Start & finish: Hitchwood Lane car park (SG4 7RW) Grid ref. TL 197 239
(S/E) Cross Hitchwood lane and enter the woods opposite the car park. Turn right in front of the noticeboard, following a marked permissive trail through the wood. Initially the path runs parallel to Hitchwood road just inside the woods (A). Ignore paths off to the left until, after 400m, you come to a signed fork in the path.
(1) Take the left fork. Initially the path ascends to the right of a shallow gully. Keep right when a path comes in from the left. You pass a bench then in another 150m turn right at a waymark post in front of a holly tree. The signed route leaves the gully and climbs through the wood, curving to the right.
(2) As the path starts to level off, you come to a signpost indicating a sharp left turn. Take this turn onto a fainter path, almost back on the way you've come. In 150m you reach a broad track. Turn left onto it and follow it to the edge of the wood. Take the path across the field running diagonally to the right and heading for the righthand corner of Pinfold Wood. Turn left at a stony track by farm buildings.
(3) After passing a red brick house, turn right onto a footpath. At the end of Foxholes Wood views start to open up to the west.
(4) Take the footpath signed off to the left. Keep to the left of the line of trees ahead and you will shortly be walking on the left of the metal fence round the formal gardens of Stagenhoe Park (B). You briefly join a road then fork right on a broad stony track, descending past tennis courts. Keep left at a house and follow this track uphill.
(5) At the brow of the hill, by the walls of the Lodge garden, turn right on the next footpath. Go through the middle of a narrow strip of trees and continue through Chalkleys Wood. When you emerge from the woodland into a field, continue in the same direction with the hedge on your right for 400m through the remains of two gates and down some steps.
(6) Follow the hedge line as it turns left. After 200m the path curves right, down some steps and through a kissing gate. Turn left and you soon meet a broad track. If you want to visit Whitwell (C), turn right here. Our route heads left up the track, with fine views across the valley to Whitwell.
Where the track turns sharp left, take the footpath to the right through a kissing gate. Cross a field with views of Bury Farm and The Bury in trees to your left (D).
(7) Pass through a metal kissing gate onto a tarmac drive and take the lane to the right down to the B651. Cross the road, go straight into a field and turn left. Walk along the edge of the field parallel to the road until you come to the grand avenue of lime trees.
Turn right on the footpath up the middle of the avenue. As you climb you get fine views back to The Bury along the 1km avenue. At the top of the hill keep straight on, pass a gate and turn left where the path meets a byway. After 700m you come to a lane.
(8) Keep straight ahead on the lane. The next 2km of this walk is on quiet country lanes. Bear right at the first road junction, signposted Langley, and right again at the next junction, still heading for Langley.
(9) Take the next road left, just before you come to the buildings of Shilley Green Farm. The lane starts to descend and when it curves left look out for a bridleway off to the right.
(10) Take the bridleway to the right. It snakes along the edge of some trees and after 200m emerges onto a track at the edge of a field. Keep straight ahead right of the hedge. Follow the bridleway through trees and down to a tarmac road.
(11) Turn left downhill on the road, and where the tarmac ends keep straight ahead onto a broad stony track. Keep left at the fork to leave the Chiltern Way and you soon come to the B651 opposite Hitchwood Lane. (S/E)
We hope you have enjoyed your walk. Please remember to rate the walk and add comments. We are interested in how we could improve the instructions or the route and would like to hear about any issues with paths on the walk.
