Pete's Walks - Pitstone Hill and Wigginton (page 2 of 5)
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.
After a few hundred yards the bridleway merged with another one, coming in sharply from my left (it was coming from near the Bridgewater Monument). I went right here, then after a hundred yards or so forked right at another bridleway junction. The bridleway dropped steadily downhill through more of the Ashridge woodland and eventually brought me to a road in Aldbury, where I turned right to quickly reach the pond at the village centre. Here I went left along another street, then after maybe a couple of hundred yards turned left onto a footpath (which started immediately before a house that was gable-end on to the street). The path took me through the village allotments, on far side of which I went through a tall gate and turned right along a path that soon brought me to another residential street. Here I turned left, uphill, but where the street turned left I took a path going half-right. This left Aldbury and rose back uphill through the woods again.
The bridleway to Aldbury (I forked right just before where the people are in this photo)
The bridleway descending to Aldbury
The bridleway descending to Aldbury
Aldbury (the stocks that are usually here had been temporarily removed for repairs)
The path through the allotments at Aldbury
The path up to Tom's Hill
The path up to Tom's Hill
The path ended by a road junction where a lane joined a minor road at a hairpin bend. I followed the lane (actually the OS map shows it is a byway), still in the Ashridge woods, for a short distance to reach the hamlet of Tom's Hill. I continued straight through the hamlet, the byway continuing through a gate and along a track a short way before descending through a wood. On the far side of the wood I went through a tall gate, and turned left onto a footpath which quickly reached the corner of an empty pasture.
The lane into Tom's Hill
The path through Tom's Hill
The path from Tom's Hill
The path from Tom's Hill
Zoomed-in shot of the footbridge carrying the Ridgeway across the A41 (I'd cross it later on)
The footpath continued across a large meadow, gradually moving away from the left-hand hedge until it reached a gate in the right-hand hedge. It went left after the gate, following a hedge and then a fence to the next field corner. It then crossed the next field diagonally, half-right - this field is normally empty, but today there were about 35 Alpacas here! I've occasionally walked through fields with a few of these charming animals in them, and I've certainly seen fields with this many or more Alpacas in them, but I don't think I've ever before walked through a field with so many in it.
The footpath to Norcott Court Farm
The footpath to Norcott Court Farm
The footpath to Norcott Court Farm
Another view of the footbridge carrying the Ridgeway across the A41