Pete's Walks - Christmas Common, Cookley Green, Ibstone (page 3 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 turned right along the lane, soon passing the Five Horseshoes pub on my right. Immediately after the last house on the left I turned left to follow a path across part of the enormous grassy expanse of Maidensgrove Common, heading for a gap between a corner of the common and some bushes. On reaching this gap the path turned left, staying close to the edge of the common for a while before curving right to cut a corner before returning to the edge of the common. At some point the common becomes Russell's Water Common, but I don't know exactly where. The path crossed a drive (heading to a farm I could see on the other side of the common), and continued close to the edge of the common on my left. Eventually I came to the northwest corner of the common, where the path entered a wood and gradually dropped downhill to reach a road at Pishill Bottom.
The lane at Maidensgrove Common, just past the Five Horseshoes pub
The path on Maidensgrove Common
The path on Maidensgrove Common
View from Maidensgrove Common/p>
The path on Maidensgrove Common
The path continuing on Russell's Water Common
The path continuing on Russell's Water Common
The path dropping down through the wood to reach the road at Pishill Bottom
On the other side of the road a permissive path climbed quite steeply up into Shambridge Wood. Somehow I almost missed the T-junction where it met a bridleway (part of the Chiltern Way), going on a few yards before I realised my mistake. I turned right and followed the bridleway through more of Shambridge Wood. After a while it dropped into a valley (so small it's more of a dip) and it was about here that the wood changes to Greenfield Wood. The bridleway now went up the other side of the tiny valley, levelled out for a while then dropped downhill into a larger valley where it crossed a track (another bridleway goes left here). The bridleway continued up the opposite slope - it was around where it turned right and levelled out that the wood changed to College Wood. The bridleway was now fairly flat for a few hundred yards before dropping down into a third valley.
The permissive path on the other side of Pishill Bottom
The bridleway through Shambridge Wood, from where the permissive path joined it
Shambridge Wood
Shambridge Wood
The bridleway continuing through Greenfield Wood
Greenfield Wood
The bridleway continuing through College Wood
College Wood
College Wood