The Seven Shires Way - Stage 10

Seven Shires Way - Stage 10

Ludgershall to Horton-cum-Studley, Saturday 17 August 2013

Yet again apologies for the delay in writing this post. For a change we were walking on a Saturday as pressure of work, family and domestic duties meant we couldn’t do one of our usual Fridays. Oh well train fares are lower. The day was in fact quite pleasant not too hot and a bit breezy. Rain was forecast for later but by then we had reached our modest goal of getting to Horton-cum-Studley. Saying bye-bye to Bicester we took a taxi (friendly lady driver with wide local knowledge) to Ludgershall and set off at 10:20 in fine spirits.

Nosey, noisy, pigs

Heading across some fields towards the Banbury to Marylebone railway we came across an enclosure of very noisy pigs and piglets (SP 6553 1730), crossed the railway with care and carried on across grazing fields to the foot of Muswell Hill. Cattle seemed very disinterested so T was at ease. (By the way his knee seemed much better.) 

The path then headed south slowly climbing up Muswell Hill (not the one in London). Rewarded with views across Bicester and the Vale of Aylesbury. The Hill isn’t that high (198m) but after the previous two walks and the flat clay land it was good to get a view and some breeze. We crossed from Bucks into Oxfordshire and back to Bucks and noticed again how the quality of stiles in Buckinghamshire is poor compared to Oxfordshire and its high proportion of kissing gates.

An Oxfordshire kissing gate

View from Muswell Hill

Nearly went wrong at the top of the hill. “We shouldn’t be seeing Brill, chaps!”. A quick course correction had us crossing a minor road near the top of the hill and following the county boundary down the western side of Muswell Hill carefully skirting a herd of long-horn cattle.

Lunchtime view towards Boarstall Duck Decoy

Took our small lunch with a view to the west at (SP 6338 1502) and then continued on down to the B4011. Dilemma do we continue with the recommended route round the famous Boarstall Duck Decoy or shortcut it along the surprisingly busy road, into the village of Boarstall. N identified the motor bike that was thrashing around as a Norton.The later won (mainly because we needed to catch the infrequent bus back from Horton).

Boarstall was less interesting than we had hoped. The National Trust “Boarstall Tower” is only open on Wednesdays though it looked quite interesting behind its moat. A convenient information board told us that Boarstall had been all but levelled during the English Civil War and that the tower is the only example of a fortified tower in Buckinghamshire. 

As we left the village we spotted a couple of local dummies waiting at a phone box (see picture at SP 6244 14413).

Boarstall dummies

Followed the road past several golf clubs and crossed over our old friend the M40. Carried on until Warren farm and then headed across recently cultivated fields into Horton-cum-Studley with a view of Otmoor towards the North-West. Memories of our final day on the Roman Way last year (July 2012).

Otmoor is over there somewhere

Arrived in Horton at 13:45. This is one of the “Seven Towns of Otmoor”. The pub that once was in Horton is no more so as it was starting to rain we had a look at St Barnabas’ church. Rather small with some colourful and interesting brickwork.

St Barnabas' Church

The Heyfordian 118 bus arrived on time and whisked us back to Oxford. Where we went for a drink in the Royal Blenheim pub on the corner of St Ebbes and Pembroke streets. Did we rate it? Possibly a 6 out of 10, good range of beer.

Summary: Short post for a short walk, total of 6.7 miles. Easy walk even with a bit of a climb up Muswell Hill. Great to see where we had come from and daunting to see the distant Chiltern Hills – subject of future walks.