ROUTE DESCRIPTION - Walk 10, Old Amersham and Little Kingshill
OS Explorer Maps required: 172
Approximate distance: 11.8 miles
Start at car park in Old Amersham (SU 960972).
CLOCKWISE
From the car park, turn right down the high street, then turn left into Whielden Street. After about 100 yards turn left again into Whielden Green. Take the footpath on the right, just before the end of the cul-de-sac. Ignore the clear path that goes diagonally uphill across an area of rough grass to the end of a hedge – instead go further left, and on reaching the hedge continue between the hedge and garden fences on the left. At the end of the hedge, turn left and after a few yards go a few feet to the left and continue on a surfaced path. Turn right at a path junction, and follow the path across the Amersham bypass on a footbridge. After a further 50 yards or so, take the path on the right. This initially has garden fences on the left, then heads uphill to the right of a ditch. Look out for the start of a small bank of rough grass about 100 yards into the field on your right. Turn sharply right at a waymark post a short distance past the start of the bank, then turns left along the bottom of the bank (the path on the ground turns right when it comes level with the start of the bank then turns right along the top of the bank). At the end of the bank, go through a gap in the hedgerow ahead of you and continue on into the next field, now with a hedge on your left. Just past a pylon, the path goes left and over a stile. Follow the edge of a field and then a wall to another stile. Continue along a fenced path and then a drive to reach Tower Road, Coleshill (SU 951957).
Turn right, cross over the road going right almost immediately, and follow the road through the village, keeping left at a fork, until you have the church on your right and a pub on your left (there is a duck pond a bit further ahead on the right). Turn right on a path next to the church. Cross a lane and continue on the path opposite, initially along a gravel drive. Keep left, ignoring a path forking right. When the path reaches a stile and an open field, go slightly left, passing to the left of a clump of trees. Continue on a track through a wood. Beyond the wood, the path runs to the right of a hedge. Continue alongside this boundary until you reach a lane in Winchmore Hill, opposite a chapel (SU 933950).
Turn left through the village, and at the end of the lane turn right with the village green on your left. When part of the green starts on the right of the road, follow a path forking right close to the edge of the green.. When this reaches another road, take the footpath opposite. Follow this path between hedges and then cross a field to a wood. On exiting the far side of the wood, the path goes slightly right across a large open field, passing just left of an electricity pole in the middle of the field to a stile just right of another pole. Follow the path through some bushes then along a wide drive to reach a road in Penn Street (SU 924959).
Turn left along the road, then go right at a junction. Where this road turns sharply left, go straight ahead into Penn Wood, taking the leftmost of two paths that start here. Follow the path straight through the wood. On the far side, carefully cross the main road (A404) and take the minor road almost opposite. Soon bear right towards Beaumond End. After about 50 yards, take the drive on the right, continuing along the footpath at the end. Cross a field, then turn left on to a hedged bridleway called Toby’s Lane. After this bends to the right, look for a footpath going left (leaving the route of the Chiltern Heritage Trail, which we have followed so far on this walk). This path takes you back to Beaumond End Lane. Continue on the path almost opposite. This follows a right-hand hedge to a corner, then goes downhill to a kissing gate. Through a small wood, it then runs between hedges and fences to reach houses at Holmer Green. The path ends as a short alley between houses. Continue walking along the road ahead of you – as it turns right, cross the road and take the foot path on the other side. This soon turns left then immediately right to reach a path crossroads. Turn right here, soon passing behind garages on your left, to reach Penfold Lane (SU 908975).
Turn left and follow the road through the village for over half a mile, until you reach a mini-roundabout. Turn right. Take the first footpath on the left (just before the first property on the left). Follow the edge of a paddock to a stile in the corner, and then follow the waymarks through a sequence of paddocks, soon going downhill beside a hedge on the right. At the corner of the field at the bottom of the slope, go over a stile and continue a short distance ahead to another stile. The path then continues along the left edge of a cattle pasture or meadow. At the far end, DO NOT cross the stile, but turn right along the field boundary to reach a wood. Follow the path through the wood, going right at a fork after a few yards. At the bottom of the slope the path turns left – keep to the path close to the left edge of the wood. On exiting the wood, turn right and follow the path between fences and hedges until you reach a road in Little Kingshill, which you cross here (SU 894989).
Turn right and follow the road for about half a mile. When it turns left, take the footpath going straight ahead. This soon goes steadily downhill across a large field, with nice views ahead of the Misbourne Valley. Go through a hedge, and continue on to a projecting field corner, then carry on alongside the hedge on your left. In the field corner go over two stiles either side of a path between hedges, and continue diagonally across a paddock to its far corner, to reach a lane on the western edge of Little Missenden (SU 918992).
Turn right and follow the lane straight on all the way through the village, passing the historic church on your left. Just beyond the Crown pub on your left (the second of two pubs), take the path on the right where the road bends left. This is part of the South Bucks Way, which we shall follow for the remainder of the walk. Continue on this path along the Misbourne Valley for a mile or more – go straight on where the initial gravel drive turns left, and straight on again when the subsequent stony track turns right, until you eventually reach a cricket ground. Pass behind the clubhouse and follow the drive to a gateway. Then follow the South Bucks Way signs, which indicate a path on the right that follows the river Misbourne through a bridge under the A413. The path then goes up to the right to follow the A413 a short distance left, before going left to join the old road. When you reach the old road, follow it to the right and go through Old Amersham back to your starting point at the car park.
The Civil War poet Edmund Waller lived in the manor house at Coleshill. His family had lived there since the early 1500’s. He used to write his poetry under an oak tree, which is thought to date back to the Norman Conquest. There is a house called Waller’s Oak, and another house, Stock Place, incorporates a wing of the old manor house (Stock was the name of the village in the middle ages). The parish church has a modern Lych Gate, made of English Oak on a brick base, with a tiled roof.
Winchmore Hill is a hamlet in the parish of Penn. It is often confused with another Winchmore Hill, not too far away in North London.
Penn Wood is one of the largest areas of ancient woodland in the Chilterns AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). From before the Norman Conquest until the middle of the nineteenth century it was a wood pasture common. In the 1850’s it was enclosed and converted to ‘high forest’. It became an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) in 1950, but in subsequent decades almost half the wood was felled and it lost this status in 1979. More felling took place in the 1990’s in preparation for a proposed golf course, but this was vigorously and successfully opposed by a group of locals. The wood is now managed by the Woodland Trust.
Penn Street is situated on part of the former Wycombe Heath, and probably dates back to the thirteenth century when the Penn family established a manor house here, having moved from Penbury. The oldest house dates to the fifteenth century, while several others go back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with most of the village lying within a Conservation Area. The church is relatively recent, having been built in 1849.
Holmer Green was originally a hamlet in the parish of Little Missenden but is now a village in its own right. The ‘Holmer’ part of the name was first recorded in the 13th century as ‘Holeme’, while the ‘Green’ refers to the large and ancient green that was here from the 13th century onwards – it had been reduced to a mere 4 acres by 1854, however. The oldest houses here date to the 16th century, when the hamlet thrived on sheep farming. In the 19th century, the poet Christina Rossetti and her poet/ painter brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti visited their grandfather in Holmer Green – it is said that Christina drew poetic inspiration from the surrounding countryside. From about 1850 to 1950 the village was famed locally for its cherry orchards. The entire nature of the village was changed by a wave of building here in the 1960’s and 1970’s, and the population now totals 4000.
Little Kingshill lies in the parish of Little Missenden, though it is larger than its parent village. The ‘King’ in the name is thought to be King John.
Little Missenden lies in the Misbourne valley, about three miles west of Amersham. The name ‘Missenden’ comes from the Saxon for ‘valley where marsh plants grow’, and the village church dates back to the time of the Saxons. It contains some mediaeval wall paintings, and is well worth a visit. The village is quaint and attractive, and has been used as a setting for films and TV.