Pete's Walks- West Wycombe, Green End, Bradenham, Downley (page 1 of 4)
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.
PLEASE NOTE: The very large car park in West Wycombe used to be free. When I came here on 15th January 2022 I found it is now a pay and display car park, only free if you stay less than one hour and costing £4 if you stay more than 2 hours. I think you have to pay by credit card, I don't think the machine takes cash.
I did this circular walk of about 7.6 miles on Sunday, 1st March 2020 - it was a repeat of a walk I did in May 2015.
I parked in the large village car park in West Wycombe, and started walking about 11.45am. I turned right from the car park entrance, towards West Wycombe, then turned right again to immediately leave the village and head southwest-wards along the A40. After three or four hundred yards, almost opposite the start of a lane going left to Towerage, I took a footpath forking half-right. This climbed steadily uphill through two large arable fields, and I enjoyed the views all around me. Beyond the second field, the path continued along a track through an area of rough grass, and then a waymark on a post indicated where the footpath entered Great Cockshoots Wood.
The road from the car park into West Wycombe
The A40 going southwest from West Wycombe
Looking right from the A40 to a section of the River Wye
The footpath to Great Cockshoots Wood
The footpath to Great Cockshoots Wood
The footpath to Great Cockshoots Wood
The path continued roughly westwards through the wood. On the far side of the wood I turned right along a bridleway, but after just a few yards turned left at a junction to follow a path heading northwest towards Green End Farm. Initially there were hedges either side, but then the path continued by a fence on the left, passing an isolated tree. At a path junction where this fence met a crossing fence, I continued ahead, tractor tracks now indicating the path as it crossed a huge pasture. As I neared Green End Farm, the path kept to the right of a hedge. When this met a fence, I went over a stile in the hedge and turned right to continue along the other side of the hedge. Just past a pond, the path continued through a metal pedestrian gate. The path now ran between a hedge on my left and a fence on my right. The path then followed the drive from the farm to reach the hamlet of Green End (part of the scattered parish of Radnage, I think).
The path as it enters Great Cockshoots Wood
Great Cockshoots Wood
Near the start of the footpath to Green End Farm, after I turned right and then left after leaving the wood
The footpath to Green End Farm
The footpath to Green End Farm
The footpath to Green End Farm (the building on the right)
The footpath to Green End Farm (shortly before the path switches to the other side of the hedgerow
I turned right along Hatch Lane, but after a few yards took the footpath that runs parallel to it on the right. This ran between the hedge next to the lane on my left and a wire fence next to a large pasture. It dropped down hill, then turned right and entered part of Chawley Wood (there is obviously some confusion over Chawley and Chorley hereabouts - apart from the wood there are two farms with Chawley in the name, but a farm and a road spelled Chorley). At a path junction I ignored the short path going left to rejoin Hatch Lane, and continued straight on through the wood. I was now on the northern edge of the wood, with occasional views on my left across fields to the steep slope on the other side of the valley.
The footpath going past Green End Farm (continues through the small metal gate behind the pond)
The drive from Green End Farm
The footpath next to Hatch Lane
The footpath next to Hatch Lane
The footpath continuing through Chawley Wood
The footpath through Chawley Wood