Pete's Walks - Wigginton and Drayton Wood (page 1 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.
I did this circular walk of about 6 miles on Sunday, 7th September 2017. It was a repeat of a walk I've done several times before. I had a number of things to do this weekend, and could only spare time for a short and fairly local walk. I've always enjoyed this route, and this was the first time I'd walked it in Autumn.
I parked in the car park by the playing field in Wigginton (grid reference SP938099). I started walking about 10.35am, turning right and following the road through the village for about a quarter of a mile. Just after a traffic-calming device on the edge of the village, I took a footpath on the right that crossed a fairly narrow and empty pasture. Through a metal kissing-gate, I took a path going half-left (another path went right here) through a field of maize. The path then continued through a small corner of another field, and then continued in the same direction across a very large meadow, aiming for the far corner. On entering Roundhill Wood, I turned right and followed a path just inside the western edge of the wood. After passing two more fields close by on my right I had the wood on both sides of me and after another few hundred yards I reached a lane.
The road through Wigginton
The path through the maize field
Approaching Roundhill Wood
The path through Roundhill Wood
The path through Roundhill Wood
The path through Roundhill Wood
Across the lane I continued through a wood named High Scrubs. On its far side, I crossed a bridleway and continued alongside a hedge on my left that had some horse jumps built into it. On reaching another lane (Shire Lane), I went a few yards left and took a path on the other side next to a property named 'Montana'. This path ran between fences for a while then ran just inside the edge of a wood, with paddocks just to my left. When I came to the end of the paddocks I went straight on at a path crossroads (NOTE: I don't think the paths on the ground here match those on the map - amongst other things, when I once tried to follow the path going right here it just petered out).
The path through High Scrubs
The path through High Scrubs
The path continuing from High Scrubs
The path from 'Montana' into Drayton Wood
When I reached another path junction just a short distance further on, by a kissing-gate or stile on the edge of the wood, I took a path that continued on just inside the edge of the wood (the map shows the path being a little further right, but I have never found this path and the one I was on has a footpath waymark at its far end). The path continued just inside the edge of this part of Drayton Wood for about half a mile, and at its end I turned left onto a bridleway, now with the wood to my right and fields over the hedge on my left. After a hundred yards or so I took a footpath on the right that led into this part of Drayton Wood.
Near the start of the path along the southwestern edge of Drayton Wood
The path along the southwestern edge of Drayton Wood
The path along the southwestern edge of Drayton Wood
The bridleway along the edge of Drayton Wood (it becomes Little Twye Road)