ROUTE DESCRIPTION - Walk 17, Watlington Hill and Park Corner
OS Explorer Maps required: 171
Approximate distance: 14.5 miles
Start at car park on Watlington Hill (SU 710935).
ANTI-CLOCKWISE
Take the footpath that goes south-west from the road, starting next to the car park on Watlington Hill. It soon goes through a gate, where the footpath then follows the right fork. Follow this path all the way downhill to Howe Road. Turn right along the road, then after a few hundred yards turn left on to the route of both the Ridgeway and Swan’s Way. Initially, you can either walk on the tarmac farm drive or use the permissive path alongside the left-hand hedge. Continue south-west along the route of the Ridgeway, crossing a lane and shortly after reaching North Farm. Here the Ridgeway goes left, but this walk continues ahead (still on Swan’s Way) to pass a wood on the left and reach a small parking area near a corner of a lane. Turn left through the trees here and follow the path steeply uphill (leaving Swan’s Way, but joining the Chiltern Way). Continue on the path along the top of Swyncombe Downs for over half a mile. At the end of the path turn right, back onto the route of the Ridgeway. Follow this through a wood, then down and up through a valley to a lane junction. Take the lane ahead to reach Swyncombe church (SU 683902).
Go through the churchyard (passing left of the church). On leaving it at a gate, turn left onto a grass strip. The path leaves this at the right corner, then keeps left at a fork and crosses a drive to reach a kissing gate. Continue uphill (and very slightly right) through the parkland of Swyncombe House to a kissing gate on the far side, leading into a wood. Almost immediately turn right and follow the path uphill through the wood to a crossing track, where you turn right. Continue through the wood, soon crossing another drive. Immediately beyond this the track turns right, but the path continues ahead to reach a stile leading into the corner of a large hillside parkland pasture. Follow the path along the left edge of this pasture, next to the wood. When you eventually leave the field in a corner, bear left (back on the Ridgeway, briefly). Follow the path to Ewelme Park, and follow the Ridgeway as it turns left through the farm yard. Turn left along the bridleway along the drive (leaving the Ridgeway). Just past cottages on the left and paddocks on the right, turn right on a track into a wood, close to the paddocks (there is currently no footpath sign here, but there are waymarks further on). Continue past the end of the paddock on the right, and a little further on turn left. The path soon leaves the wood and follows a hedge on the right, before switching to the other side of the hedge. Continue along the field edge, and then pass the end of a narrow wood. Turn right along the far side of this wood. In the field corner go over a stile, and turn left on a path running through a tree belt. Follow this path for about half a mile to reach a road in Park Corner (SU 692886).
Carefully cross the road and go a few yards right and turn down a lane. Just after this turns to the left, take the bridleway (a good track) on the right (signposted ‘Bix Bottom 3’). Follow this for just over a mile. A few hundred yards after passing Westwood Manor Farm, you come to a track junction where two footpaths also converge. Continue on the same track, now bearing right, and follow it for about another mile, until just past the car park and visitor centre for the Warburg Nature Reserve. Take the footpath going left, which soon rises steeply uphill beside a fence on the left. At the end of the path, turn left for a short distance to reach the end of a lane in Maidensgrove. Turn right, then take the path going left (north), initially with cottages to the left. This is part of the Oxfordshire Way. The path runs a short distance with a boundary on the left, then continues across the field and through a wood to a lane. Continue on the path through the wood opposite, initially close to gardens on the left (the path soon forks left from the initial track). Follow the signs for the Oxfordshire Way (‘OW’ painted white on trees). The path descends steeply through the wood, then follows a right-hand hedge to the end of a lane. Follow the lane ahead, passing Pishill church on your left, to reach a road through Pishill (SU 727901).
Turn right, then take the footpath on the left where the road turns right. After about half a mile the path enters College Wood, and bears half-right and goes uphill. On leaving the wood at a stile, cross a pasture to another stile. Turn left along Hollandridge Lane (so leaving the Oxfordshire Way). Follow the track for about a mile. After passing a couple of houses on the left, take the bridleway going left, almost immediately forking right onto a footpath. This runs through Queen Wood to emerge onto a road in Christmas Common, next to the former church. Turn right along the road. Continue ahead when a road comes in sharply from the right, then take the turning on the left, which takes you back to the car park where you started.
Watlington Hill is a good site for seeing Red Kites, and has extensive views over the Oxfordshire Plain. On the steep slope overlooking the ancient market town of Watlington is the ‘white mark’, a triangular chalk carving 270 feet high and 36 feet wide. It was designed by the local squire Edward Horner in 1764, so that Watlington church appeared to have a spire when viewed from his home.
The Church of St Botolph, Swyncombe, dates back to the 11th century. It consists of a nave, chancel and semi-circular apse – the division between nave and chancel isn’t clear from the exterior, but inside there is a large chancel arch that was widened in the nineteenth century. There is a plain font, which is Norman or possibly even Anglo-Saxon. In the apse are faint remnants of wall paintings, including votive crosses thought to have been painted by knights before setting off for the crusades. A window in the chancel shows the coats of arms of the Chaucers and the Suffolks - Alice Chaucer, granddaughter of the poet, married the Earl of Suffolk, and owned both Swyncombe and the neighbouring estate of Ewelme.
The village of Pishill takes its name from the Latin for pea, pisum, because of the great many pea farms that once existed in the area. The village lies in the Stonor valley. It contains a 15th century pub and an 11th century church perched on a hill above the valley.