Pete's Walks - Cadmore End, Horsleys Green, Moor Common (page 3 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.
After a while the footpath through East Wood reached a grassy ride in another small wood, where it went a few yards left then sharply right. A few hundred yards further on I finally came to a path junction (I had to look out for it, there was a white 'T-junction' marking on a tree on my right), where I turned right onto what was a new path for me. This soon reached the edge of the wood and continued slightly left across an empty paddock to a gate on the left just before the far left corner. It then continued across a small corner of another empty paddock to another gate, through which it ran along a track and then a drive to reach a road in Horsleys Green.
The path through East Wood
The path through East Wood
The path through East Wood
The path continuing from East Wood (after I'd gone right at a junction in the wood)
The path continuing into Horsleys Green
I studied my OS map here to decide which of two possible options I should take, and finally decided to turn left. Both options would involve the same proportion of new paths, but this way was slightly longer - I'd badly miscalculated how long this route would be and at this point I was under the impression I needed to bump it up a bit to get it nearer to 15 miles. I followed the road almost until it came to a junction with the A40, then took a bridleway on the right that ran through Thirds Wood. I soon kept left at an apparent fork, the bridleway staying almost parallel to the main road away to my left. This was still 'new territory' for me, but once I went straight on where a footpath crossed the bridleway I was back on a section of bridleway I'd walked a couple of times before. A few hundred yards further on the OS map shows the bridleway turning left to reach the A40, with a path on the right just before it reaches the road. In fact this area was rather overgrown and I simply followed the path straight on, though I did see the white arrows on a tree marking the junction just over to my left. The footpath now went half-right, still in Thirds wood. At the next path junction I went straight on (rather than left), again going somewhere I'd not been before. It was about here that the wood changed to Fillington Wood. The path dropped slightly downhill through a part of the wood that had been thinned out, then turned left along a small valley before curving right and reaching the edge of the wood.
The road through Horsleys Green, after I turned left
The start of the bridleway through Thirds Wood, after I turned right
The bridleway through Thirds Wood
The bridleway through Thirds Wood
The path through Thirds Wood
The path through Fillington Wood
The path through Fillington Wood
The path through Fillington Wood
I continued along the path as it dropped downhill through a field to reach a path crossroads in the valley bottom. Here I turned left along a grassy headland between fields, soon having a hedgerow on my right. On reaching a corner of Fillington Wood the path and hedgerow went right. Just before a big gap in the hedge, I turned right through a small gap, with another hedge on my left and went a few yards to reach the end of a tree belt. Just inside the tree belt I came to another path junction where I turned left, leaving the trees and then turning right along a farm track with a hedgerow on the left. I followed the track for 5-600 yards as it gradually curved right, to just past where there was a clump of trees on the other side of the hedge. I then went over a stile in the hedge and headed half-left (from the direction of the track) across a meadow, heading uphill at an angle to the slope. There was a reasonably clear path through the grass, and after a while I could see it was heading for a gap in the hedgerow ahead of me.
The path continuing from Fillington Wood
The bridleway after I turned left
The bridleway after I turned left
The bridleway after I turned left - I turned right along this side of a hedge to reach the tree belt, then turned left at a junction a few yards into the tree belt, before turning right along a track beside a hedge on my left
The path to Wheeler End Common
The path to Wheeler End Common
The path to Wheeler End Common
View back from the path to Wheeler End Common
The path to Wheeler End Common