The Seven Shires Way – Stage 12

Thame to Aston Hill, Friday 15 November 2013

Back to Thame on the 280 bus from Oxford.  Weather was mild and pleasant for November.  Arrived in Thame at 10:30 and the first job was to find a bakers selling authentic pies/pasties as N hadn’t had breakfast. That completed we headed east through Thame on the Towersey Road to the village of that name. T warned the chaps that we were back in ancestor country. His great great grandmother (mother’s father’s father’s mother) had kept a pub on the Towersey road (long gone).  Oh and before we forget – a correction to the last post  - The Seven Shires Way - Stage 11 – P had seen the country boundary at Ickford Bridge even if T & N hadn’t.

Chiltern Hills

Quite a bit of road walking on this walk. We made good time and enjoyed a discussion lead by P about high fidelity, amplifiers and speakers.  Right through Towersey and on towards Henton. 

Crossed the line of the railway (now a cycle/footpath trail) that used to run from Thame to Princes Risborough  Sorry chaps more family connections – T’s dad had worked at Thame Station in the early 1950s when there was an operational line from Oxford to Risborough via Thame (long gone).

Barn near Henton - ready for conversion?

 

On towards Henton with fine views of the Chiltern Hills.  “Have we been to Henton before?” No but it seemed familiar. Perhaps because it looked like so many other villages we have walked through. Modern infill housing, converted  farm buildings, no shop, no post office and a posh pub. Very quiet with just a few white vans, and delivery vehicles trying to deliver goods to houses with nobody in them.

Over the B4009 and straight on towards Hempton Wainhill over the Icknield Line (Princes Risborough to Chinnor, Grid Ref: SP 76740147. Recently featured in Modern Railways as Chiltern Railways had tested a train on this track in October 2013. This is now a heritage line but was originally the line that went down to Watlington (we went past the site of Watlington Station over five years ago on the Oxfordshire Way). 

Icknield Line

One plan back in the days of Victorian railway expansion in the 1860s was to run a railway line from Cholsey through Wallingford, Watlington and Chinnor to Risborough.  To connect the Great Western Railway to what is now the Chiltern Line. Each end was built but not enough capital was raised to complete the intended route between Wallingford and Watlington.

Hempton Wainhill - can you see it?

Up the hill into hamlet of Hempton Wainhill (ancestor alert : T’s Great Granmother (mother’s father’s mother was born here.)

A steep climb up a sunken trackway though beech woods onto the top of Chinnor Hill and a welcome bench in the Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) nature reserve, Grid Ref: SP 76790071. Time for lunch and a welcome rest to enjoy the sunshine and the fantastic view from the Berkshire Downs in the south to the countryside beyond  Aylesbury in the north-east.

Panorama from Chinnor Hill

There were some Dexter cattle in the nature reserve, part of the scheme to graze the land with traditional animals, particularly nice as there were small and docile. Factoid: Dexter cattle are the smallest of the European cattle breeds, being about half the size of a traditional Hereford and about one third the size of a Friesian milking cow.

Beech woods

After lunch we carried on through the beech woods – lost the path but eventually ended up in the car park and followed a lane to the road between Chinnor and Bledlow Ridge.

Near Venus Wood - 100 miles

It was so great to be back in the Chilterns. The leaves were changing colour and there was that autumnal smell of wet leaves. 

We decided to take the recommended short cuts so as to reach the bus stop in good time.  We cut down past Sunley Wood and up past Venus Wood and onto Sprig’s Alley. Somewhere around here we completed 100 miles since Moreton-in-the-Marsh.

Through the woods

Carried on through the woods and picked up the county boundary between Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire and eventually to the A40 at the top of Aston Hill to wait for the bus back to Thame.

Found a sheltered spot to sit and finish off the sandwiches and passed round the hip flask and had a nip of Sloe Gin (vintage 2010). 

Out to the main road, Grid Ref: SU 74599706, to wait for the 16:03

Communications Tower - Aston Hill

bus “should be time to have a drink in Thame”. Well the bus didn’t turn up. A kindly soul stopped and said that there had been an accident in Stokenchurch which was holding up the traffic. Eventually the bus came (45 minutes late) and nearly didn’t stop – good job we had the high visibility vest and torch. By the time we got back to Thame we were too tired to stop so took the next bus back to Oxford.  P&T carried onto the railway station and N jumped off in The High. “Good walk, see you next month chaps.”

 

In summary: The ABCD walk – Ancestors, Beech woods, Chilterns and Dexters. A pleasant walk of great contrasts – from the clay land of the Vale of Aylesbury to the chalk and leaf mould of the Chilterns, perhaps uneventful but nevertheless still enjoyable, 10.3 miles.