Start: Lay-by in Stony Lane, Latimer. The nearest postcode is Latimer village (HP5 1TY). Grid ref: TQ 005 982.
(S/E) From the lay-by in Stony Lane, cross the road and take the bridleway East through Walk Wood. After 250m, emerge onto a straight open path towards Chenies, with views over the Chess valley. After 450m, reach the edge of a wood and continue straight ahead through the kissing gate into the wood.
Follow the path through the wood ignoring side turnings. After 75m it bends left and starts to drop downhill slightly. After a further 100m, as it gradually bends right again, cross another path. After a further 150m, you meet a T-junction at a fence.
(1) Turn right and almost immediately pass through wooden barriers. Follow the track uphill, soon leaving the wood and entering a section bordered by high brick walls. At the top is the entrance to Chenies Manor (A). Turn left along Chenies Manor drive, passing the entrance to the Parish Church of St Michael on your left.
At the village green with its bus shelter, phone box, and pump commemorating Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee continue across to the Chenies village sign. To visit one (or both!) of the pubs continue almost straight ahead up Latimer Road. You will come to the Bedford Arms after 150m and the Red Lion after 500m. You will then need to retrace your footsteps to the village green to continue the walk.
(2) Take the path across the road which begins as a tarmac drive immediately to the right of May Cottage, passing through formal gates after 400m and arriving at Mountwood Farm after a further 300m. As you approach a large barn, keep to the right of wooden fencing, following a narrow path passing to the right of the farm which shortly joins a track emerging behind it. Continue straight along this for 200m (ignoring the path to the left) and at the corner of a wood, pass through a kissing gate and follow the edge of the wood round to the right.
(3) On reaching a hedge, turn sharp left behind it along the top of the field for 100m, following the line of wooden posts. At the end of these, turn diagonally right across the middle of the field and walk straight down to the field corner, passing through a gate to meet another path.
Turn left to meet almost immediately another gate by a wooden fingerpost. Continue straight ahead (signposted ‘Sarratt Church’), over an area of low-lying ground beside the river Chess (B), first crossing a small footbridge and then a larger one over the river. You then come to a kissing gate, and a metal fingerpost. Turn right here (marked ‘Chorleywood’) and continue along the unfenced, broad, grassy sward for 350m to a wooden kissing gate beside a pair of cottages.
(3) Immediately after the cottages, turn left and climb steeply uphill following the line of the fence. Pause near the top to admire the views back across the valley behind you. As the path levels out, it bends to the left through a kissing gate, crosses a track, and passes to the right of a hedge to arrive at a further kissing gate in front of the Church of the Holy Cross (C). If you wish to visit the Cock Inn, bear right along the lane in front of the churchyard for 60m.The main route continues through the churchyard to the left of the church.
(4) After exiting through a kissing gate take the left path along the side of the field. After two gates continue ahead down an avenue of old sycamore trees (signed ‘Dawes Lane’), emerging into an open field after 200m. Bear slightly left, and cross the field diagonally aiming for a gate 80m down from the top.
Walk through the gate and continue ahead along the left side of the field to the far corner, where you will pass through a kissing gate and emerge onto Dawes Lane. Turn left past ‘Cakebread Cottage’ and shortly reach a T-junction with Sarratt Bottom. Turn right and follow the lane for 200m to a right-hand bend.
(5) Turn left onto a track signed ‘Latimer’, arriving after 400m at the Watercress Beds and a Chess Valley Walk signboard. Having looked at the signboard, do not continue ahead over the little bridge. Instead take the path on your right by the waymark post. Follow the fenced path, which is partially a boardwalk, for 300m to arrive at a small viewing area and two ‘Frogmore Meadow’ signboards.
Bear right to continue along the fenced path and soon enter a small patch of woodland. You emerge from this through a kissing gate into an open meadow. Cross the meadow, keeping well to the left if the ground is boggy, to another kissing gate hidden in the far corner. Follow the narrow path between wooden fencing until you arrive at a gate giving access to a lane (Chenies Hill). Follow the lane left to arrive at Mill Farm (D) on the right and a Chess Valley signboard on the left.
(6) Turn right beside the farm buildings through two gates. Follow the enclosed path beside the stream for a further 300m to a gate leading to an open meadow. Ignoring the gate and path on the right, continue ahead along the right side of the meadow, looking out for William Liberty’s tomb (E) in the hedge on the right after 200m. After 150m pass through a further gate and proceed directly ahead on the well-marked track on the upper side of the field (F). Ignore the bridleway leading down to river on the left.
(7) Cross the road and follow the route that bears left across the meadow to meet the river again after 150m. Follow the path beside this attractive stretch of river until you reach a gate opening onto a track, where you turn left over the bridge. To your right here you will see the Neptune waterfall and Latimer House (G) at the top of the hill. Continue ahead through a gate and cross the small paddock to arrive at Latimer Road.
(8) Cross the road and follow the path up the left side of the meadow to arrive at a gate leading into West Wood.
(9) Turn half left after the gate to follow a path climbing gently through the wood (do not take the path sharp left following the fence along the bottom of the wood). Ignore side turnings. Reach the top of the wood after 220m and turn right along the bridleway to emerge into playing fields.
(10) Turn immediately left through a kissing gate and follow the path straight across fields to reach a final kissing gate into the Stony Lane lay-by. (S/E)
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