Pete's Walks - Coombe Hill and Prestwood (page 2 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 turned right and followed the narrow lane downhill into the valley called Hampden Bottom. At the T-junction at the end of the lane (by a blacksmith's forge), I turned left along the road for a few yards and then took a path going into the small wood on what was now my right. This was possibly only the second time I'd walked this path. It was a rather faint path through the wood, and I had to step over a fallen tree, then divert round a second one. It was probably here that I went wrong, because I soon came to another path where I turned left and after a short distance came to a waymark post where I should have met this second path. A few yards further on the path left the wood and crossed The Glade, a broad strip of grass between woods - looking along it to my right it headed straight for Hampden House. The path then continued gently uphill through Pepperboxes Wood (managed by the Woodland Trust). I went straight on at a path crossroads, and again when a path forked left. When I reached the next path junction, by a bench, I turned right onto a path that soon curved left (about here the wood became Lodge Wood).
Cobblershill Lane
Cobblershill Lane, in Hampden Bottom
View right, along Hampden Bottom
The Old Forge, Little Hampden (at the end of Cobblershill Lane)
The start of the path through the wood opposite the end of Cobblershill Lane
Crossing The Glade
Looking right along The Glade, towards Hampden House
The path through Pepperboxes Wood (just after going straight on at a path crossroads)
The path through Pepperboxes Wood (just after going straight on where a path forked half-left)
The path through Pepperboxes Wood, after I turned right
Further along the same path (now in Lodge Wood), just before I turned right
When I reached a path crossroads in the wood, I turned right, immediately leaving the wood via a metal pedestrian gate and crossing an arable field. I'd only walked this path twice before and I almost forgot the fine view over Hampden Bottom to my right. I'd almost reached the other side of the field before I thought to take a photo. When I later loaded my photos to my computer, I noticed something amongst some trees in this shot. I zoomed in, and thought it looked like a grave marker and when I looked on the OS map I saw it said 'monument' at this place. I searched the web for 'monument Honor End Farm' (the nearest name on the map) and discovered that it was the Hampden Monument, raised in the 19th century to commemorate John Hampden, a prominent figure at the time of the English Civil War who lived at nearby Hampden House. If I'd noticed it at the time and realised what it was, I would have taken a short diversion along Honor End Lane to get a proper photo of the monument.
The path continuing from Lodge Wood, heading to Honor End Lane
View right over Hampden Bottom - the Hampden Monument is visible through the trees on the left
The Hampden Monument, raised in the 19th Century to commemorate John Hampden who lived nearby at Hampden House
Across Honor End Lane I went over a stile and followed a path through part of a garden, then along the right edge of a paddock or enclosure. On reaching a field, I followed the field edge right a few yards then turned left in the field corner (there was a fine view over Hampden Bottom to my right). On reaching the next field corner I went straight on through a field of stubble, with another nice view along Hampden Bottom to my right, to reach a wood called Oaken Grove. I followed the path straight on through the wood, to reach a minor road on the far side.
The start of the path on the other side of Honor End Lane
The path from Honor End Lane
View right from the path to Honor End Lane, across Hampden Bottom
The path from Honor End Lane
Another view right from the path from Honor End Lane, along Hampden Bottom
The path from Honor End Lane approaching Oaken Grove
Oaken Grove
Oaken Grove, as I reached the minor road