Pete's Walks- Cowleaze Wood, Studdridge Farm, Christmas Common (page 3 of 5)
I crossed the road and followed a path to the right of the cricket pitch. On reaching a corner of the pitch, I took a path going half-right across Ibstone Common, heading first towards the prominent Millennium Stone. Beyond the stone I continued roughly in the same direction, on a path heading towards a corner of the common (at a fork in the grass I took the right fork). I then turned half-left from the corner of the common, back onto the route of the Chiltern Way, as it descended on a bridleway through Commonhill Wood (possibly the same one I'd been through on the other side of the road earlier) back to the Wormsley Valley. Part way down the hill, after a few hundred yards, I stayed on the the Chiltern Way when it took a path that went left from the bridleway, soon leaving the wood and bearing right along a field edge to continue downhill to the bottom of the Wormsley Valley. This was a very pleasant section of the walk, but again the usual good views of the Wormsley Valley were restricted by the grey conditions.
Ibstone Common, with the Millennium Stone
The bridleway from Ibstone in Commonhill Wood
The bridleway from Ibstone in Commonhill Wood
The bridleway from Ibstone in Commonhill Wood
The path after I turned left in Commonhill Wood
View over the Wormsley valley from the edge of Commonhill Wood
The path from Commonhill Wood down into the Wormsley Valley
The path from Commonhill Wood down into the Wormsley Valley
The path from Commonhill Wood down into the Wormsley Valley - you can see the path continuing across the next field
In the valley bottom the path crossed a bridleway on a farm track. I stayed on the path as it continued across a large grassy field (there were some sheep over to my left, and a flock of gulls too). It then crossed another of the drives on the Wormsley estate, and then dropped slightly downhill across the corner of another field. I went a few yards right along another drive, then took a footpath on the left. A short distance further on I came to a path junction, where I turned left, keeping on the Chiltern Way
The path continuing across the next field, after crossing a bridleway
The next field, after crossing a Wormsley Estate drive
The Chiltern Way after it goes left from another Wormsley Estate drive
The path ran through Blackmoor Wood, at first through a fairly flat area, then turning slightly right and going gradually uphill. Here most of the trees seemed to be young beech with a few silver birch, similar to Hartmoor wood earlier. Eventually the path reached the slightly more open area of Northend Common, an 'Open Access' area, where a few trees had been felled (I remembered reading that the Chiltern Society were doing some work on the common). The path then ended at a minor road in Northend (part of the parish of Turville).
The Chiltern Way in Blackmoor Wood, after it goes left at a path junction
The Chiltern Way in Blackmoor Wood, now rising quite steeply
The Chiltern Way in Blackmoor Wood
The Open Access area at Northend Common