Aston Rowant (northern section)

3 Mar 2007

• Total distance: three and a half miles.
• Start point: A mile outside Stokenchurch, near Hill Farm, SU 745972.
• Weather: Initially dull, later sunny with unusual distinct layers of cloud.
• Temperature at start: 9C.
• Muddiness rating: *** (*=dry, *****=awful)
• People passed: One person (a photographer).
• Step counter: 7692
• Camera: Sony Alpha 100, images before deletions = 58.

People keep asking if I’ve stopped going out walking, or abandoned my mission to record my walks. I haven’t done either - just suffering from a nasty bout of chronic laziness - so I’d better get up to date.

I parked in a layby outside Hill Farm, a few minutes northwest of Stokenchurch. There are several good walking opportunities from here, but most head off north east into Kingston Woods where it can get very muddy, so I followed the A40, which isn’t a busy road these days as the M40, heading in the same direction a hundred yards away, takes most of the traffic.

Not far down the hill a footpath drops away to the right. It winds down through beech and ash trees, and it’s been lodged in my mind for years as a place with a lot of pictorial potential, given the right light. Regular readers won’t be surprised to hear I haven’t as yet been chosen to capture its charm for the moral uplifting of humanity. It won’t stop me trying though. It reminds me what a gap there is between finding an interesting place and taking away a photo that does it justice. As a rule I have to get to know a place well before I can capture a decent image of it. But even though I’m familiar with this little neck of the woods I haven’t found the right view, or angle, or approach or perspective or whatever it is, yet.

As I arrived at the foot of the hill the sun beamed out from a sky filled with clouds of four different shades of grey, which I assume meant they were at different heights. I couldn’t see over the hedge so I teetered on tiptoe, stretching as high as possible with the camera on my fingertips, shooting blind. I got a nice snap of Chinnor cement works.

Mention the Ridgeway and people conjure up a vision of a pretty hilltop path with distant views left and right, warbling skylarks high overhead, and dry stone walls. Bits of it get close to this idyll, mainly to the west where it crosses the Wiltshire Downs, but near us the Sludgepath would be a better name, as its surface has been macerated by an unholy alliance of 4x4 drivers, dirt bikers and horse riders, and - if the stretch under the M40 was anything to go by, the Bucks and Berks Synchronised Rotavating Club too. I’ve just realised that we of the photographic persuasion do comparatively little environmental damage, especially since we went digital and no longer have to pull up inconvenient saplings or chase away sheep.

I turned off in search of firmer terrain and followed an ad hoc network of paths, none of them shown on the Landranger map, which took me to the top of Beacon Hill. It’s the attractive little tump you see to your left when driving up the long hill on the M40. There are many other Beacon Hills around, in case you’re wondering.

I sat in the sun for ten minutes, talking cameras to a genial chap with a bag full of digital kit, then headed home at a smart clip. The Chilterns are all very nice but there was no way I was going to miss Wags Boutique.

Click here for map > AstonRowantNorthMap

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-- RodBird - 14 Jun 2007