Pete's Walks- Chenies and Chesham (page 3 of 3)
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.
From Bricky Pond I continued straight on, following paths through tress and staying parallel to North Road over to my right. I soon reached a cricket pitch (a game was in progress, I saw a couple of boundaries being hit), where I followed the right edge until I reached a short track on the right, which I followed to return to North Road. On the other side I went down a drive and then went half-left along a bridleway, just inside the edge of a wood. On reaching a lane I turned right for a short distance, and then just past Great Bois Wood House on my left, took a bridleway that forked slightly right. The bridleway headed gently downhill through Bois Wood - this had clearly been a surfaced lane at some point as I kept coming across the odd remains of a road surface. Near the bottom of the slope the bridleway passed a cemetery on the left, then went under a railway bridge to reach a road (Bois Moor Road) on the edge of Chesham.
The path from the cricket ground, crossing North Road
The bridleway on the other side of North Road
The lane that goes past Great Bois Wood House
The bridleway from Chesham Bois down to Chesham
The bridleway from Chesham Bois down to Chesham
The bridleway from Chesham Bois down to Chesham
I went right for about a hundred yards along the road, then took a footpath on the left just after a small playing area. The path went down a short alley, crossed Cresswell Road and continued straight on between two fishing lakes. On reaching a waterfall or weir and the remains of old mill workings, I turned left with a mill stream close by on my right. I crossed over the tiny river Chess at one point, where I admired the crystal clear water, and then the path emerged onto a playing field. I continued straight on, following the edge of the playing field as it turned left, then I went through a gap on my right, crossed a road and continued down Moor Lane. After passing tennis courts and the entrance to a swimming pool on the left, I took a path on the right. This soon came to a footbridge, where I turned left with a dry section of the river (or mill stream) on my right. The path brought me back to Moor Lane after a while and under a bridge.
The short path in Chesham between Bois Moor Lane and Cresswell Road
The alley starting from the other side of Cresswell road
Weir on the mill stream in Chesham (I turned left here, with the mill stream on my right)
The path beside the mill stream
The path beside the mill stream
The sports field at Chesham
The path along a dry section of the river Chess
At the end of Moor Lane, I carefully crossed a main road just to the right of a roundabout, and then went through a gap in the wall to follow a path to the right of another dry section of the river. I continued straight on through Meades Water Gardens, and then slightly left down Duck Alley (again with a dry section of the river on my left) to reach Germain Street. I turned right and at the end of the street went on a few yards to a pedestrian crossing. On the other side, I reached Chesham's Market square and the Clock Tower (built in 1992) that marks the start and end of the Chiltern Heritage Trail.
Near the start of the path to Meades Water Gardens and Duck Alley
Meades Water Gardens
The clock tower in Chesham, the start and finish of the Chiltern Heritage Trail
This was a straightforward walk on a very pleasant September afternoon. The Chess Valley around Chenies and Latimer was as delightful as ever, and the section from Blackwell through Chesham Bois and down to Chesham was almost 'new' to me, as I'd only walked it once before and that was about eleven years ago.