Hambleden – Ridge Wood - Woolleys - Fawley - Pallbach Hill

4 Mar 2006

• Total distance: 7 miles. There’s a bit more height gained and lost of this walk, than on most of the others to date.
• Start point: Public car park between Mill End and Hambleden, SU 785855.
• Weather: Perfect walking weather – bright and cold.
• Temperature at start: 3C.
• Muddiness rating: ** (*=dry, *****=awful)
• People passed: Three, all near Hambleden.
• Step counter: 17,295.
• Camera: Olympus C-5060W. Images taken before deletions = 134.

It’s easy to assume that summer is the natural hunting season for the landscape photographer, but winter is often much more productive, especially in the Chilterns. There’s plenty of low light on hand to bring out texture and create depth and perspective, and instead of being heavy green clumps the leafless trees become useful graphic elements in the landscape, alternately gaunt and ethereal. As if this wasn’t enough the lack of a dense forest canopy lets copious light fall onto the woodland floor – which in turn is thoughtfully dry and bleached, or in the case of our natural beech woods, copper and bronze, throwing a diffuse glow back up into the shadows. Oh, I could go on.

All you need is the right weather, and for the second consecutive Saturday that’s precisely what the Met Office provided.

The western side of the Hambleden valley is less walked than the east, and I was immediately reminded why when I got lost within quarter of a mile of leaving the road. It wasn’t really a surprise – I always get lost here. I planned to walk round the southern edge of Ridge Wood and then cut back up the slope, to the top of the hill, but my problem was in recognising the right pace to turn off the first path. Actually there’s no secret – just keep on until you find a gate on your left and footpaths clearly signposted left and right. That’s The Place. I keep forgetting this and end up wandering around on the slope of the hill on ever-feinter rabbit tracks until I blunder into the main path. Men! Typical. They just won’t ask for directions.

My selfless devotion to my regular readers meant that when I’d found the path, I walked all the way down it to see where I should have joined it, so if you do this walk you should clock up rather less steps than I did.

A distinct and dry bridleway follows the contours of the hill, with the barn I’d stopped at last week and the villages of Hambleden and Pheasants Hill visible through the bare beeches. Luckily the skeletal nature of the trees doesn’t mean they’re boring – in fact the masses of tiny buds contribute some unique colours at this time of year, with reds and russets prominent in the sunlit woods on the other side of the valley.

Above a striking white house called Woolleys, I turned and climbed a steep track to the top of the hill, unwooded at this point, and now and then exploding with feathers as game birds broke cover. I was glad to get onto level ground, and as I mopped the sweat from my brow I began to wonder if the heavy jacket I’d put on was necessary. But deep down I knew it was : if you run into trouble and can’t move for whatever reason, you cool down frighteningly quickly. (Been there, got the T-shirt, and I don’t recommend it).

Just over the top of the hill is an attractive little grove of yew trees. English yews can grow on all soils apart from the strongly acidic, and are found all over Britain. They are probably the oldest of our natural trees, thanks to their ability to put down new shoots, even into the centre of a decaying trunk, and regenerate. Many yews are thought to be over a thousand years old, some perhaps up to two thousand. The oldest ones in Berkshire are said to be in Shottesbrooke and White Waltham. In some parts of the world they’ve become scarce because of harvesting for the production of anti-cancer drugs Taxol or Paclitaxel. We’re lucky to have plenty still dotted around the Chilterns, as well as the ubiquitous ones in churchyards.

But it isn’t just the yews that make this walk so satisfying. It takes you through some of the most scenic and satisfying woodland in the Chilterns, the path is firm and winding, and everywhere there are distant vistas to tempt the landscape photographer off piste.

As the path reaches the valley bottom north of Great Wood the sensible option is to turn left and follow the track south, through yet more impressive trees until it opens up into a lovely gentle Chiltern valley. A couple of years ago there was an old farmhouse at this point, which looked too quaint and well-preserved to be genuine. It wasn’t. In fact it was the original setting for a TV series called Down To Earth, starring Pauline Quirk, whom I’m reliably informed is a famous actress. The BBC website says that the four series were filmed at a secret location in Devon.

Nevertheless, intent on burning up more boot rubber and calories I pressed on to the road at Upper Woodend Farm. A quick skip along to Round House Farm, which looks exactly as you'd expect, and I was back on another bridleway, this time over the wooded Pallbach Hill, where the best beech woods I know can be found. Finally I emerged from the trees on Reservoir Hill and sat for a few minutes, admiring the deserted valley in the now warm sunlight, the only sounds the squawks of pheasants and the distant yelps and laughter of two little children playing in the garden of the farm cottage below me. Perfect.

Ancient Yew Group: http://www.ancient-yew.org/home.shtml

Click here for map > HambledenMap

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-- RodBird - 22 Mar 2006