Pete's Walks - Coombe Hill and the Hampdens (part 2)
The path continued uphill through Lady Hampden's Wood, passing some sort of redwood tree on the right. It then passed in front of Hampden House, the home of John Hampden the leading Parliamentarian in the years leading up to the Civil War. There were only two or three more buildings here including the church. I left the route of the Chiltern Way by turning left, and took a footpath on the right that went through the churchyard. This continued beside a fence through a large sheep pasture, passing through an area enclosed by fences around a pond. On the far side of the pasture I saw an obvious mound that I'd not noticed before - the map just said 'mound', indicating it was historic but of unknown purpose. There seemed to be the remnants of a moat around it.
Looking back along the path through Lady Hampden's Wood
Looking back at the church in Great Hampden
The mound, between Great Hampden and Hampden Common
The path continued across an arable field and then beside another field to reach some houses in Hampden Common. I followed a drive left, then crossed a road, and a few yards further on turned right along the edge of a cricket pitch. On the far side, I continued along another woodland path that soon brought me to another road by a crossroads.
The cricket pitch at Hampden Common
I then took a path on the diagonally opposite corner of the crossroads, and followed a fence( on my left) through Monkton Wood. On the far side, I turned right following a pleasant path running just inside the edge of the wood.
Path along the western edge of Monkton Wood
I eventually reached a bridleway by a cottage, where I went a few yards left to reach a lane. Here I turned right - at some point along the lane I saw a Muntjac deer cross in front of me, the second time that I've seen one along here. The lane brought me to the Pink and Lily pub in the hamlet of Parslow's Hillock. The pub was a haunt of the poet Rupert Brooke in the years immediately before World War One.
The lane leading to Parslow's Hillock
The Pimk and Lily pub, in Parslow's Hillock
I tyrned right, then left along a drive or track (where the road turned right). A bridleway soon went right, through a gate, and back into the woods again. I was now heading north through Hillock Wood, on the very edge of the Chiltern escarpment with the ground dropping away steeply to my left. There was another seat carved from a tree trunk along here, where there was a gap in the trees giving a view out over the Vale of Aylesbury. I had my first glimpse of a Red Kite today, but was too slow to capture it on my camera.
Start of the path from Parslow's Hillock
View out to the Vale of Aylesbury from the path from Parslow's Hillock
The bridleway eventually turned right and led to a road, where I turned left, walking on a good wide verge. I turned right onto a path that started on a driveway and then entered another wood. The path kept close to the edge of the wood, with a field on my left. Near the field corner I reached a bridleway, where I turned left along the edge of the same field.
Bridleway leading towards Whiteleaf Hill
At the next field corner I turned right, on another path just inside a wood with another field to my left. Again when I reached the field corner I turned left on a bridleway, this one running just inside the wood still with the field to my left. I heard and then saw a group of Long-tailed Tits along here.
Bridleway approaching Whiteleaf Hill
The bridleway ended at a surface track, part of the Ridgeway national trail, where I turned right to reach the top of Whiteleaf Hill in a couple of hundred yards or so. I sat on the long bench by the information boards and ate my lunch (it was now about 1.20pm), admiring the view over the Vale of Aylesbury. Again, the views were not at their best as it was very hazy and there was still mist or fog over the Vale.
The Neolithic barrow on top of Whiteleaf Hill
Monks Risborough and the Vale of Aylesbury from Whiteleaf Hill