Three Villages Route

START & FINISH: Church Road, Cadmore End HP14 3PE. Grid ref: SU 783 927 

(S/E) Walk past the village hall on your left and and its sloping cricket pitch and St Mary le Moor Church on the corner (A). Turn right following the track beside a gate, to reach after 200m a shady but frequently dry pond on the right with a wooden seat. 

(1) Take the little path on the right through the trees and shortly turn right again along a grassy track giving great views across the valley to Ibstone House. Continue downhill through woodland, keeping to the path alongside the field boundary until you reach Chequers Lane. Turn left along the lane. After 650m arrive at a double gate on the right with a footpath beyond. 

(2) Turn right and take this path, walk along for 30m and fork left. Continue uphill, fork left again and follow the yellow footpath sign along the edge of the wood. This is a lovely walk through woods giving occasional views across the Manor Farm estate. At the end of the boundary fence turn half right and follow the sign for the Chiltern Way. This crosses a lane onto a narrow path leading to Turville. At the gate take the diagonal path down to (B) Turville, after admiring views of the windmill to the right on the brow of a steep hill. Turn left through a kissing gate and an ornate metal gate and walk between brick and flint houses to arrive in the village with The Bull and Butcher on your left. Turn right and then almost immediately left to take the lane on the opposite side of the green past ‘Sleepy Cottage’. Pass Turville School and continue along a shady track to open fields. Go through the gate and ahead along the field edge for 100m.

(3) Take a diagonal path leading down to Dolesden Lane. Cross it through a kissing gate into woodland on a slight uphill path giving onto open meadows. Follow the track uphill into woods, soon bearing left at a junction, and continue along the path until you come to a field boundary leading downhill towards Skirmett. The shingle track passes a house with a tennis court and leads to the lane through Skirmett village. Turn right along the lane for food and drink at The Frog, or turn left on the lane to continue the walk. Keep on the path beside the lane for 200m to reach a bench just before Watery Lane, now closed to traffic.

(4) Go through the gate on the right-hand side of Watery Lane and cross a meadow (can be boggy in winter). Walk across two further fields which in summer are full of wild flowers and butterflies. Turn right through the gate and follow the lane towards (C) Fingest, then, after 300m, left into the churchyard of the Church of St Bartholomew. The Chequers Inn opposite has a huge garden for customers. Walk through the churchyard to emerge onto the lane opposite the pub. Turn left and shortly turn right immediately after Church Cottage. Follow this path to a stile on the left.

(5) Go over the stile and follow the path gently uphill through a gate and then steeply uphill until you arrive at a welcome seat overlooking the village. Keep walking uphill straight through woodland until you arrive at a series of wooden boards giving the recent history of Hanger Wood. Continue straight ahead and, after leaving the woodland, climb up the stony track ahead. You will soon arrive back at the shady area with the seat and dry pond at point 1 of the walk. Carry on to return to the start. ::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: Several moderate ascents.

START & FINISH: Church Road, Cadmore End HP14 3PE. Grid ref: SU 783 927 

FOOD & DRINK: The Bull & Butcher in Turville and The Chequers in Fingest. The Frog in Skirmett (2024 closed for renovation) is 150m off the route 

PARKING: Roadside parking in Church Road, Cadmore End opposite Cadmore End School 

LOCAL TRANSPORT: Bus 28 between High Wycombe and Stokenchurch Mondays to Fridays; Bus 48A between Great Missenden and Stokenchurch Sundays only 

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

(A) CADMORE END: The name probably has its origins in the Saxon ‘Cadamere’ where ‘cada’ was a person and ‘meare’ means boundary. This name first appears in 16th century manorial roles as part of Fingest Manor. It also once lay in the county of Oxfordshire in the Hundred of Lewknor, but became part of Buckinghamshire in 1844. One notable local character was Jack Butler, the ‘Cadmore Hermit’, who, during the early 20th century, lived in a shack constructed from odd pieces of tin and board in Pound Wood. For years he earned his living tying up bundles of firewood. ST MARY LE MOOR CHURCH was built in the mid-19th century using some of the materials from Moor Chapel in the long abandoned village of Ackhamstead. The church is worth a visit for its Victorian stained glass.

(B) Turville is probably one of the best known villages in the country, having been used as a location for many film and TV productions. These include The Vicar of Dibley, the ITV drama Goodnight Mister Tom with John Thaw and the wartime propaganda film Went the Day Well. High on a hill overlooking the village is Cobstone Mill, which was used as the set for the film Chitty Chitty Bang. The history of the village goes back to the 8th century when it was known as ‘Thyrefeld’ – Anglo-Saxon for dry field.

(C) FINGEST: The unusual name comes from the Danish ‘Thinghurst’, meaning a wooded hill where there were public assemblies. The most notable building is the Grade I listed Church of St Bartholomew, with its fine 12th century Norman tower and unusual twin gables. In the grounds of Fingest Manor are the remains of a bishop’s palace, and it is said to be haunted by the ghost of Henry Burghersh, a 14th century Bishop of Lincoln. He enclosed common land for a deer park, causing the poor locals much hardship. His ghost haunts the area as penance for his misdeed.