Walk 52 : Princes Risborough to Wendover

The Ridgeway Path through Chequers

Length	16km (10 miles), 4 hours 50 minutes. For the whole outing, including trains, sights and meals, allow 8 hours.
OS Landranger Map	No.165. Princes Risborough, map reference SP 799 027, is in Buckinghamshire, 11km south of Aylesbury.
Toughness	6 out of 10.
Features	This walk is easy to follow, being mainly along the Ridgeway, and is very much uphill and downhill, but not strenuously so. The way is predominantly through high beech woods and chalk downlands, including the Grangelands Nature Reserve, and has views out from Coombe Hill over the Vale of Aylesbury and surrounding counties. The walk ends by descending into the pleasant old town of Wendover.
Shortening the Walk	There are buses back to Princes Risborough, several times an hour, from near the Lunch pub in Great Kimble. You could also shorten the walk by staying on the Ridgeway and not detouring via Dunsmore.
History	The town of Princes Risborough derives its name from the Black Prince who, in 1343, was lord of the manor. This area was first settled by farmers in neolithic times, around 4,000BC, and was defended by a line of hilltop forts linked by the broad Icknield Way which can be traced from Dorset to Norfolk, and on this walk survives as the narrow Ridgeway). Remains of such forts can be found on Pulpit Hill and Coombe Hill. Whiteleaf Cross, carved into a hillside, is thought to commemorate a victory over the Danes. Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat, was given for this purpose to the nation by Lord and Lady Lee of Fareham in 1921. Even the state, with all its power, has not been able to divert the public footpath from this land, where the PM is at the mercy of any sniper. Lady Mary Grey, sister of Lady Jane Grey, was imprisoned in Chequers in 1566, and the house was later owned by a grandson of Oliver Cromwell. Wendover's name comes from the Anglo-Saxon 'wand' (winding) 'ofer' (bank). In 1600, the town had one pub for every 50 inhabitants. Wendover became the property of the crown and was given by Henry VIII to his wife Catherine of Aragon. It had John Hampden as its MP during the five parliaments leading up to the Civil War. He was one of the MPs whose attempted seizure by Charles I led to the Civil War.
Saturday Walkers’ Club	Take the train nearest to 10.15am (before or after) from Marylebone Station to Princes Risborough. Journey time 45 minutes. Trains back from Wendover run about twice an hour. Journey time 48 minutes.
Lunch	The suggested lunchtime stop is the Bernard Arms pub (tel 01844 346 172) in Great Kimble, which serves food until 2.30pm daily; groups of more than ten should phone to book. This is the pub which Yeltsin and other foreign dignitaries tend to visit, when at Chequers. For those starting late or not wishing to detour off the Ridgeway to this pub, an early Lunch could be had at the Plough (tel 01844 343 302) in Lower Cadsden. It serves food midday to 2pm daily.
Tea	The suggested tea place is the Le Petit Café (tel 01296 624 601) five minutes from Wendover Station, which is open until 4.30pm weekdays, and until 5.30pm on weekends and bank holidays. Cocoa aficionados may instead succumb to nearby Rumsey’s Chocolaterie (tel 01296 625 060), which also serves tea and coffee and is open until 6.30pm Monday to Saturday and 6.00pm on Sunday. Also worth considering are the bar of the 17th century Red Lion Hotel (tel 01296 622 266) and the Shoulder of Mutton pub (tel 01296 623 223).

Travel by Train	Out: Back:
Travel by Car	Start: Princes Risborough Station is near : HP27 9DD [gmap] Finish: Wendover Station is near : HP22 6BT [gmap] Return to your car by train: (park at the start) at 4pm (park at the end) at 10am
OS Explorer Map	181 : Chiltern Hills North [Amazon]
Revised	This walk was fully revised in : Jan-09 For the walk map, please see the Time Out Country Walks near London Volume 1
Other Chilterns Walks	Great Missenden to Amersham, Beaconsfield (round walk), Tring to Wendover, Gerrards Cross to Cookham, Princes Risborough to Great Missenden, Wendover Circular, Saunderton via Bledlow Circular, Saunderton via West Wycombe Circular, Chesham to Great Missenden, Tring Circular, Little Kimble to Saunderton, Amersham Circular via Chalfont St Giles, Chorleywood to Chesham,

Walking Instructions 

1. [1] [Numbers refer to the map.] Coming out of Princes Risborough Station, turn left . In 65 meters veer right with this road away from the station. At the T-junction in 90 meters, turn right on Summersleys Road. Ignore the first right, Picts Lane. Veer left with the road and in 90 metres take the next right, Poppy Road (the B4444), signposted High Wycombe.
2. Keep straight on, past the Poppyseed pub on your left hand side. Join the A4010 and bear right on this A road.
3. Then cross over it and continue on, in the direction of Wycombe, your direction 155 degrees. [2] In 160 metres you turn left up a tarmac lane (the historic Upper Icknield Way) signposted the Ridgeway, your direction 60 degrees initially.
4. Keep straight on up this lane for 1km, ignoring footpaths off to the right and left.
5. After passing a school and playing fields, cross over the road you come to and continue straight on, along the Ridgeway Path (still called the Upper Icknield Way). Keep on this lane, ignoring a footpath sign off to the left.
6. [3] In 350 metres, as you reach the end of playing fields on your left hand side, take the Ridgeway footpath to your right at a three-armed footpath sign, your direction 95 degrees, uphill. The Whiteleaf Cross becomes visible on the hillside to your left at 40 degrees. Keep on this main way all the way up, with a field fence on your right-hand side. Ignore a fork to the left at the top right-hand corner of this first field.
7. At the top, follow the acorn sign (the Ridgeway Path symbol – and the symbol for all National Trails) up steps into the wood. In 15 metres you ignore a footpath sign to the left, to keep on up the steps of the Ridgeway Path.
8. Near the top of the hill, go through a kissing gate (with a view back over Princes Risborough). In order to stay on the right of way, follow the acorn
9. straight on upwards, eastwards (less leftwards than the arrows by the kissing gate might lead you to believe), going between bushes 15 metres up from this gate.
10. In 200 metres, at the top right-hand corner of the field, there is a car lane on your right. Some 10 metres before the kissing gate out onto this tarmac lane, you instead follow the Ridgeway Path sign to your left, staying within the field, close to its right-hand edge, your direction 15 degrees. Exit a further 50 metres on through a kissing gate and straight carry on, your direction 25 degrees.
11. In 100 metres you come down on to a car road and follow the Ridgeway Path sign upwards on this road, your direction 115 degrees.
12. In 15 metres go sharp left by a four armed sign, up on to the Ridgeway bridleway, your direction 345 degrees, past a carpark and picnic tables on your right hand side.
13. At the nearby path junction turn right, following the blue arrow for the bridleway that goes along the ridge of the hill.
14. In 350 metres or so, at a three armed sign, where the bridleway continues straight on, go right with the Ridgeway Path, your direction 80 degrees, past a swing gate, sign to Whiteleaf Hill, and neolithic mound a few metres on (you may also like to detour left for 50 metres to the top edge of the Whiteleaf Cross). 100 metres past the swing gate, as your path starts going steeply downhill, you veer left with the main path downhill, past a knee high concrete post, your direction 60 degrees.
15. Keep on the main path downhill through the woods, with a golf course away on your left-hand side. In 500 metres go through a metal kissing gate (next to a metal fieldgate to its left).
16. In 70 metres turn left on a tarmac road, passing the Plough pub in Cadsden. 110 metres beyond the pub, you cross a more substantial road. 10 metres beyond this junction, leave the Ridgeway Path to turn right through a wooden barrier, by an electricity pool, your direction 45 degrees.
17. In 150 metres go through a wooden kissing gate (not the bridlegate away to its left) and up into the Grangelands Nature Reserve. Ignoring forks to the left, keep to the path upwards, your direction predominantly 35 degrees.
18. [4] In 500 metres, at the edge of the reserve turn right to shortly reach a wooden kissing gate, and turn left downhill on a car-wide track, your direction 310 degrees.
19. Ignore a stile to the left in 130 metres. Then in 70 metres, at a three-armed footpath sign, take the Ridgeway Path through a metal kissing gate to your right, your direction 15 degrees. Ignore a footpath you cross in 150 metres. Soon there are fine views on your left hand side out over the Vale of Aylesbury.
20. metres beyond this footpath, go up steps beyond a kissing gate.
21. In 40 metres, by a four-armed footpath sign (saying ‘North Bucks Way – Wolverton 35 miles’), you leave the Ridgeway Path to go left, your direction 260 degrees. Keep going downhill, soon on a straight car-wide track. Ignore all ways off, in 700 metres coming down to the main road (the A4010), where you turn right, uphill.
22. In 150 metres you pass the Church of St Nicholas and reach the suggested lunchtime stop, the Bernard Arms in Great Kimble.
23. After lunch, retrace your steps: Go right out of the pub, 150 metres downhill on the main road, then left up the lane as before, signposted North Bucks Way and public bridleway.
24. 400 metres up this path, take the footpath to the left, by a post with two blue arrows on it, going through a metal kissing gate and taking a right fork to go half right, uphill, your direction 110 degrees.
25. Keep to the main path that goes just to the left of the hilltop ahead. 500 metres from your fork off the lane, you come to a T-junction, the well-trodden Ridgeway Path, where you turn left, eastwards.
26. metres after crossing a gulley, go past a three armed footpath sign, ignoring a footpath to left, and keep on the Ridgeway Path, along the top of an old rifle range valley on your left-hand side.
27. In a further 110 metres, ignore a stile and footpath off to the left, and go on for 75 metres up to a metal kissing gate (next to a metal field gate and a stile off to the left). Go straight on, along the Ridgeway Path, due east.
28. In 250 metres, by a three armed footpath sign, go out through a kissing gate (a wooden fieldgate to its right), and go to your right, following the Ridgeway sign, your direction 140 degrees, with the wood’s edge on your right-hand side.
29. You now have your first glimpse of Chequers to your left (at 70 degrees). In 450 metres your turn left by a two-armed footpath sign and a stile, towards the Chequers gate-house, your direction 115 degrees, through kissing gates, over the Chequers entrance drive and straight on the other side, through another kissing gate.
30. In 350 metres, leave Chequers through a kissing gate. Carefully cross the car road and continue straight on, following the Ridgeway bridleway sign, your direction 75 degrees.
31. In 130 metres you pass a barn on your right hand side.
32. Go up into a narrow strip of woodland, following the acorn and blue arrow on a post. In 100 metres (at a sign marked ‘alternative footpath for walkers only’) fork left (the right fork merges again with your way in 100 metres).
33. A further 45 metres beyond where these ways merge, by a four-armed footpath sign, ignore the South Bucks Way to your right and carry straight on up the Ridgeway footpath.
34. [5] In 250 metres you come to a three-armed footpath sign, more or less at the top of the hill, a potentially muddy patch. Leave the Ridgeway Path here (which goes left), and carry straight on, following the footpath sign, on a car-wide track, your direction 65 degrees.
35. Carry on, soon downwards, through the woods, ignoring ways off. In 450 metres you ignore a footpath that crosses yours, staying on your car-wide track. In 300 metres ignore a yellow-signed footpath up to your left. Go down past the house and stables on your left hand side, to go over the road, at a three-armed path sign.
36. Carry straight on, along a signposted footpath, uphill, over a stile, your direction 70 degrees, between fences. Then go over a stile into a field, following the path half left to the next stile. Go over this stile towards the upper left-hand corner of the field, which you exit just to the left of a mini-pilon. [6]
37. Turn right on a car road. In 80 metres, just past a pond on your right-hand side, turn left, signposted ‘Dunsmore Village only’.
38. Ignore a footpath sign off to the right in 60 metres. In a further 20 metres, a bridleway sign points your continuing way, straight on up the tarmac car lane.
39. In 90 metres continue past Apple Tree Cottage on your right-hand side and The Beeches slightly further on. Ignore a stile to the left to carry on.
40. The path has by now narrowed somewhat, and in 100 metres you fork left on a wide path, between fences to your left and right, through woods. Continue on for 50 metres.
41. Your path shortly meets a rusting metal fence to your right (you continue to walk alongside this fence for 1,000 metres or so until the fence ends at the edge of a field). Go straight on, your direction 320 degrees, on a route that may get muddy in parts.
42. In 100 metres cross a bridleway. In a further 500 metres, you ignore a bridleway that goes through a gap in the fence to your right.
43. In a further 250 metres you ignore a footpath off to the left, and (100 metres away, on the other side of the fence to your right) you pass a house with a conservatory. In a further 250 metres, at the point when the fence ends, you continue straight on between the rusted remains of a fence, your direction 315 degrees.
44. In 250 metres [7] there is a tree on your left-hand side with a railing partly embedded in it. Go straight on through a gap in the bank to cross a wide track and continue ahead (in more or less your previous direction, 320 degrees) on a [!] narrow winding path, beside a straight row of trees to your right-hand side.
45. In 150 metres, at a bridleway T-junction marked by a post with a blue bridleway badge turn left, your direction 240 degrees.
46. In 70 metres, turn right through a metal kissing gate and go past a National Trust sign saying Coombe Hill. Carry straight on, your direction 285 degrees, with a fence on your left-hand side. In 450 metres you come to a Boer War memorial.
47. At the monument, there is a concrete pillar indicating directions to distant points. Follow more or less the direction it marks to Edlesborough Church, to your right, to pick up the Ridgeway Path (marked with acorn posts) down towards Wendover, your direction 80 degrees.
48. Exit the Coombe Hill grounds by a metal kissing gate, to go over a bridleway and through another kissing gate to go straight on along the Ridgeway Path, your direction 70 degrees.
49. In 300 metres, by a sign for Bacombe Hill, you fork left, following the Ridgeway Path down, in 100 metres passing through a kissing gate, straight on, your direction 70 degrees. There are fine views out on to the Vale of Aylesbury below.
50. Keep to the main path. Further on, a fine view of Halton House appears ahead of you on your left-hand side. 400 metres on from the kissing gate, follow an acorn marked post to fork to the left.
51. Carry straight on along this path, ignoring a further fork to the left into woods by a bench some 300 metres on. In 200 metres go through a metal kissing gate marked with the acorn, and carry on down.
52. In 80 metres turn right on the car road and carry on down under pylons into Wendover, passing the train station off to your left and coming to South Street on your right, where you find the suggested tea place, Le Petit Café. If this is closed, further down the High Street is Rumsey’s Chocolaterie on the left-hand side, and the Red Lion Hotel on the right hand side.
53. After tea, to get to the station, turn left out of the café, retracing your steps as you go. In 70 metres, you pass the Shoulder of Mutton pub on your right, and take the road to the right (Station Approach), which leads down to [8] Wendover Station. The platform nearest to you is the one for London.