Pete's Walks - Stoke Row and Exlade Street (page 4 of 4)
I came back out of the churchyard and continued along the footpath that now went off to my right. Here there was a tall hedge (another boundary of Checkendon Court) on my left, with small pastures beyond the metal fence on my right. Further on the path turned right, now with a wood on my right and a field just to the left.
The path going northwest from Checkendon church
The path going northwest from Checkendon church
The path going northwest from Checkendon church
Across a lane, a path continued through a ploughed field to reach a wood, named The Covert on the OS Map. The path continued through the wood, gradually descending to reach a bridleway. Here I turned right, and followed the bridleway to the edge of the wood. I continued past a few cottages to a lane, and took a track on the far side by some farm buildings. Two paths went off into a wood (Scot's Common) here, and I took the leftmost one. It proved to be one of the muddiest of the whole walk, and I was pleased to get through to the other side of the wood. Here I passed a cottage on my right to reach a minor road.
The path continuing across a lane towards The Covert
The path going northwest through The Covert
The path going northwest through The Covert
The bridleway going east through The Covert
The muddy path through Scot's Common
The muddy path through Scot's Common
Across the road I crossed a stile into a large L-shaped pasture. I followed the boundary on my left until it turned left, when I continued ahead across the pasture to a gate. There were a few cows off to my left here. I went a few yards left along the road, then turned right onto another path. This soon crossed the drive to a big house to my right, then went over a stile and followed the right edge of a large empty pasture. Beyond this, the path soon turned left in a narrow belt of trees, After a short distance It turned right between the wooden fences of some paddocks or meadows. I crossed a stile on the left and went diagonally across the empty paddock to another stile. This led into a lush meadow of wildflowers, with a couple of horses behind an electric fence on the left. In the corner I went over another stile, and turned left along a track that led back into Stoke Row by the village church, from where it was just a few yards to my parked car.
The path through the L-shaped pasture
The path continuing southeast after the road crossing
The path in the belt of trees
The paddock, approaching Stoke Row
The meadow, approaching Stoke Row
Stoke Row church
Somehow I didn't enjoy this walk as much as I'd expected to - I'd walked an extended version of it last year and really liked it. I think the problem was that I was expecting to finally have a really nice summer's day for walking (after months of ridiculously cool, wet and grey weather), but after a promising start the sky clouded over by afternoon. I have to confess that the ongoing indifferent weather has really been getting me down. Also, the walk is quite short compared to most that I do and it had seemed a long way to drive (an hour and a quarter each way) for such a short walk. I'd also forgotten how flat the route is, with no hills of any significance at all.
Having said that, there was nothing unpleasant about the route. The long bridleway that made up most of the first half of the route was easy to follow and pleasantly varied, it's a section I've always enjoyed walking. Perhaps the problem was that there was too much walking in woods - not normally something I'd consider to be a problem, but with the dreadfully muddy state of the paths in the woods (hard to believe it's late July!) perhaps that's what detracted from the pleasure I usually get from this route.