Pete's Walks- Cowleaze Wood, Studdridge Farm, Christmas Common (page 2 of 5)
I went right for maybe a hundred yards along the road, then took a footpath on the other side that went through Commonhill Wood. Just a short way into the wood the right of way kept left when the track it was following forked. After a while the footpath went straight on where the track went right and downhill (it seems that a permissive bridleway goes that way). The path gradually descended through the wood and then went gently uphill for one or two hundred yards to reach a stile on the edge of the wood. The path continued across an empty pasture, then went over a drive and carried on along a surfaced track beside a large field on my right.
The start of the path through Commonhill Wood - you can see where it almost immediately forks left
The path through Commonhill Wood, just before it forks right from the track
The path through Commonhill Wood, just after it forks right from the track
The path through Commonhill Wood, going gently uphill towards the stile on the edge of the wood
The path continuing from Commonhill Wood across an empty pasture
The path continuing along the edge of a large field - I turned sharply right in the field corner to go back diagonally across this field
At a path junction in the next field corner, I turned sharply right to go diagonally across the large field. This path was part of the Chiltern Way. I first headed to the nearest corner of what looked like a small copse in the middle of the field, but was actually a tree-lined pond or reservoir. I turned left along the edge of the trees, before continuing across the field to a gate in the far corner. The footpath used to go left here and go through the farmyard at Studdridge, but when I did this walk in 2015 I found there was now a permissive path that avoided the farmyard and I used that instead (in fact the permissive path is now the official route for the footpath, as I found when I reached where it rejoined the old route). So I crossed the drive and continued along the left edge of an empty pasture (I'd just walked along the far side of it when I left the wood) for a short distance, then went through a gate on the left and crossed part of a larger pasture, with the farm over to my left. The path led to a gate in another field, where I rejoined the old route.
The path across the field, after I turned sharply right at a path junction in the field corner
The path across the field, next to the tree-lined pond or reservoir
The new path that avoids Studdridge Farm
The new path that avoids Studdridge Farm (it goes through the gate on the left)
I turned right to follow the edge of the field - there's a nice view here usually, but as with all the views today it was severely restricted by the grey and slightly misty conditions. The path then entered a bit bit of woodland where I soon turned right at a path junction and quickly reached another field. Here I walked downhill along the edge of the field, with the wood on my right. In the field corner I entered the woods again (through a metal kissing-gate) and immediately came to another path junction. I took the path going left (the Chiltern Way goes the other way), which gently rose up through Hartsmoor Wood which was mainly young beech and hazel. When the path reached the top edge of the wood it met another path (which I'd walked two or three times before). Here I turned right and followed the left edge of a field to reach the road through Ibstone, almost opposite the cricket pitch.
The path continuing from Studdridge Farm
Approaching the path junction where I turned right
The Chiltern Way descending towards Hartmoor Wood
The footpath through Hartmoor Wood
The footpath through Hartmoor Wood
The path into Ibstone