Pete's Walks - Coombe Hill and the Hampden Monument (page 2 of 3)
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.
When I reached a triangle of grass on the right, I turned right along a track. After maybe a hundred yards I took a path on the left, which would take me down into the valley of Hampden Bottom. This was soon running between a wood and line of trees to my right. It then continued gently downhill beside a hedge on the left, before switching to the other side of the hedge in a field corner - I spotted an Orange-tip butterfly along here. The path then passed a wood on the left to reach a road in Hampden Bottom.
The track after I turned right in Little Hampden
The start of the footpath from Little Hampden to Hampden Bottom, after I turned right from the track
The footpath from Little Hampden to Hampden Bottom
The footpath from Little Hampden to Hampden Bottom
The footpath from Little Hampden to Hampden Bottom
The footpath from Little Hampden to Hampden Bottom
I turned left along the road, until a wood started on the right where I took a footpath through the wood. On leaving the wood the path crossed The Glade, a wide 'ride' with Hampden House visible a long way to the right. The path then entered Pepperboxes Wood. I soon came to a path crossroads, where I turned right (this was a new path for me). The path ran just inside an edge of the wood, soon curving left and uphill. The path then crossed a corn field to reach a hedge surrounding the Hampden Monument - this commemorates John Hampden, a leading Parliamentarian at the start of the English Civil War, who lived at nearby Hampden House.
The road through Hampden Bottom
The path through the wood after I turned right in Hampden Bottom
The path continuing across The Glade
The path in Pepperboxes Wood after I turned right
The path in Pepperboxes Wood
The path continuing from Pepperboxes Wood to the Hampden Monument
The Hampden Monument
I thought I'd then have to go left along a lane, but in fact a permissive path ran from the monument to the left of a hedgerow beside the lane. It ended where it met another footpath, where I turned right and crossed the lane. A path on the other side went through the garden of Honor End Farm, continuing between fences a short way and then along the edge of fields with a hedgerow on my right - there were good views over Hampden Bottom when there were gaps in the hedge. The path then ran through a wood called Oaken Grove, to reach a road on the far side. I turned left along the road only for it to immediately turn right. I then went straight on at a crossroads.
View looking back from the Hampden Monument
The permissive path from the Hampden Monument, parallel to the lane
The path from Honor End Farm, heading to Oaken Grove
View right, over Hampden Bottom, from the path from Honor End Farm
The short road walk after Oaken Grove
When the road then turned right, I went straight on for a few yards down the drive towards Great Hampden church and Hampden House. I then took a footpath on the right, which ran as broad mown strip through a couple of meadows sloping back down into Hampden Bottom. I crossed a road, the path now following a hedge on my right. Across another road the path climbed slowly back up the other side of the valley, now with the hedgerow on the left, until it reached Warren Wood.
The path back down into Hampden Bottom
The path back down into Hampden Bottom
The path between the two roads in Hampden Bottom
The path rising up to Warren Wood
View back across Hampden Bottom from the edge of Warren Wood