Pete's Walks- Bledlow Ridge and Lacey Green (page 4 of 5)
I went a few yards left and then went down Church Lane on the opposite side of the road. I took the second footpath on the right, initially down a drive but soon crossing a pasture with another four bullocks in it (who followed me curiously). The path then descended through an arable field to reach the drive to Promised Land Farm (great name!), a short distance to my left. Across the drive the path went through some bushes to join a farm track, where the path went left and up the opposite side of the valley. The track ended at a gate, where I continued beside the left-edge of an empty pasture. I crossed a metal stile, and stopped for lunch as it was now just after 1pm.
Church Lane, Lacey Green
Small pasture, near Church Lane
The path descending the valley near Promised Land Farm
The track up the other side of the valley
Lunch over, I turned left at a path junction (after admiring the views, back across the Saunderton Valley to Lodge Hill and further right to the Oxfordshire Plain). The path now largely followed a hedgerow southwards, passing through a couple of pastures and going through the ends of a couple of tree belts. Eventually the hedge ended and the path turned left to reach Small Dean Lane
The path to Smalldean Lane, from where I turned left onto it (immediately after my lunch stop)
From the same point, looking northwest to the Oxfordshire Plain
The path going south to Smalldean Lane
The path going south to Smalldean Lane
Approaching Smalldean Lane and Smalldean Farm - the route continues from the farm along the broken hedge (right of the bush in the centre of the shot) and then along the tall hedge going right to reach the edge of Park Wood.
I went a few yards left along the lane, then turned right through the outbuildings of Smalldean Farm. A track led on, soon following a fence and intermittent hedge-line on my left. The path then turned right beside a tall hedge, and then I followed the edge of Park Wood for some distance. Just round a corner of the wood, a path went left, rising steeply beside the same wood. At the top of the slope I resisted the urge to collapse on the convenient bench, and followed the path as it went right, still following the edge of Park Wood. The path then dropped slightly downhill beyond the end of the wood, and continued pleasantly and easily to reach the village of Bradenham. Here I turned right, and followed a road through the village to return to the A4010 again.
The track from Smalldean Farm
The path climbing uphill beside Park Wood
The path beside Park Wood, looking ahead along the valley past Bradenham towards West Wycombe
The footpath heading towards Bradenham
Bradenham is very attractive, set in a broad Chiltern valley with the church and manor house at the eastern end of the large sloping green presiding over the rest of the village, with a backdrop of steep wooded slopes. The village dates back to Saxon times, and appears in the Domesday Book. The earliest part of the church is the nave which dates to about 1100, much of the rest dating to the 1300’s. The north chapel was added in 1542 and the new chancel in 1863. The mediaeval tower contains two of the oldest bells in England, cast about 1300 (they were possibly not originally here, but bought from another church). William. 2nd Lord Windsor, built the original manor house here, and his son and heir Edward entertained Elizabeth I when she stayed overnight at Bradenham in 1566 on her return from visiting Oxford University (having stayed at Great Hampden the previous night). During part of the nineteenth century ownership of the estate was in dispute, and in this time it was leased to tenants, one of whom was Isaac Disraeli the father of Benjamin Disraeli (who would later live at nearby Hughenden Manor). The estate is now owned by the National Trust, but the manor house is rented out and is not open to the public.
Bradenham