Pete's Walks - Maidensgrove and Turville Heath (page 3 of 4)
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 went straight on down a lane starting on the other side of the junction. I soon passed a small car park and a drive on the left, continuing down the lane to reach a junction. I went straight on for a few yards, before taking a footpath on the right that entered the wooded Summer Heath. I followed the path straight on through Summer Heath, going straight on where a waymark post indicated a path crossroads. Shortly after this, the path went through a gap in a wooden fence (which I presume is the boundary between Summer Heath and Summerheath Wood). Immediately after this, there was another path junction where I took the left fork, continuing through the wood to reach a gate on its edge). From here there was a fine view towards Fingest, which sits at the confluence of a number of valleys, with slopes leading up towards Cadmore End beyond.
Start of the lane through Turville Heath
The lane through Turville Heath
The path through Summer Heath
The path through Summer Heath
The path through Summer Heath
Summerheath Wood
View from the edge of Summerheath Wood - one of my favourite views in the Chilterns
The path continued across a corner of a large cattle pasture (there were one or two Belted Galloways here, amongst a number of black bullocks) to reach a gate. The path continued alongside a hedgerow on my right, the field being so full of Dandelions that I seriously wondered if they were being grown as a crop (does anyone drink Dandelion and Burdock nowadays?). I continued beside the hedgerow when a path forked left, and then the path went through a gate and crossed a drive. I continued through a small paddock or pasture to reach the green at Southend, where I turned right (and, as many times before, sat on one of the two benches here to eat my packed lunch).
The path to Southend, continuing from Summerheath Wood (there is a gate just left of the tree in the centre of the photo)
The path to Southend
A field of Dandelions, on the way to Southend
The path to Southend (after I crossed the drive)
Southend
Lunch over, I continued beside the green on my left to reach the lane through Southend, where I turned left. After a couple of hundred yards or so I turned right onto a path that started down a track, with a couple of cottages initially on my left and a wood on my right. After passing a field on the right I was enclosed in woodland (the map shows the path passing between Kildridge Wood, to my left, and Balham's Wood on my right), and the path started to drop downhill. After a while a white arrow showed where the path forked slightly left from the now rather narrow track. The path now passed through an area of Rhododendrons to reach the tall gate giving access to the deer park surrounding Stonor House.
The lane through Southend
The path from Southend to Stonor Park
The path from Southend to Stonor Park
The path from Southend to Stonor Park