Highmoor and Greys Court

Start and Finish: The Rising Sun, Witheridge Hill, Highmoor, Henley-on- Thames (RG9 5PF). Grid ref: SU 696 841

(S/E) Turn right out of the car park and take the path through trees alongside the green to a road junction.

Cross the road and follow the footpath sign. Continue straight (South-East), go through a kissing gate, continue up a track and through another gate and past a large wooden shed on the right. Continue through the gate and pass a large building on the left following the path to a gate opening onto Highmoor Sports Field. Cross this to a kissing gate in the corner.

Cross the B481 with care, and enter Holly Grove Wood. Go straight ahead ignoring the path joining from the left. At the next waymark post turn right.

(1) Take the right fork and go straight ahead across the field to meet Rocky Lane. Follow the path on the other side of the road into Padnells Wood. At the next path junction turn left, follow waymarks and arrows and continue to a metal kissing gate. (There is now a succession of green metal kissing gates for 1.5 Km).

Continue across the field to the next gate. Cross a grass track. and continue through another green kissing gate into Lower Padnells Wood. Follow the path through the wood, exit into a field and continue for 300m to a gate onto Shepherds Green. Continue straight, to the far side of Green, to the lane designated No Through Road, and soon turn right at the waymark, and across a field to the kissing gate into Sam’s Wood. Stay on the right-hand path along the wood edge passing through two wooden gates onto Greys Green.

(2) Turn left alongside the Green, passing the pavilion, then left (signed Chiltern Way (A)) and down through woods and field to reach Rocky Lane. Cross the lane and enter (B) Greys Court Estate. Continue up the tarmac drive passing Greys Court house and entrance kiosk, then slightly left through the car park to continue through parkland and through a gate. After 40m turn left through the gate into a wood and at the wooden waymark post take the left path, continuing to follow the Chiltern Way.

Take the left path after the bridge, marked Chiltern Way. Continue through the wood and a memorial gate dedicated to David Teasdale who was a very active member of the Chiltern Society’s team that installed many of the gates on this walk. Go into a field and head for a wooden kissing gate, followed by another paddock then a set of two kissing gates across a track. Walk across the field and through another wooden kissing gate into a wood.

(3) Almost immediately turn left at a waymark post, leaving the Chiltern Way, following the grey arrow on a permissive path that is part of the ‘Estate Walk’. Continue through the beech wood and turn left along a bridleway. Follow the white arrows on trees. After 800m, ignore the Estate Walk (which goes left through a gate) and continue straight ahead down the steep bridleway.

(4) At the path junction at the bottom, turn right alongside a new plantation (2015). Take the next path left at a waymark post into Tartary Wood. This wood is splendid when the bluebells are out. Continue through the wood, gently climbing until you reach a kissing-gate. Continue into parkland, and stay straight ahead with a copse on the right, cross a tarmac bridleway and bear slightly right towards a wooden kissing gate into a wood called ‘Scotland’.

(5) Continue along this path until you reach a path crossroads, then turn right onto a path comprising earth and stones. Follow this path past houses to a junction. Continue straight along a tarmac bridleway through (C) Highmoor Common Wood for 700m to the B481 (D).

(6) Cross the road and onto a bridleway called Deadman’s Lane. This eventually reaches Swans Wood and then joins the tarmac drive to the left up the hill to a junction with Howberrywood Farm to the right.

(7) Turn left and continue through the wood on a shingle bridleway that has a tarmac surface after Nottwood Cottage. The bridleway eventually joins a minor road at Newnham Hill. Bear left and follow the road down in the dip for another 400m.

(8) Before reaching a crossroads, turn left up a permissive path opposite Rose Cottage. There are no waymarks so look carefully for this path, and if you miss it take the minor road. Follow the path past ‘Little Manor’, continue straight ahead slightly uphill and then to the right. This leads back onto the green. The Rising Sun is ahead!(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."

Start and Finish: The Rising Sun, Witheridge Hill, Highmoor, Henley-on- Thames (RG9 5PF). Grid ref: SU 696 841

Parking Available at The Rising Sun for customers only. Otherwise please park alongside the green. There is also a free car park in Highmoor Cross near the B481 (about 400m away).

Local transport: None at the start – Bus 145, which runs between Henley and Woodcote, stops at Greys Green Monday to Saturday.

Terrain: A moderate undulating walk, mainly on footpaths, through typical Chiltern countryside.

Food & Drink: The Rising Sun; there is also a café, toilets and shop at Greys Court (entrance fee for non-NT members)

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

(A) The Chiltern Way is a circular walking route of 177 miles with an additional loop, taking the total length to a maximum of 220 miles. It was set up by volunteers as the Chiltern Society’s millennium project. It’s a varied and mostly rural route round the Chilterns National Landscape, and is enjoyed by thousands of walkers each year.

(B) Greys Court takes its name from its original builders, the de Grey family. It has had a chequered history. The medieval castle was fortified by the construction of a surrounding wall in 1348, from which four of the five towers and part of the wall survive. The stables and a donkey wheel house remain from an Elizabethan house. The main house was destroyed in the Civil War then rebuilt. It is now owned by the National Trust and it is open year round. The Chiltern Society worked with the Trust to develop walks round the estate. This project was pioneered by David Teasdale, a Society member, whose memorial gate is in the grounds.

(C) Highmoor Common Wood is one of eight commons that constitute the Nettlebed & District Commons. It covers 233 acres and is the largest, stretching from Highmoor Trench in the north to Grim’s Ditch in the south.

(D) When crossing the B481 at waypoint (6), look out on the right for a small concrete model of a fort. It was built in 1948 by American servicemen – the fort was the emblem of one of their Mountain Divisions. During WWII the woods housed large numbers of troops preparing for the D-Day landings. Their camp was later used for Polish refugees.