The Maharajah's Well

START & FINISH: Holy Trinity Church, Nuffield Hill, Nuffield RG9 5SN. Grid ref: SU 668 874

(S/E) From the church turn left and proceed west along the road for 100m. Turn left into a field following the Ridgeway Path south into a neck of woodland. After 400m, where the Ridgeway turns right down (A) Grim’s Ditch, continue straight ahead on a path through woodland (good for bluebells in the spring) ignoring the marked path on the left as you leave the woods. Cross the field ahead to a copse and Ridgeway Farmhouse. Follow the path round to the entrance to the house until you reach a stile. Cross the stile opposite into a field, go forward and follow the path round to the left and along to a lane. Cross the lane and continue south through two fields and a number of gates to Homer House. Stay straight ahead past a barn to a road and take the footpath ahead alongside the Old Farmhouse. Continue on this path as it drops down and then climbs up through woodland (B) for 450m until it reaches Urquart Lane, an unmade restricted byway.

(1) Turn right, continue straight down, do not follow the lane which curves left, and along the path for 1.5km to a brick and flint wall on the left and the entrance to Headlams.

(2) Turn left towards Well Place Stables, continue directly ahead through a series of gates and follow the path uphill (C). Before the top of the hill the path makes a right angle turn. Walk along the top of the bank with a ditch on your left for 130m to join the road at Warren’s Chase. Go straight over to a wide track and turn immediately right through an unmarked gap over a fallen tree into a field. Turn left uphill along the edge of the field and through a gate. Bear left up the hill and through a wooden kissing gate into the wood at Berins Hill. Follow the waymarks and, at the top of the wood, turn sharp right on the Chiltern Way past the farm buildings on the left. Follow the path round the edge of the wood and keep forward along the access drive to Keepers Cottage to meet a lane. Admire the view towards Didcot. At the lane, turn left along it away from the Chiltern Way, to the entrance to Garsons Farm.

(3) Walk past for a few metres then turn right onto a footpath into the wood. Follow the path steeply downhill, ignoring a path forking left, and go over a crossing path and ascend, ignoring the path to the right, to reach Scots Gate. Cross the road at Scots Farm (D), walk forward a few metres and turn left on a track opposite the large barn. Follow the well-defined path to a house facing you to the right (you can see The Black Horse sign to the left). Take the path ahead (offset to the right) going to the left of the house on an unmade lane to a junction then right again on a surfaced lane for 160m to a fork. Bear right to meet a road and cross over to the left of the farm entrance onto a bridleway, Judges Road. Walk along it for 350m to Broad Oak House.

(4) Shortly after the house, turn left at a path junction. Continue uphill alongside a fence to the left for 200m and fork left to a path junction. At the next junction, ignore the path to the left, bear right ignoring the next path almost immediately to the left and  follow the path to a fence; follow this to reach a permissive path on the right. Take this fenced path between fields to meet an unmade lane. Turn left along it as it becomes School Lane.

(5) At the junction with Main Street, cross and turn right along the pavement for 100m to the (E) Maharajah’s Well on the left. After visiting, continue in the same direction along Main Street for 300m, past The Cherry tree Inn, until reaching the chapel and village green. Turn left into Newlands Lane and follow it past the houses bearing right and left until it drops down to a sharp left-hand bend (This leads to the Crooked Billet, one of the best restaurants in the Chilterns). Leave the road by taking the bridleway directly ahead. It drops down to a fork where you take the right fork to a road at the bottom (Newnhamhill Bottom).

(6) Cross the lane and bear right uphill on a bridleway to a lane. Cross and take the surfaced track opposite, signposted as a footpath.   Shortly after it becomes a surfaced bridleway. Follow it, ignoring all tracks left and right, for 1.5km to Howberrywood Farm. Admire the view across the fields to Nettlebed. Pass to the right of the farm buildings and stay ahead on the bridleway, which turns northwest. Continue for a further 1.25km to a junction of six paths.

Ignoring 2 footpaths to the left, bear right then turn left to leave the wide track and follow the bridleway into a wood which has magnificent bluebells in spring.  Stay on the bridleway for 1.2km to a junction by Elderberry Cottage. Turn left along a footpath to a road. Turn left and immediately right into Nuffield Hill past the entrance to (F) Huntercombe Golf Club. Continue along the road to the church and the finish of the walk.(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: This long, but moderate walk uses well trodden footpaths with good waymarking.

START & FINISH: Holy Trinity Church, Nuffield Hill, Nuffield RG9 5SN. Grid ref: SU 668 874

FOOD & DRINK: Scots Common: The Black Horse; Stoke Row: Stoke Row Store, The Cherry Tree and The Crooked Billet; Holy Trinity Church offers refreshments on a self service basis.

PARKING: In the designated field to the left of Holy Trinity Church. Please make a donation in the Church.

LOCAL TRANSPORT: Bus X38 runs between Henley and Wallingford on Monday to Saturday and stops 1km away on the A4130.

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

Nuffield is a small village located at one of the highest points in the south Chilterns. Its best known resident was William Morris, the founder of Morris Motors, who later became Lord Nuffield. He lived in nearby Nuffield Place from 1933 until his death in 1963. There are two listed buildings in the village, the Church of the Holy Trinity which dates from the 12th century, and the recently closed Crown pub. Just to the north is the A4130 Henley and Wallingford road which was a turnpike between 1736 and 1873.

(A) GRIM’S DITCH: This walk crosses Grim’s Ditch at least twice. Named after a Nordic god, it’s part of a series of linear earthworks that run from Bradenham to Ivinghoe, and remains one of the great mysteries of the Chilterns. Following investigations, archaeologists now generally agree that the earthwork probably dates from the early to mid-Iron Age c700BC.

(B) Ipsden Heath is a wooded common partly owned by the Woodland Trust. It mainly comprises mature oak, ash, cherry and beech trees. In spring you can expect to see bluebells, wood sorrel, enchanter’s nightshade, herb robert, sweet woodruff and dog’s mercury.

(C) WELL PLACE was the site of Wellplace Zoo. It opened in 1968 and had a varied collection of birds and animals from all over the world. It closed in 2006.

(D) HORSE PATH: The footpath from Scots Farm to The Black Horse is known as Horse Path. The Star Brush Factory used to be at the edge of Stoke Row, and the horses working there came home alone along this path to their stable at the farm.

(E) MAHARAJAH’S WELL: Stoke Row is famed for the beautifully restored Maharajah's Well. Edward Reade, the squire of Ipsden, worked with the Maharajah of Benares in India for many years in the 19th century. In 1831 he helped to sink a well for the local community in Azimurgh. Some years after Reade left in 1860, the Maharajah decided upon an endowment in England. He remembered Reade’s stories of water shortages in Ipsden so, in an act of gratitude, he paid £400 for a well in Stoke Row, along with a warden’s cottage and cherry orchard. It took about a year to build and was officially opened on Queen Victoria’s birthday in 1864.

(F) HUNTERCOMBE GOLF CLUB opened in 1901, having been designed by Willie Park Junior, the owner of Huntercombe Manor. In 1926 it was bought by Lord Nuffield, who ran it until 1963. Ian Fleming, the James Bond author, was a member for 32 years until his death in 1964.