The Seven Shires Way - Stage 8

Mixbury to Poundon, Friday 14 June 2013

Gt Ouse near Westbury

The logistics of this walk were quite complicated. We could not reach Mixbury unless we used a taxi, should it be from Banbury or Bicester? Bicester was the obvious choice as we only needed to catch a bus (S5) from Oxford to Bicester. A train would have made more sense but they are less frequent and N could catch the bus in north Oxford. Nevertheless T left home at 06:30!. A taxi from Alpha Cars in Bicester got us to Mixbury and we were able to start walking at 09:30. Why the early start? Well N had to get back to Oxford for a certain time and the only way to guarantee this was to aim for the earlier of  the two buses from Poundon.

We remarked last time that the village of Mixbury seems very quiet with just a few houses and a church nothing had changed.

Walked out of the village and then turned north to head towards Westbury (Bucks) under the disused line of the Great Central Railway soon to be the route of HS2, Railway buffs will know that the GCR was closed during the Dr Beeching years. The line was actually a high speed route into London from the north. It never carried much passenger traffic (probably why it was closed) but did carry a lot of freight and revenue per mile was the highest in the country by closing it the freight moved onto the roads or jammed up the remaining railway lines!

Giant Hogweed on bank of Gt Ouse

Crossed over another disused line from Banbury to Bedford and then down to the course of the River Great Ouse (hardly great here) and into our 5^th county Buckinghamshire. Stand of Giant Hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) on the bank, a noxious invasive species.

Sheep field near Barton Hartshorn

Route took us up to Westbury and then a turn south towards Finmere crossing the Gt Ouse back into Oxfordshire in the process. Too early for a pub stop so pushed on over the Bicester to Buckingham main road to cross a field of fodder beans on the old WW2 airfield site of RAF Finmere now used for the Sunday Finmere Market (Car Boot Sale). On the edge of the old airfield went past a house with an armoured car in the car port! Emerged at the attractive hamlet of Barton Hartshorn (now in Bucks again) and had a picnic lunch looking at a field of sheep and surrounded by a mass of buttercups, grid ref SP 642307.

Manor Farm, Barton Hartshorn

The countryside is typically middle England. Nothing sensational - we could be anywhere in the south of the country but it has a reassuring pleasing nature. Looking at the map we really seemed to be in the middle of nowhere (apologies to the apparently wealthy* residents of the attractive farms and cottages dotted about).* Lots of double garages, horses and “Chelsea tractors” = apparent wealth.

The path then took us to Chetwode, past the Priory (House) and down a quiet lane to discover an interesting water trough / spring. We didn't actually discover it. The book mentions the water trough!

Chetwode Priory

Water trough near Chetwode

Across the line of the disused Great Central Railway. The cutting is really quite deep and full of trees. We were quite surprised to find no evidence of protest to the proposed alignment of High Speed 2 anywhere along our route. Perhaps because there are so few people around here any poster is pretty pointless. HS2 is proposed to follow the alignment of the GCR hereabouts.

Disused GCR cutting looking north

Disused GCR cutting looking south

Back into Oxfordshire before reaching Godington (didn’t take in the detour to see Moat farm) and then across the fields to Poundon. For the first few fields (in Oxfordshire) the farmer has re-established the path through the crop which made it very easy to follow. As soon as we crossed back into Bucks the path from grid ref SP 645267 to Poundon disappeared and the stiles became major hazards with broken steps and rotten supports.

We will be collecting photographic evidence for future posts. The stiles make an interesting contrast to the often adjacent lowered hedges for fox hunting which always seem in tip-top condition.

Reached our destination at 14:30 for the day at Poundon with about a ten minute wait for the Langston and Tasker number 18 bus back to Bicester and then back on the S5 to Oxford and a welcome pint or two at HQ (White Horse Broad Street, Oxford.) Farewells and back to our respective homes (for T and P via the train).

Buttercups

Summary: Buttercups, Beeching and Buckinghamshire. Dry and just about the right temperature for walking in the back of beyond.

Total miles 9.8 - have now walked 30% of the Seven Shires Way!

 

The Seven Shires Way - Stage 7

The Seven Shires Way Stage 7 

Souldern to Mixbury – Friday 24 May 2013

Back again after a couple of months away. No one reason, a combination of bad weather, business travel, ill health, etc.  Anyhow good to be arriving on the usual CrossCountry train at Banbury station and waiting for our taxi to Souldern to pick up the Seven Shires Way. We finished off last time taking a detour up to Aynho to catch the bus.  So we apologise dear readers that we missed out the bit of the walk from the Oxford canal to Souldern.  Didn’t see much of this quiet village though noted that it did have a pub “The Fox”.  Grateful for an easy start to the walk which was along a quiet minor road parallel to the Oxfordshire-Northants boundary. Followed the directions in the book as far as Pimlico Farm then realised that the farmer/landowner had diverted the path around their property at grid ref SP558314.  Headed towards the radar domes of RAF Croughton and picked up a path actually along the boundary!

Domes of Croughton

Crossed over A43 (Oxford to Northampton road) and carried on down another minor until a convenient spot to shelter from the wind. A quick lunch and then headed through the stinging, wind-swept rain to Juniper Hill (hamlet) famous as the birthplace of Flora Thompson and the setting of “Larkrise” in Larkrise to Candleford (Banbury). We didn’t detour to see the actual cottage. It was too wet. (By the way when plotting out this route on Google Earth Juniper Hill is incorrectly identified by Google at Heath Farm!)

A couple more miles of wet grass but generally easy walking and then P attempted to phone the bus. This is the C500 South Northants Countyconnect service which is proudly identified in the Travel Line.com as being a request service. Apparently one phones in and requests the bus. P will have to fill us in with the minutiae but one has to be a member and then they didn’t seem too keen to turn out to Mixbury until quite late.

Never mind we pushed on to Mixbury despite the local sheep farmer putting a fence right across the footpath at grid ref SP603336and then there were a series of stiles across the stables at Barrow Stables, grid ref SP 606337 that were increasingly in poor repair; rotten wood,  split steps and the last one had a fallen tree right across the stile. We have now become familiar with the apparent frontier mentality of landowners along the Oxfordshire border (out-of-sight-out of mind of the Council?). Walked into the quiet village of Mixbury (no obvious shop, post office, pub or tea room).

Altar window, All Saints Church, Mixbury

Sheltered in the porch of the Church (All Saints), phoned for a taxi and were whisked back to Brackley in no time to catch a Stagecoach 500 bus back to Banbury. N and T got into conversation with a chap who had been born and brought up in Brackley and who gave the impression of being very concerned if he was more than three miles away from his centre of the universe. P had to return early for grandchild-sitting duties so N & T took an hour out to sample a selection of brews at the Bell Inn, Banbury before returning by train the Oxford and Reading respectively.

 

In summary: Dull, dreary and damp (weather).  A short walk of 7.8 miles, easy going apart from the wet conditions. Countryside pleasant enough but nothing of great note.