Pete's Walks - Coombe Hill and Prestwood (page 2 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.
I followed this almost level path for about three-quarters of a mile, going straight on at a couple of path crossroads where a footpath and then a bridleway crossed the path I was on (somewhere after the second junction the wood became Ball's Wood). Eventually the path ended when it reached Cobblershill Lane.
The footpath continuing through Hampdenleaf Wood
The footpath continuing through Hampdenleaf Wood
The footpath continuing through Hampdenleaf Wood (just after crossing a bridleway)
The footpath continuing through Ball's Wood
The footpath continuing through Ball's Wood
I turned right and followed the narrow lane downhill into the valley called Hampden Bottom. At the T-junction at the end of the lane (by a blacksmith's forge), I turned left along the road for a few yards and then took a path going into the small wood on what was now my right. This was possibly only the third time I'd walked this path. The path through the wood was not at all clear, unfortunately. When I did this walk in January 2024, I hadn't gone far enough left and met the other path through the wood some way to the right of where a waymark post showed where the paths should have met. This time I overcompensated, and ended up going too far left! So next time I may go a few yards right at the end of Cobblershill Lane and then take the other path through the wood (I have shown this as Alternative 3 on my google map). When the combined path left the wood it crossed The Glade, a broad strip of grass between woods - looking along it to my right it headed straight for Hampden House (this side of was covered in scaffolding today). The path then continued gently uphill through Pepperboxes Wood (managed by the Woodland Trust). I soon came to a path crossroads where I turned right, following a path just inside the wood with fields nearby to my right.
Cobblershill Lane
Cobblershill Lane, approaching Hampden Bottom
The path through the wood opposite the end of Cobblershill Lane
Crossing The Glade
Looking right along The Glade, towards Hampden House (this side of was covered in scaffolding today)
The path through Pepperboxes Wood
When I came to a fork in the path (no sign or waymark), I kept right and soon left the wood. I then crossed an arable field to reach the John Hampden Monument, raised in the 19th century to commemorate John Hampden, a prominent figure at the time of the English Civil War who lived at nearby Hampden House. I then turned left and followed a permissive path along a hedge (with Honor End Lane on the other side) as far as a gate or stile (where another path crossed the field, the way I'd come in January 2024).
The path through Pepperboxes Wood, after I turned right
Further along the same path
The path continuing from Pepperboxes, heading to the John Hampden Monument and Honor End Lane
The John Hampden monument
View back across Hampden Bottom from the John Hampden monument
Across Honor End Lane I went over a stile and followed a path through part of a garden, then along the right edge of a paddock or enclosure. On reaching a field, I followed the field edge right a few yards then turned left in the field corner (there was a fine view over Hampden Bottom to my right). On reaching the next field corner I went straight on through a field of stubble, with another nice view along Hampden Bottom to my right, to reach a wood called Oaken Grove. I followed the path straight on through the wood, to reach a minor road on the far side.
The path from Honor End Lane
The path from Honor End Lane
View right from the path from Honor End Lane, across Hampden Bottom
Oaken Grove
Oaken Grove