond the wood the bridleway continued between tall hedges either side. At one point there was a gap on the left where there was a pleasant view, then further on there was a gap either side giving access between two fields. When the hedge on the right ended, the path continued along a track and then down a drive to reach a lane at Chorley. A few yards to the left, a path on the other side of the lane went right across an enclosure, and then fractionally left as it crossed a stubble field. After crossing the road that goes up Bledlow Ridge (on my left), the path continued across another field to reach Slough Lane (which I'd followed briefly earlier on the walk, after descending from Allnutt's Wood).
The path going northeast from Ham Farm
Just after I joined the bridleway descending to Chorley
The bridleway descending to Chorley
The bridleway descending to Chorley
Approaching the end of the bridleway descending to Chorley
The path from Chorley
The path from Chorley, after crossing the Bledlow Ridge road - Slough Lane runs between the hedgerows crossing the photo