Pete's Walks - Maidensgrove Common, Watlington Hill, Northend (page 1 of 5)
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 did this circular walk of about 10.5 miles on Thursday, 4th January, 2024. It was a new route for me, though entirely on paths I'd walked on other routes previously. There was one path, in Blackmoor Wood, that I'd only walked once previously
When I left home, I had intended to do a walk from Christmas Common (a repeat of the Watlington Hill and Cookley Green walk I did in July 2015, but starting at Christmas Common instead as you now have to pay to park at Watlington Hill). After a rather tiresome journey where I had to take two diversions and saw two other road closures (possibly connected to Storm Henk a couple of days ago), when I got to Christmas Common I saw a large group of walkers were assembling there and had used up the parking places where I'd intended to park. So I drove on to Maidensgrove Common and parked there instead. I had a quick look at the map and quickly figured out an alternative route I could take (as I did the walk I changed this route in a couple of places).
So having parked beside the lane that leaves Maidensgrove and crosses Maidensgrove Common (grid reference SU 717886), I started walking about 10:10am. I followed the lane across the common (with the largest part of the common on my right) and continued alongside it after it turned right along the edge of the common. One or two hundred yards after passing the Five Horseshoes pub I took a footpath on the left. This passed a property on my left, then ran between hedges for a while before passing a pasture on the left. It then dropped down a few steps, went through a gate and turned right. After a short distance, it turned left and dropped very steeply downhill between a fence and a hedge on my right, with an attractive view of woods and rolling hills ahead of me.
The lane crossing Maidensgrove Common
The path alongside the lane on Maidensgrove Common
The Five Horseshoes pub, Maidensgrove
The path after I turned left from the lane
Further along the path
Further along the path
The same path now dropping very steeply into a valley
In the valley bottom I turned right along a long bridleway that would take me to Cookley Green. The first part of this was very muddy, but fortunately that was the worst section for mud and was soon over. I met a solitary walker here, and then another two a little later. I went straight on along the valley when another bridleway went off to the left (towards Park Corner), and a little further along again went straight on when a bridleway went off to the right (to Russell's Water). After following the bridleway for a little over a mile, it brought me to Cookley Green.
The bridleway to Cookley Green, after I turned right in the valley
The bridleway to Cookley Green
The bridleway to Cookley Green
The bridleway to Cookley Green
The bridleway to Cookley Green
The bridleway entering Cookley Green