Pete's Walks - Little Missenden, Winchmore Hill, Amersham Old Town (page 4 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.
The Platt led to a cemetery, where a footpath continued just to the right. This ran for a few hundred yards between fences and hedges, crossing a drive at one point, and finally passing through a small area of trees and up some 'steps' to reach the A413 main road. Across this I went over a stile and bore right, passing to the left of some bushes. On reaching a drive, waymarks on a post showed footpaths going straight on and half-right, the direction I needed to go. There was a clear path going straight on through a corn field, but no sign of a path through the field going half-right, so I turned right along the grass next to the drive which soon turned left and headed the way I wanted to go. When the drive reached a gate I continued along the edge of the corn field. When I reached a pedestrian gate by another drive, there was a clear path coming down through the corn field, so I guess I should have gone straight on a few yards when I reached the corn field and then turned half-right. Anyway, I now crossed this second drive (going to Shardeloes, a large white house, now apartments, on top of the hillside on my left), then followed a drive past a cricket pitch (there was a game in progress). From near its end, behind the pavilion, I went half-right across some grass to where a path started just left of a small gate. The path then led between trees for a short distance, then beyond a gate entered the parkland below Shardeloes, with a lake on my right where the river Misbourne had been dammed. As always it was very pleasant strolling through here, though there were a few other people about. After going through another gate the path soon joined a track, and a few hundred yards further on it brought me to a junction with another track (Mop End Lane) - I took a short detour to the right to have a look at the river, then rejoined the track and continued along the valley.
The path where it starts to pass Platt cemetery
Further along the path
The path on the other side of the A413
The path starting from the cricket pitch in the grounds of Shardeloes
The path through the grounds of Shardeloes
The lake below Shardeloes
The path through the grounds of Shardeloes
The path through the grounds of Shardeloes
The path through the grounds of Shardeloes
The path through the grounds of Shardeloes
The river Misbourne
Weir on the river Misbourne
Clear water in the river Misbourne
The track continued through the valley for about another half mile, until it reached the minor road through Little Missenden. I turned left, and followed the road through the attractive village for just under half a mile to return to the village church and my parked car.
The path through the Misbourne valley continuing towards Little Missenden/p>
The path through the Misbourne valley continuing towards Little Missenden
The path through the Misbourne valley continuing towards Little Missenden
Little Missenden village Hall
Little Missenden
Little Missenden church
This was an enjoyable walk, even though I'd walked almost all of it numerous times before on other routes. It was very undemanding, the only uphill sections being the fairly gentle one right at the start (to and then along Toby's Lane) and then a shorter and even gentler rise near Coleshill House. It's certainly one of the easiest 9-10 mile walks I've done in the Chilterns.