Chalfont St Giles and Chiltern OAM

START & FINISH: Blizzards Yard car park, off the High Street, Chalfont St Giles HP8 4QA. Grid ref: SU 991 936.

(S/E) From the entrance to the car park, cross the road to the Green (A), turning right for 150m and then left through the archway. The route now follows the Chiltern Way until Waypoint 5.

(1) Follow the path along the side of the church, go over the footbridge and straight ahead across the meadow. Climb up between houses and cross the A413. Once across the road, take the footpath just to the left of the track ahead, uphill between fences. At the top of the hill fork left through a gate into a field. Follow the Chiltern Way to the left diagonally across fields and through two gates to meet a double kissing gate in the right-hand corner.

(2) Follow the path to your right and, by Ashwell Farm, cross a minor road to a bridleway opposite. Follow it through a strip of woodland and exit to cross a road to the drive leading to (B) Chiltern Open Air Museum.

(3) Walk up the drive past the lodge house and after 30m pass through a gate on your left. Follow the left-hand field edge for 400m and go through a gate in the corner. Go down the path between fences and continue bearing right at the bottom to walk parallel to a woodland track. Leave the woods onto a bridleway ((C) Shire Lane).

(4) Turn left uphill for 700m to the end of the woods. Continue on for a further 50m and take the footpath and bridleway on your right, signposted to Bullsland Lane.

(5) Follow the footpath to a T-junction and turn right to emerge at Bullsland Lane. Turn right along the tarmac road for 200m to a kissing gate on the left opposite Bullsland Farm. Go through the gate and down the field to the next gate. Go through and continue uphill along the side of the wood to your left. After 60m take the faint fork right to continue in the same direction to pass through another gate in the fence at the top of the hill.

(6) Turn right and follow the wide path, generally with hedges on your left and wire fence on your right, past several fields (D) for almost 1km until you pass through a gate into a field. Continue in the same direction for 40m.

(7) Fork right and follow a faint path to skirt the corner of the wood on the right and continue on the same line through the field to drop down to a gate into Bottom Wood. The gate is not easy to see at first but is about halfway along the edge of the wood.

Pass through the gate and follow the path through the woods and ignore the crossing paths. Continue uphill on the clear broad path which becomes winding with paths off to the left which should be ignored. As you approach the top of the wood, fork right following the waymark posts to emerge from the corner of the woods via a kissing gate into a field.

(8) Turn right and follow the field edge. Go over the farm track and through two gates onto a narrow lane, Old Shire Lane.

You now follow a diversion. Turn left and follow the lane to just 20m short of Gorelands Lane where you turn right through a gate in the metal fencing. Follow the ill-defined path through woodland to emerge into the southern area of Newland Park.

Continue along the path beside high metal fencing for about 500m until you come to a path on the left. Pass through a kissing gate into Gorelands Lane.

(9) Turn right at the next crossing following the path down the back of Rowan Garden centre and after about 20m continue through a gate with fields either side. Pass through the next gate, keep straight ahead and, where the field ends, bear left into the woods. Just before you reach the road, turn right for 25m and then left to emerge opposite Ashwells Farm House. Cross the road and follow the familiar path until you reach the double metal gates.

Go through the first gate and turn right to follow the path between hedges. When it emerges, cross Stylecroft Road and continue steeply down the path between houses. Cross Kings Road into Ashwells Way opposite and climb the hill ahead before descending to the A413. Take the pedestrian crossing, and turn right then left to return down the lane to the village. (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."

TERRAIN: The walk is undulating but the gradients are moderate.

START & FINISH: Blizzards Yard car park, off the High Street, Chalfont St Giles HP8 4QA. Grid ref: SU 991 936.

ALTERNATIVE STARTS to the walk can be made from either Chorleywood Metropolitan Line Station or roadside parking at The Swillett WD3 5BT. Grid ref: TQ 020 9512. Details below.

FOOD & DRINK: Pubs and café in Chalfont St Giles; The Stag pub and Rootz Bistro both 250m off route at The Swillett, and the café at Rowan Garden Centre

PARKING: Blizzards Yard car park, or roadside parking at The Swillett 

LOCAL TRANSPORT: Bus 104 runs between High Wycombe and Slough, Bus 105 runs between Hemel Hempstead and Uxbridge and Bus 335/7 runs between Amersham and Slough.

FROM CHORLEYWOOD METROPOLITAN LINE STATION: From the ticket hall (on the London-bound side) turn left downhill and left again under the railway bridge into Shire Lane. At the top of the hill where the road bends sharply to the left, continue straight on along Old Shire Lane for 500m to WAYPOINT 5 of the walk. To return to the station, retrace your steps when reaching the same point. Adds 3km to the walk.

FROM THE SWILLETT: Take the wide footpath to the side of The Stag pub past the allotments. Ignore the stile on the right and bear left to the stile ahead. Go over and turn left to join the main route at WAYPOINT 6.

This walk was created for the book "50 Great Walks in the Chilterns" available from the Chiltern Society or from Amazon.

(A) CHALFONT ST GILES: The name Chalfont is thought to come from the old English words for chalk, ‘cealc’ and spring ‘funt’. The 12th century Norman church is dedicated to St Giles, who was the patron saint of woodlands. The most famous building in the village is Milton’s Cottage. This was the home of poet John Milton, who moved his family there in 1665 to escape the London plague. It was in Chalfont St Giles that he worked on his most notable books, and the house is now a museum and contains a collection of his first editions, as well as memorabilia of the period.

(B) CHILTERN OPEN AIR MUSEUM was founded by volunteers in the 1970s, and opened to the public in 1981. It rescues threatened historic buildings, which would otherwise be demolished, and rebuilds and preserves them in a traditional Chilterns landscape. These buildings include a toll house, farm buildings, a prefab and a chapel. The museum is open daily from 10am to 5pm except in winter. The museum authorities are happy for you to use their car park as a start point for the walk, but are keen for you to visit the museum afterwards.

(C) SHIRE LANE AND PHILIPSHILL WOOD: Shire Lane forms the boundary between Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. It also is believed to have been the boundary between the old kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex. Philipshill Wood is ancient woodland managed by the Woodland Trust. It is well known for bluebells, wood sorrel and several types of orchid.

(D) HERONSGATE was founded by The Chartist Cooperative Land Society in 1846, with the charitable aim of resettling industrial workers from the northern cities on smallholdings, making them independent of factory employers and potentially qualifying them for the vote. Thirty-five plots (and a beerhouse) were purchased and allocated by ballot. The roads were given names like Halifax, Stockport and Bradford. It’s now a very desirable area to live with house prices to match.