Forty Green and Penn

START & FINISH: The Royal Standard of England, Forty Green HP9 1XS. Grid Ref: SU 922 919

(S/E) Leave the Royal Standard car park and turn left down the road.

(1) After 120m, take the few steps up to a kissing gate on the right-hand verge. Walk across the field, over a stile then diagonally ahead to another stile on the opposite side. Cross and follow the marked route downhill (slippery in wet conditions) to the bottom right corner of the field. Go over the stile through a small thicket and into another field. Bear right, with a hedgerow on your right. The path dips down and back up again to a path junction in the top right-hand corner.

Follow the path ahead as it bears round to the left and weaves through woodland bringing you out over another stile into an open field. Keep straight ahead, down through a gap in the hedge and then up, with a hedge on your right. At the top right-hand corner turn right on a farm track heading towards the farm buildings.

After 100m bear left over a stile between two gates, across a small paddock and over another stile in front of the Georgian farmhouse (A Lude Farm). Turn right up the lane for 70m to a signpost on the left.

(2) Cross the stile next to the signpost and head diagonally to the far right corner of the field, to another stile. Cross it and turn right, entering woodland by a kissing gate with a waymark post. Take the left fork, signposted Chiltern Way.

Continue until you reach another waymark post and bear left, joining a more distinct path. Follow this, keeping straight ahead through the woodland, until you reach the edge of the wood.

(3) Turn immediately left following the edge of the woodland (now ignoring signs for the Chiltern Way) passing another gate. Keep ahead, keeping the hedgerow on your right. Follow the hedgerow to the far edge of the field, to a T-junction with a waymarked footpath. Turn right along it.

As the footpath emerges into another meadow, the path goes diagonally across to a gap in the middle of the far hedge. Go through the gap and over a stile, then straight ahead through (B) trees to a stile, where you emerge onto a single-track lane.

(4) Turn right up the lane and walk 650m to the main road on Penn Ridge. A short deviation just before this junction will take you to Pistles Pond, which is clearly marked between two cottages as you approach the junction. It provides a seat in a very tranquil setting.

At the junction with the main road, you will see (C) Slade’s Garage on your left. Take a look if you dare! Another short deviation involves turning left at this junction and walking 200m up to Tylers Green Front Common where you can buy a snack, relax, sit by the pond, visit the neighbouring tearoom or pub.

(5) Turn right at the junction by Slade’s Garage, crossing over to the opposite footpath, and follow the main road (D) for 800m to (E) Holy Trinity Church. The Crown pub (F) is just past the Church Hall on your left. If you don’t deviate to the pub, turn right at the church and walk down Pauls Hill, ignoring the first footpath sign on your left by the brick and flint cottages.

(6) After 250m turn left on another footpath, hidden away slightly in front of Bede House. Pass to the left of Bede House into a tree-lined path which soon emerges to a fenced path. At the end, turn right and follow the track. As you pass the entrance to the private residence, Underwood, stay straight ahead through a gate and follow the gravel path ahead keeping the metal gates on your right.

The footpath winds along the edge of private woodland, between a fence and hedge. Continue into a wooded area. Ignore the first waymark post signing a right turn. Continue to a second waymark where you bear right towards a gate. Go through, cross a small field for only 20m and pass through a second gate. Continue downhill through the meadow and and kissing gate into a small meadow leading up to a cottage. Leave by the second kissing gate opposite, with the cottage on your left. You will see a wide track almost immediately on your right. Follow it up the hill to return to the Royal Standard.(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: An easy walk that climbs to the ridge on which Penn stands. Plenty of stiles.

START & FINISH: The Royal Standard of England, Forty Green HP9 1XS. Grid Ref: SU 922 919

FOOD & DRINK: The Royal Standard of England and the Red Lion, Queens Head and Crown pubs in Penn and Tylers Green

PARKING: The Royal Standard of England

LOCAL TRANSPORT: None at the start. From Penn village: Bus 31 to High Wycombe runs all week. Bus 377 runs a very limited early and late service between Beaconsfield and Tylers Green on Tuesdays and Fridays. Bus 577 runs between Beaconsfield and Hazlemere on Mondays to Fridays.

(A) LUDE FARM appears in the Domesday Book. On August 12th 1944, a USAF B17 Flying Fortress bomber named the Tomahawk Warrior crashed by the farm shortly after take-off. Both engines caught fire and despite the best efforts of the pilot to put the plane down in open land, it crashed, killing the nine young men in a massive explosion. They are remembered by name on 11th November every year at Penn Church.
(B) PENN DIAMOND JUBILEE WOOD is one of 60 Diamond Jubilee woods created by the Woodland Trust and is the latest site to be taken into Chiltern Society management. The Society intends to create a mixed site of largely native woodland and open semi-natural grassland for the benefit of wildlife and the local community.
(C) SLADE’S GARAGE: Supercar garage and former blacksmiths, probably founded to service the 14th century Penn floor and roof tilers. Their products were used all over the SE in royal palaces like Windsor Castle, the Tower of London and the Palace of Westminster, as well as many churches and manor houses. They gave their name to Tylers Green. The 18th-century Red Lion and Cottage Bookshop are only a short walk from here.
(D) CHURCH ROAD has many houses of interest, 17th to 18th century.
(E) HOLY TRINITY CHURCH is a 12th century Grade I listed building. Over the chancel arch is a rare 15th century ‘Penn Doom’ which depicts the Last Judgement. It is one of only five surviving wooden tympanums in the country. Six of the grandchildren of William Penn, the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania, are buried in a large family vault under the centre of the nave. Examples of the medieval Penn tiles can be seen in the Lady Chapel. There are 18th and 19th century wall monuments of the highest quality. Buried in the churchyard is David Blakeley, shot in 1955 by Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in England. The ashes of Donald Maclean, one of the Cambridge spies, were spread over his parents’ grave.
(F) THE CROWN PUB has an Elizabethan core and was already an alehouse in 1577.

(G) ROYAL STANDARD OF ENGLAND: An attractive pub, originally a Victorian alehouse set in an older building. The village of Forty Green gets its name from the Anglo-Saxon for 'jutting forth island of land'.