Pete's Walks- Chenies, Chipperfield Common, Ley Hill (page 1 of 6)
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 13.3 miles on Friday, 28th July 2017. It was a repeat of a walk I did in September 2011 - I've also walked the route in the opposite (clockwise) direction a couple of times, most recently in October 2016.
I couldn't park in the centre of Chenies where I usually do, close to the old pump on the green (Grid Reference TQ 016984), because it was blocked off while some work was being carried out there. Instead I parked a little further along the road from Chesham, somewhere between the two pubs, and started walking about 9:55am. From the village green I took the road to Chesham, but left it as soon as it left the village by taking a track called Holloway Lane on the right. After a few hundred yards, just after the 'lane' turned left, I took a path that forked half-right and dropped downhill across a grassy field. In the valley bottom I rejoined Holloway Lane (which had turned right), and followed it to the right for about a quarter of a mile. When it turned left I went straight on along a footpath through Mount Wood for about half a mile, until I emerged from the other end of the wood at Sarratt Bottom.
The start of Holloway Lane, on the edge of Chenies
Holloway Lane
The path that cuts a corner off Holloway Lane, dropping down into the Chess Valley
Holloway Lane again
The path through Mount Wood
The path through Mount Wood
The path through Mount Wood
The path continuing ahead at Sarratt Bottom
I continued straight ahead, following the path past the overgrown area at Sarratt Bottom and then on through a long thin pasture (inhabited by a handful of cattle) to reach North Lane. Here I turned left and soon crossed the river Chess at Sarrattmill Bridge. After another 100 yards or so I turned left along a footpath that followed a surfaced drive. As I reached a cottage on the right, I turned right and followed a path that went steeply up a grassy hillside, alongside a fence on my left. At the top of the slope I crossed a drive and continued straight on down a short alley to reach the end of a lane at Church End, a hamlet within the parish of Sarratt.
The path continuing to North Lane and Sarrattmill Bridge
The footpath going back northwest from near Sarrattmill Bridge
The path up to Church End, Sarratt, from the Chess Valley
Looking back over the Chess Valley from the path up to Church End, Sarratt
I walked through the churchyard, passing left of the church - a film or TV crew were busy at work here. I then crossed a large empty pasture, where after a while there was a nice view towards the Chess Valley over to my left. The path eventually followed a row of trees on my right to reach a gate, where I went a few yards left along a drive before taking a path on the other side. This ran between fences with a wood on my left, then followed a tall hedgeline on my right through some empty and rather overgrown paddocks to reach Sarratt.
Sarratt Church
The path from Sarratt Church
View across the Chess Valley
The path to Sarratt, after crossing the drive
Approaching Sarratt