Pete's Walks - Studham Common, Great Gaddesden, Hudnall (page 1 of 3)
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 did this circular walk of about 8 miles on Saturday, 19th November 2022. It was a repeat of a walk I did in January 2019 (much of the following description is 'cut and paste' from that walk!).
I set off from the car park on Studham Common (Grid reference TL 027156) about 9:50am, taking the path heading east along the top of the common. which dropped gently downhill on my left. In the corner of the common, I took a footpath going right, following a hedge and then Great Bradwin's Wood on my left. At the end of the wood there was a gap where a track went left. Here I went through a small gate, beyond which the footpath continued beside a wooden fence on my left. It then carried on down a gravel drive with a tall hedge on my right. This brought me to a minor road where I turned left, following the road where it soon turned right.
The path along the top of Studham Common
The path passing Great Bradwin's Wood, after I turned right at the corner of Studham Common
The same path continuing beside a small paddock
The road, after it turns right (I turned left roughly where the road goes out of view in this shot)
I followed the road as far as the entrance to Barwythe Lodge on the right (where the road went slightly left), where I took a footpath going left that followed the left edge of a large field. In the field corner the path turned right. The path stays to the right of the hedge where a path goes left, then switches to the left of the hedge just a short way further on (waymarks on yellow posts at both these points). I was now on the edge of a huge arable field. It was several hundred yards to the next field corner, which was strangely staggered so that I had to turn left, right, left and right again. The field boundary then finally turned left for a third time, but here I went through a gate and then turned left along the other side of the hedge. In the next field corner I went straight on through a gate, then turned right along the far side of another hedgerow - I was now back in another part of the same large field I'd been in before. I finally left it at the next field corner, where I went straight on, following a tall hedge of mature trees on my left beside another arable field. I followed the edge of the field where it turned right, but immediately before it turned left I went left at a gate, and followed a clear path that eventually brought me to a lane on the edge of Jockey End (the main settlement at Gaddesden Row).
The path after I turned left from the road
The same path after it turned right and then switched to the left of the hedgerow
The path after I went through a gate and continued along the other side of the hedgerow (it goes through a gate in the corner, where I turned right along the far side of the hedgerow)
The path after I turned right, back in the same huge field
The path continuing through the next field (it goes through a gate at the right end of the bushes and trees sticking out into the field)
The path continuing towards Jockey End (actually the OS Map shows this section is now a byway)
The path continuing towards Jockey End
I went a short way right along the lane, then turned left along a path that followed a hedge on my left. I went straight on through a gate in the corner of this field, entering a large sheep pasture with a tall hedgerow on my right. After a hundred yards or so the path went through a gap in this hedge in this hedge, and continued along the other side to reach Hoo Wood.
The lane on the edge of Jockey End (I turned left in the dip)
The start of the path to Hoo Wood
The path to Hoo Wood
The path to Hoo Wood