Pete's Walks - Christmas Common, Ibstone, Cookley Green (page 1 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.

Google map of the walkDownload GPX file of the walk

I did this circular walk of about 13.9 miles on Friday, 21st June 2019. It was a repeat of a walk I did in February 2018, but this time I did it clockwise. About a fifth of the route was on paths I'd not walked in this direction before.

I parked in Christmas Common, at the start of the road that goes to Northend and Stonor - there is parking on the right for maybe half a dozen cars here (grid reference SU 714933). I started walking about 9:50am, going a few yards further along the road to where it turned left, where I went straight on down Hollandridge Lane. After about a quarter of a mile footpaths went off on both sides of the lane, and I went left here, starting the first section of the route that was new to me in this direction. The path ran a short way between wooden fences to reach a wood called Prior's Grove. It continued straight on through the wood, and on the other side went gradually left as it rose gently uphill through a meadow of long grass to reach a gate near the far left corner. The path then crossed a small corner of another meadow to reach a minor road (the one I'd parked along). A path continued on the other side, running between a hedge on my left and a metal fence, beyond which was Cooper's Wood. After a few hundred yards the path turned left, still between a hedge and a fence. Beyond the grassy field that was now to my right, the path continued through Shotridge Wood.

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Hollandridge Lane, Christmas Common

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The path through Prior's Grove

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The path through Prior's Grove

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The path continuing through the first meadow after Prior's Grove

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The path beside Cooper's Wood

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The same path after it turns left towards Shotridge Wood

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Approaching Shotridge Wood

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Shotridge Wood

On reaching a path junction (white arrows on a tree) I turned sharply right, now joining a familiar path. I now had a long and gentle descent through Shotridge Wood, heading roughly eastwards towards the Wormsley Valley. At the bottom of the slope after about three-quarters of a mile, and now in Blackmoor Wood, the path continued through a narrow bit of woodland for almost half a mile until, shortly after a path came in from the right, I reached one of the surfaced drives on the Wormsley Estate.

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Shotridge Wood after I turned sharply right (joining the direct route from Christmas Common to the Wormsley Valley)

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The path descending through Shotridge Wood

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The path now in Blackmoor Wood

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Blackmoor Wood

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Blackmoor Wood

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Blackmoor Wood

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Approaching where the path very briefly joins one of the Wormsley Estate drives

A few yards to the right, the path turned left from the drive and crossed a meadow. After crossing another of the Wormsley estate drives, the path continued across a very large sheep pasture in the bottom of the Wormsley Valley - over to the right I could see a field of Poppies, which I realised I'd walk through when I re-crossed the Wormsley Valley in a short while. Beyond this pasture I crossed a bridleway, then the path gradually climbed uphill following a fence on my left (that separated two more large sheep pastures) until it reached a stile on the edge of Commonhill Wood.

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The path continuing across a meadow, having turned left from the Wormsley Estate drive

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Zoomed-in shot of a Poppy field in the Wormsley Valley - I would walk through it later on

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The path continuing across the Wormsley Valley after crossing another Wormsley Estate drive

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The path continuing across the Wormsley Valley, heading up to Commonhill Wood

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View over the Wormsley Valley from where the path enters Commonhill Wood