Pete's Walks- Cowleaze Wood, Christmas Common, Studdridge Farm (page 3 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 crossed the road and went down a footpath that started along a track or drive. Beyond a gate it continued alongside a tall hedgerow on my right. On reaching Hartmoor Wood I came to a path junction, where I took the path forking half-left. This took me steadily downhill through the wood. In the valley bottom I came to a gate and a junction with another path, where I turned right (rejoining the Chiltern Way route). This path led uphill with another part of Hartmoor Wood on my left. At the end of the field of stubble on my right, the path went through a narrow bit of the wood, then continued along the left edge of another field.
The path from Ibstone, heading to Hartmoor Wood
The path through Hartmoor Wood (after I forked left)
The path through Hartmoor Wood
The path continuing from Hartmoor Wood, heading towards Studdridge Farm
The path continuing to Studdridge Farm
The path continuing to Studdridge farm
When I came to a gate on the left I went through it - this permissive path was just an alternative route that avoided going through Studdridge Farm, but it now looks as if the footpath and the Chiltern Way may have been officially diverted this way. In any case, the clear path ran through a couple of paddocks, and then turned right to reach a gate in the corner of the next field (I would be walking along the far end of this field in a few minutes). I then went through a pedestrian gate and crossed the drive to Studdridge Farm (on my right). I then took a path that went diagonally across a ploughed field to an 'island' of trees in its centre (they actually surround a pond or reservoir), where I walked round the far side of the trees, then continued diagonally across the field towards a gate in the opposite corner. I did not go through the gate, but turned sharply left to follow a track along the edge of the field I'd just crossed. I went over the drive to Studdridge Farm again, then continued on a path along the right end of that field I'd been in briefly a few minutes before, which brought me to Commonhill Wood (I think this is the same Commonhill Wood that I'd been in earlier, on the other side of Ibstone).
The permissive path that avoids going through Studdridge Farm
The footpath from Studdridge Farm to Coopers Court Farm
The footpath from Studdridge Farm to Coopers Court Farm
After I turned sharply left from the footpath from Studdridge Farm to Coopers Court Farm
The path after I re-crossed the drive to Studdridge Farm, heading to Commonhill Wood
The path led gently downhill through the wood, soon reaching a valley bottom where the path took a right fork and started up the other side of this slight valley. It was soon running quite close to fields or paddocks on my right. After a while it turned right, and soon reached the road from Stokenchurch to Ibstone (to my left). I went right for maybe a hundred yards, then turned left down a bridleway.
The path through Commonhill Wood
The path through Commonhill Wood
The path through Commonhill Wood (where it forks right in the valley bottom)
The path through Commonhill Wood
The path through Commonhill Wood