Pete's Walks- Maidensgrove Common and College Wood (page 1 of 4)
If you are considering walking this route yourself, please see my disclaimer. You may also like to see these notes about the maps and GPX files.
I did this circular walk of about 8.5 miles on Tuesday, 7th June 2016. It was a repeat of a walk I did last June (2015) with a couple of slight variations, and my idea was to combine a walk with a look for orchids at the Warburg nature reserve (external link, opens in new tab/window).
I parked alongside the lane that crosses Maidensgrove Common (Grid Reference SU 718887) and started walking about 10.20am, following the lane eastwards towards Maidensgrove. Soon after the grassy common on my left came to an end, I turned left onto a footpath that ran along a private drive, almost immediately passing a pond on my left. At the end of the drive, the footpath continued into a wood. The OS map shows it going straight across part of the Oxfordshire Way here, but in fact it's a staggered junction - I had to turn left for about a hundred yards and then turn right, to continue heading northeast-wards through Pishillbury Wood. After half a mile or more through the wood, gradually descending, I reached a minor road where I turned right to enter Stonor.
Maidensgrove Common
Pond beside the drive at Maidensgrove
The path through Pishillbury Wood
The path through Pishillbury Wood
Looking left from the path through Pishillbury Wood
The path through Pishillbury Wood
The road into Stonor
Almost as soon as I entered Stonor I turned left at a road junction and followed a minor road north out of the village. I had part of Stonor Park on my right, and I could soon see some of the Fallow deer that inhabit it. I passed farm buildings on my left as I left the village, and then I spotted a couple of Red Kites sitting on a fence away to my left. After another two or three hundred yards I turned left onto a bridleway that headed north towards Turville Park Farm. At first it was a good farm track running between cattle pastures and corn fields. After passing a Dutch barn on the left, just before a footpath crossed the bridleway, I continued beside a hedgerow on my left for a few hundred yards before the bridleway switched to the other side of the hedgerow. At the end of a very long corn field, the bridleway continued between a wooden fence on the left and a row of trees to reach Turville Park Farm.
The minor road heading out of Stonor
Start of the bridleway going north to Turville Park Farm
the bridleway going north to Turville Park Farm
The bridleway going north to Turville Park Farm (just before a path crosses it)
The bridleway going north to Turville Park Farm
The bridleway approaching Turville Park Farm