Pete's Walks - Maidensgrove Common, Nettlebed, Coxlease Farm (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.
On reaching Coxlease Farm I turned left through the farmyard and followed a bridleway beside Almshill Wood. I then turned left at a bridleway junction, this bridleway dropping downhill through the wood beside the boundary fence for Stonor deer park on my right. The first part of the bridleway wasn't very steep (I persuade myself it's almost flat when I'm coming uphill) but then it turned half-left and went straight down the slope (rather than at an angle)- I'm surprised that it's a bridleway, I feel sorry for any horse coming up this hill. I heard and then saw my third Buzzard of the day here.
The bridleway from Coxlease Farm
The bridleway descending to Stonor
The bridleway descending to Stonor
The bridleway descending to Stonor
At the bottom of the slope the bridleway ran between gardens and came to the road through Stonor, where I turned right. I followed the road through the village, passing a junction where a lane went left to Maidensgrove and then passing Stonor Park on my right. Shortly after leaving the village I took a footpath on the left that ran through the middle of a broad hedgerow (I had to clamber over a fallen tree here), gradually rising uphill to reach Pishillbury Wood. I'm not very fit, and I was struggling a bit here despite it not being steep. The path continued at similar gradient through the wood. On the far side of the wood I came to a junction, where I turned left along a bridleway for a hundred yards or so, then turned right at another junction (these two junctions are shown as a crossroads on the OS map). This path left the wood and continued down a private road or drive in Maidensgrove and at its end I turned right along a lane that soon brought me back to where I'd started from on Maidensgrove Common.
The road through Stonor
The path to Pishillbury Wood, after I turned left from the road
The path through Pishillbury Wood
The path through Pishillbury Wood
The path through Pishillbury Wood
The private road through Maidensgrove
Pond on the edge of Maidensgrove Common
This was a really nice walk on a lovely Autumn day (though it was cool enough for me to need my Winter jacket). As I said in my report when I followed the route in February 2024, the best part was the path going north to Coxlease Farm with the fine views over the Stonor valley. But the path at the start down to Upper Bix Bottom and the path from Crocker End down to Bix Bottom were also very enjoyable. It was most unusual to have three separate sightings of Buzzards, and I also heard two or three Ravens