Pete's Walks - Maidensgrove, Ibstone, Middle Assendon (page 3 of 5)
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 followed a bridleway along the grassy part of the common, with a hedge close by on the right. After a while I took a path forking half-left from the bridleway (no sign or waymark), heading through the grass towards the left-end of some trees, where I crossed a drive and continued along the edge of the common. On reaching a corner of the common a short path led through brambles to where the bridleway I'd just been on met Gray's Lane. I turned right along the lane, soon passing Hell Corner Farm on my left, and continuing on until a finger-post indicated where a bridleway forked slightly left of the lane. After a few yards the bridleway crossed the end of the lane and continued straight on, dropping gradually downhill with some fine Beech trees on my right.
Ibstone Common
Ibstone Common
Ibstone Common, after crossing the drive
Gray's Lane, just before I passed Hell Corner Farm (on the left)
Gray's Lane (bridleway)
Gray's Lane (bridleway
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 took a footpath that ran 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
View right, along the Wormsley Valley
The Wormsley estate drive after I turned left
The path from Holloway Lane to Idlecombe Wood
I was now on one of my favourite paths in the Chilterns. 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). It wasn't the best time of year to walk this path, as the leaves on the trees largely obscured the views out across the attractive valley on my left. After almost half a mile I reached a path T-junction where I turned right (the path on the left isn't obvious, this may just seem like a turn to the right). Here I spotted some Fallow Deer, as I had the last time I came this way. 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 path 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, after I turned left
The path through Idlecombe Wood
The path through Idlecombe Wood
View left from the path through Idlecombe Wood
The path now in Churchfield Wood, after I went right at a junction