Hambleden and Medmenham

Start: Hambleden village car park (RG9 6RP). Grid ref: SU 785 865

(S/E) Leave the car park entrance, turn right away from the village and proceed up a tarmac private road. After 100m turn right onto a rough track. The last house on the left is a former rectory, built in 1724 for the Reverend Scawen Kenrick who preached at Hambleden church.

Ignore a right turn (Chiltern Way) and a left turn (Shakespeare’s Way and Chiltern Way), and after 400m turn left at a T-junction crossing track. After 100m when the track ends turn right through a gate onto a footpath. Head between a hedge and wire fence towards a kissing gate at the far end of the field.

Pass through the kissing gate, ignoring a footpath on the right, and bear left uphill into woods. Continue uphill through the woods for 400m to a road running between steep banks. Pass through a kissing gate.

(1) Cross the road and climb the bank, passing through another kissing gate, to re-enter the Hambleden Estate. Ignore a path on the right (50m). Follow the path slightly uphill keeping the woods immediately on the right and a field on the left. After 350m the path turns sharply left away from the woods and enters a field via a gate. Follow this path keeping to the edge of the field and head towards a ‘V’ stile at the far side of the field.

Go over the stile and join a track that shortly enters woods. Keep to this track which gradually starts to go gently downhill. After 200m, just before the track starts to descend more steeply, turn right onto a footpath. Follow this path which soon starts to descend very steeply.  Ignore a footpath on the right just before you emerge from the trees (look out for the (A) Chalk Quarry on the right). Descend to reach a kissing gate beside the Marlow-Henley Road.

(2) Cross the road carefully and turn left along the footpath. After 50m, turn right passing through the hedge and then left onto a permissive footpath along the edge of the field and parallel to the road.  Follow the path right at the edge of the field for a further 200m to a path junction.  Turn left here to shortly pass through a kissing gate, across an old tarmac drive and through another kissing gate and follow the path through to (B) Medmenham village. 

Here, turn right and continue down the road through the village until you reach the river Thames at the site of an old ferry crossing between Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. Look downstream to see the remains of (C) Cistercian Abbey.

(3) Turn right and follow the Thames on a footpath for 2.2km. When the path bends right, follow it away from the river and continue for 150m to a kissing gate on the left.

(4) Turn left through the kissing gate and continue along another Ferry Lane for 600m. When the road bends right, continue straight on through a narrow gap in the hedge onto a path that soon opens out onto a gravel yard which turns right to meet the Marlow-Henley Road.

(5) Carefully cross the road and turn left along the pavement. After passing Mill End Farm turn right onto the Skirmett road and continue on the footway for 300m to a road that turns right off the Skirmett road.

Cross this road and pass through the kissing gate into a field. Follow a fairly indistinct path running parallel with the Skirmett road for 600m to reach a crossing track. The path also runs close to Hamble Brook which may be evident in wet weather. Pass through kissing gates on either side of this track and carry straight on for 500m to meet the road at a kissing gate on the outskirts of (E) Hambleden.

(6) Turn right at the road, pass the general store and café and the church. When the road bends sharply to the left continue straight on past the Stag & Huntsman to return to the car park.(S/E)

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Start: Hambleden village car park (RG9 6RP). Grid ref: SU 785 865

Parking: Hambleden village car park (Pay and Display)

Local Transport: None at the start, but Bus 800/850 runs between High Wycombe and Reading and stops at waypoint (5) of the walk

Terrain: A moderate walk in rolling countryside. A few short hills but no 'climb over' stiles. The path by the Thames can flood in extreme conditions.

Food & Drink: Stag & Huntsman pub and general store & café in Hambleden. The Dog and Badger in Medmenham.

This walk was created for the book "50 Great Walks in the Chilterns".

(A) Chalk Quarry: Just before reaching the Marlow to Henley Road, there is an old pit to the right of the footpath, out of which chalk rock was quarried for about 10 years at the turn of the century. This type of chalk is harder than many of the sediments known as chalk and was used as a building material for the nearby mansion, ‘Danesfield’, as well as for a few houses in Medmenham.

(B) Medmenham village: The village consists of many interesting buildings, including some estate workers’ cottages built at the beginning of the 20th century from local chalk for the owner of Danesfield, Robert Hudson, who manufactured Hudson’s soap.

(C) Cistercian Abbey: After reaching the Thames at Medmenham, look downstream to see the remains of the Abbey. An Elizabethan mansion was built out of the ruins, later acquired by Sir Francis Dashwood in 1755. He added a cloister arcade and a ruined folly tower, and used the building as a meeting place for the Medmenham Club. This society was interested in art and literature and possibly more sinister matters, and was later referred to as the Hellfire Club.

(D) Culham Court can be seen on the far bank of the Thames 1.7km past Ferry Lane at Medmenham. It is a square Georgian mansion built in 1770, with terraced gardens down to the river. George III once stayed there, and was greatly impressed by the hot rolls carried by a relay of horses from his favourite London baker!

(E) Hambleden Village is one of the prettiest villages in Buckinghamshire and is well worth exploring. There are cobbled pavements, a village pump and many charming old cottages built of flint and brick. The church has parts that date back to the 14th century. Some fine oak panelling inside is reputed to be the bed head that belonged to Cardinal Wolsey. The churchyard contains the grave of the bookseller WH Smith who became Lord Hambleden, and whose former house, ‘Greenlands’, is situated near Mill End. The house and Greenlands estate, which includes much of Hambleden village, is now protected by the National Trust under a restrictive covenant.