Pete's Walks - Pitstone Hill and Wigginton (page 3 of 4)
The path continued through Lower Wood. I'd been following the route of the Chiltern Way since I'd left Aldbury, but that turned off to my left soon after I entered the wood. Beyond Lower Wood the path followed a hedgerow on my right through a mown hay meadow, then continued gently uphill through three attractive meadows that had yet to be mown and were dotted with wildflowers.
Lower Wood
The path continuing from Lower Wood to Wigginton
The meadows just before I reached Wigginton
On arriving at a road in the village of Wigginton, I went a few yards left, then almost doubled-back on myself as I entered some playing fields on the right and turned very sharply right along a paved footpath. I crossed a street and continued down another street opposite. At its end I entered another playing field or park, where I took advantage of one of the benches to eat a slightly early lunch. I left the park at the diagonally opposite corner to where I entered it, following a road ahead of me (not the side street going left). Beyond the last house on my right, a footpath went right with good views downhill to my left over the Vale of Aylesbury. I could also see ahead to Pitstone Hill, though from this angle it seemed to merge with Ivinghoe Beacon. The path initially followed a garden hedge on the right, but soon ran between a small wood and paddocks on the right. It then followed the left edge of a field to reach a narrow lane called The Twist.
Park in Wigginton, where I stopped for lunch
Start of the path back from Wigginton, again part of the Ridgeway
View from Wigginton towards Pitstone Hill (which appears to merge into Ivinghoe Beacon)
The Ridgeway between Wigginton and The Twist
The Ridgeway between Wigginton and The Twist
View out over the Vale of Aylesbury, just before The Twist
A few yards to the right, a path started on the opposite side of The Twist, running between a mature hedgerow and a fence on my right. After a while I passed through a couple of gates which were new since I last came this way, and then soon came to the impressive footbridge carrying the Ridgeway over the A41 dual carriageway (I'd be following part of the Ridgeway from Wigginton back to Pitstone Hill). The path only went a little further after the bridge to reach the old A41 (which I'd crossed earlier at Cow Roast). A short distance to the right a path started on the other side, at first running between a tall hedgerow and a fence on my right. Further on I had the parkland of Pendley Manor (now a hotel) behind the wooden fences on either side of me.
The The Ridgeway continuing from The Twist (Aldbury is in the middle of the shot, at the foot of the wooded slopes of Ashridge)
These new double gates on the way to the A41 bridge were new since I was last here
The Ridgeway path crossing the bridge over the A41, with Aldbury Nowers and Pitstone Hill in the distance
The A41 from the bridge
The path just beyond the A41
The path from the old A41 to Tring Station
The path from the old A41 to Tring Station