Pete's Walks - Coombe Hill and Prestwood (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 turned left along the road, which immediately turned right. I soon came to a crossroads, where I went straight on. When the road then turned left, I carried straight on again, along the long gravel drive of Hampden House. I passed Great Hampden church on my left, and carried on past Hampden House on the right. A bridleway continued along a broad strip of mown grass between hedges and fences. When this ended, the bridleway continued along a track, but I forked left from it onto a path that went at an angle across a huge field of stubble. The path passed through a small copse in the middle of the field and then passed a solitary tree, before entering a wood called Barnes Grove on the other side.
The minor road (this is running along the line of Grim's Ditch)
The drive to Hampden House
Great Hampden church
The path to Barne's Grove
The path to Barne's Grove
I followed the path for a few hundred yards through the wood. Another path joined in sharply from the right at one point, beyond which the path was on the line of an ancient earthwork called Grim's Ditch. On the far side of the wood I reached a road junction at the hamlet of Redland's End, where I went straight on down a lane (this is the start of Alternative 1 on my Google map, in 2017 I turned right along the road). After passing two or three properties I turned right where a footpath crossed the road, following the path for several hundred yards through Hillock Wood until I reached a crossing bridleway (the hamlet of Parslow's Hillock was a short distance to the left). I turned right and followed the bridleway northwards through more of Hillock Wood, with the steep Chiltern escarpment dropping downhill to my left. Eventually the bridleway left the wood and turned right, soon ending when it reached a road. As I turned left along the road I rejoined the route I walked in 2017. Within a few hundred yards I reached the hamlet of Green Hailey.
The path through Barne's Grove
The path through Barne's Grove
The path through Barne's Grove after two paths merged, now on the line of Grim's Ditch
The lane through Redland End
The path after I turned left into Hillock Wood
The path through Hillock Wood
The path through Hillock Wood, approaching the bridleway where I turned right
The bridleway going north from Parslow's Hillock
The bridleway going north from Parslow's Hillock
The bridleway going north from Parslow's Hillock, after it turns right
The minor road going towards Green Hailey
Usually here I take the footpath on the right as you enter Green Hailey, but on this route I continued through the hamlet and then took a bridleway on the right (after the last property on the right, just before the road turns left). This crossed part of a green field, continuing beside a hedge on my right. Beyond this field I went straight on at a slightly staggered bridleway crossroads, the bridleway now running just inside Sergeant's Wood with a field close by on the left. I then went straight on at a path crossroads (again slightly staggered, I had to turn left for a few yards), now with woods either side. After descending gently through the wood for a few hundred yards I came to a junction where a waymark post indicated that a path went straight on but the bridleway turned right. Then after turning right and walking just a few yards another waymark post showed where the bridleway went left (and a footpath went straight on). The bridleway continued through what was now Ninn Wood, then carried on for about a quarter of a mile just inside the eastern edge of the wood, with paddocks beyond the trees and fence on my right.
The bridleway from Green Hailey
The bridleway continuing through Sergeant's Wood
The bridleway continuing through Sergeant's Wood
The bridleway continuing through Sergeant's Wood, after a slightly staggered path crossroads
The bridleway continuing through Ninn Wood, after turning right then left
The bridleway continuing through Ninn Wood
The bridleway continuing through Ninn Wood
The bridleway continuing through Ninn Wood