Pete's Walks - Hambleden, Fawley, Stonor (page 7 of 7)
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.
The path followed the drive downhill through the wood for about a quarter of a mile. On leaving the wood it continued downhill between rows of trees either side, then the drive turned left to reach Bacres Farm. Here the drive turned right, but I followed the path which continued ahead across a grassy field to reach the road through the Hambleden valley. I crossed over and went down Colstrope Lane. Shortly after crossing Hamble Brook (completely dry today) I took a path forking right.
The path through Barn Wood
The path through Barn Wood
The path continuing from Barn Wood towards Bacres Farm
View left over Bacres Farm and Colstrope, in the Hambleden valley
The path continuing from Bacres Farm
Colstrope Lane
The path crossed a corner of what I suppose is an overgrown water meadow, then continued across a large empty pasture. There was a clear path through the grass here, aiming for a broad gap in a hedge, but as I drew near there I headed over to a gate in the hedge on my left (this being the route of the public footpath as shown on the OS map). Through the gate I turned right along the hedgerow, soon going through another gate and continuing with a hedge now on my left (if I'd stayed on the clear path it would have joined this one anyway, somewhere along here). At the end of this field I arrived at the hamlet of Pheasant's Hill, where I crossed a track and continued along the path which, rather unusually, seemed to divide a number of gardens into two parts. On leaving Pheasant's Hill the path followed the right edge of a paddock, then continued along the left edge of an empty pasture as it approached Hambleden. In the next pasture the path continued beside the hedge before curving slightly right to a fence on the far side. I then turned left along a road, passing one end of Hambleden church on my left. The road turned left to reach the 'triangle' in the centre of the village, where I went straight on and took the short street back to the car park.
The path going right from Colstrope Lane
The path going right from Colstrope Lane
The path through the Hambleden valley, approaching Pheasant's Hill
The path through Pheasant's Hill
The man-eating hedge at Pheasant's Hill is still at it!
The path continuing from Pheasant's Hill
The path continuing to Hambleden
The path continuing to Hambleden
Street in Hambleden
Hambleden church
This was an absolutely wonderful walk - I know the end of February is a little early to call it, but this may well be the best walk I'll do in 2019! It would take something pretty extraordinary to beat it! Any walk would be close to its best in the weather conditions I enjoyed today, with blue skies throughout and remarkably warm temperatures for late February (several temperature records were broken by this warm spell). It really felt like the first day of Spring, with a few wildflowers and butterflies appearing. The route involved plenty of woodland walking that was absolutely delightful, and there were many fine views (my photos really don't do them justice). I was enjoying it so much that, as I've mentioned, I didn't mind that I walked two of my favourite paths in the 'wrong' direction.
I tend to use the 'meteorological' seasons, so this was my last walk this winter (December, January, February). Apart from the very first weekend in December, I have walked every weekend - even when I did a couple of shorter walks around the end of January, with hindsight I could actually have done a longer walk. So apart from that first weekend (to be honest I can't remember if it was the weather that stopped me walking then or something else), throughout the winter there has always been a Saturday and/or a Sunday when a "fair-weather" walker like me could go out walking for five or so hours. I've certainly managed to do more walks this winter than usual. Not only that, because it has been so relatively dry I've only used my gaiters two or three times, and I've only worn my warm and waterproof winter trousers a similar number of times. I've hardly had any muddy conditions to deal with at all - the worst by far was along Church Wood near Cookley Green a couple of weeks ago. But I can remember walks in other winters when almost every path and bridleway were that bad! I think this has been a truly remarkable winter for walking (sadly it's possibly due to climate change) and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course, I'm tempting fate saying this - we're now bound to have a very wet Spring and Summer!