Pete's Walks - Stoke Row, Satwell, Nettlebed (page 5 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 then crossed the A4130 at Port Hill, and took a bridleway on the other side. This ran for a short way between garden boundaries, then crossed a tiny corner of a field. The path then followed a hedge on my left for some way, with a garden hedge, then a paddock and then a field on my right. On reaching a gap in the hedge on my left, the path went through it and crossed part of an arable field - the path hadn't been reinstated after ploughing and harrowing, but I managed to spot a waymark just over halfway along the right-hand hedgerow. The path continued in more or less the same direction across the next field - it was slightly easier to see the waymark post on the far side here.
The path from Port Hill
The path from Port Hill
The path from Port Hill
The path from Port Hill
The path from Port Hill
I went a few yards left along a bridleway, and went over a stile that was to the right of a farm gate. I then followed a clear path through a large pasture, aiming for a gate in the opposite corner. Over another stile, I turned right along a farm track, which soon turned left with the buildings of English Farm now on my right. The track turned right, and then I immediately went left to reach a byway named English Lane. I went left and followed English Lane gently downhill for about a third of a mile, then took a path by a gate on my right (I'd passed another gate on that side earlier). This path (which I'd only walked once walked previously) went uphill beside a fence on my right.
The path after I crossed the bridleway, heading towards English Farm
The path after I turned right towards English Farm (it curves left, passing this side of the buildings)
The path passing English Farm
English Lane
English Lane
The path after I turned right from English Lane
View left from along that path
At the top of the hill I went over a stile and turned right along another byway. After one or two hundred yards I took a footpath on the left, which ran alongside a fence on my right. After a while the path dropped downhill, went over a stile and continued by a tall hedge on my left until it reached the valley bottom. Here I turned left along another byway, Cox's Lane, that ran between hedgerows, heading roughly southeast. After about half a mile I passed Stokerow Farm on the left, and the byway became a surfaced lane as it entered Stoke Row. A few hundred yards further on, I took a footpath on the right, which ran between a low hedge on my left and a tall hedge on my right. This brought me to the main road through Stoke Row, close to where I'd parked near the Maharajah's Well.
The byway, after I turned right
The path after I turned left from the byway
Further along the same path
Cox's Lane
Cox's Lane
Cox's Lane, approaching Stoke Row
The path after I turned right from Cox's Lane
I very clearly remember walking this route in September 2023 for the simple reason that I was totally shattered at the end of it! It was only 9.6 miles, but I felt as bad as I've ever felt after one of these walks. For some reason I was reduced to a slow plod long before I reached Nettlebed (which is about two-thirds of the way round), and the last few miles were a real struggle for me. I can only think I was still getting over long covid, yet I'd managed three walks of about 12 miles a couple of months earlier without feeling so bad. So it was a bit of a relief to me today that I managed to do the walk in about three hours and fifty minutes, forty minutes quicker than last time, and I didn't feel too bad at the end of the walk.
It was a beautiful day for a walk, and I really enjoyed it. It just felt really good to be out and about in the countryside, and it was a joy to be walking on dry paths again rather than constantly weaving between mud and puddles. The route is a little unusual in that it is mainly in woods until about half a mile before Nettlebed, then the rest is mainly on field paths. My routes generally mix woods and fields much more than that. But it didn't matter to me, I didn't get bored with either section of the walk. The route is also much flatter than most of my routes, the only uphills being the quite long and gradual one through Greatbottom Wood towards Satwell, and the steeper one after turning right from English Lane. But the lack of ups and downs didn't bother me either, and it's a walk I'd happily do again.