Pete's Walks- Bledlow Ridge and Lacey Green (page 2 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.
Google map of the walkDownload GPX file of the walk
I followed the road into the village, soon having the very large green to my right. Across the green ahead of me, I could see the church and the manor house. Just after passing the church, I turned left along a short track and went through gates either side of a narrow pasture. The path now continued along a field boundary on my left, with a view ahead fields rising to woods topping the hillside to my right.
The green at Bradenham
The the church and manor house, Bradenham
The path from Bradenham heading towards Park Wood
The path from Bradenham heading towards Park Wood
After crossing a hedge-lined driveway or track (there was a redundant stile here, which unusually had three 'steps' - perhaps they could be re-used on the stiles going up Slough Hill!), the path switched to the left of a hedgerow, rising gently uphill to a corner of Park Wood. The path continued on beside the wood, with lots of wildflowers growing beside it. At the highest point of the path, just before the path and wood turned sharply left, there were two unusual benches next to each other, one with a seat that rose in the middle and one with a seat that sank in the middle. The path now went downhill for a while - strangely this was a longer but far less steep descent than I remembered, normally hills are steeper than I remember! At the bottom of the slope I turned right and then right again to stay close to the edge of the wood. The path then continued for several hundred yards as a broad green track, still with the wood close by on my right. Shortly before reaching Small Dean Farm, I happened to look down at the wildflowers growing along the edge of the field on my left. As well as spotting two of my favourites, Field Pansy and Scarlet Pimpernel, there was a very tiny lilac-coloured flower, which I've since identified as Field Madder - it was the first new wildflower I'd spotted for several years (other than a few orchids, which I consider to be in a category of their own). The path finally lead through the farmyard to reach Smalldean Lane (the inconsistency between 'Small Dean Farm' and 'Smalldean Lane' bothers me far more than it should!).
Redundant stile
The path from Bradenham heading towards Park Wood
The path from Bradenham continuing beside Park Wood
The path from Bradenham continuing beside Park Wood
Unusual benches beside Park Wood
The path from Bradenham continuing beside Park Wood
The path from Bradenham continuing beside Park Wood
Approaching Small Dean Farm
I turned left along the lane for about 100 yards, before turning right onto a footpath. When I did this walk in 2008 I bumped into a lady here who recognised me (I think I remembered her dogs rather than her, to be honest), we'd stopped and chatted a few days earlier near Parslow's Hillock on my previous walk. The path went to the end of a hedgerow and turned right behind it, following it past a large wildflower meadow and gently gaining height. The path continued on beside the hedgerow on my right through two or three more fields. passing through two tree belts that separated the fields. There were good views over the Saunderton valley to my left, and eventually good views ahead of me to where the valley met the Oxfordshire Plain.
The start of the path from Smalldean Lane
The path from Smalldean Lane
The path from Smalldean Lane
View looking back from the path from Smalldean Lane
The path from Smalldean Lane
View ahead from the path from Smalldean Lane
View across the northwest end of Saunderton valley, and out to the Oxfordshire Plain. Lodge Hill, which I'd visit later, is on the left, with the northern end of Bledlow Ridge and Wain Hill behind it