Pete's Walks - Coombe Hill and Great Kimble (page 3 of 4)
There was a nice section of beech wood here, and then the path started to drop quite steeply downhill. At the bottom of the hill I went straight on at a path junction, and soon reached the pub in Lower Cadsden.
The path through Ninn Wood
The path through Ninn Wood
The path through Ninn Wood
Ninn Wood
The path through Ninn Wood, approaching The Plough at Cadsden
I followed the short street from the pub to a minor road. A few yards to the left, a footpath started on the other side which soon entered a nature reserve, a scrubby hillside below Pulpit Hill. I turned left, now on a section of the Ridgeway National Trail which I followed slightly uphill. I crossed a bridleway and after a while came to another path junction (marked by a fingerpost by a gap in the hedge on my right) where I forked left and left the Ridgeway. This ran through an area of scrub and then crossed through a number of paddocks, using a lengthy sequence of kissing-gates in the electric fences. I then turned left on to a track which led downhill to reach the A4010 road in Great Kimble.
The path through the Grangelands and Rifle Range nature reserve
The path through the Grangelands and Rifle Range nature reserve
View back from the nature reserve towards Whiteleaf Hill
The path through the nature reserve, at the foot of Pulpit Hill
Looking ahead along the path across the paddocks
View from the paddocks
The bridleway down to Great Kimble
I turned right, crossing over as I passed the church. SAdly the pub that used to be here has been demolished. After a few hundred yards I carefully re-crossed the road and took the minor road leading through Little Kimble. I stopped briefly to look inside the church here, which has Mediaeval wall paintings and floor tiles. Just past a village sign indicating that I'd entered Ellesborough, a footpath went left. Beyond some gardens, it continued north-eastward through fields with views ahead to Ellesborough church and Beacon Hill over to my right. As I continued onwards I could see the monument on Coombe Hill that I would be passing later on. The path continued through more fields or pastures to reach a road in Butler's Cross (a settlement within the parish of Ellesborough).
Great Kimble church - it was at a meeting here that John Hampden refused to pay Ship Money, a significant event in the lead up to the English Civil War
The road between Great Kimble and Little Kimble
Mediaeval wall painting in Little Kimble Church
Near the start of the footpath from Little Kimble
The footpath from Little Kimble
The footpath from Little Kimble
The footpath from Little Kimble
Ellesborough Church
The footpath from Little Kimble
The footpath from Little Kimble, with Coombe Hill on the right
Approaching a road in Butler's Cross