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.

The Seven Shires Way - Stage 9

Poundon to Ludgershall, Friday 12 July 2013

Many apologies for the delay in writing this post. The writer was distracted by other activities and, sorry to say, the walk on 12 July 2013 wasn’t sensational. A cool  day rapidly became rather hot and sticky. Combined with difficult to find paths and misjudgements on distance had us arriving in Ludgershall in much need of a pint or two only to find the Bull & Butcher pub shut. As with the last walk the transport to and from the walk was rather complicated as well. As last time, we went on the S5 bus from Oxford to Bicester and a taxi to Poundon to start walking at 09:30.

Old water works, Marsh Gibbon

 The plan for the day was to get to Boarstall though that was fairly ambitious if we were to catch the infrequent bus service to Oxford. P then came up with a plan to divert to Bullingdon and catch the S5 bus outside the prison. T was already working up interesting summaries for the blog along the lines of ending up at prison. Any way that was not to be as revealed below.

The day started cool and grey and found us heading out across horse filled fields and a view of the back of Poundon Manor towards Marsh Gibbon. On the outskirts of Poundon there is a radio station (SP637252) at Poundon Hill, research on Wikipedia later revealed that it was a disused MI6 communications station. Good view of the Vale of Aylesbury and then down and across the single line of the railway at SP647245 that once went from Oxford to Cambridge and an easy walk into Marsh Gibbon, past the village water supply pump house.

Marsh Gibbon Church

The path then headed south across flat clay land (like a fen – that’s why it’s called Marsh Gibbon) towards Ludgershall. It was then we realised that the route seemed to be taking much longer than planned. 

As P pointed out later, the book under estimates this part of the walk by 2.5 miles (at the rate we were walking that was 2 hours adrift. The path was difficult with long grass, cracked, hard-baked clay underfoot and awkward stiles, often broken or covered in brambles or nettles.

Near Ham Pond (SP643215) lost in the tall grass

We eventually made it to the road and the bridge over the River Ray, which marks the county boundary. The road surface of this very minor road in Buckinghamshire contained a high proportion of china waste in the matrix of tar, bits of pottery and clay pipes.

By now T’s knee (injured doing DIY months ago) started to play up. When we reached the A41 P proposed that perhaps we should call it a day and taxi back to Bicester. We were all feeling tired but decided that as Ludgershall was only 3 miles away we could still do do that in an hour and a half and get to the Bull & Butcher pub in time for a  cool beer or two.

Unfortunately the path became even more difficult to find. Even the Seven Shires Way Book written in 2002 mentions on page 65 that one has to climb over a fence at The Old Farm House (SP640193) so much for public footpaths. We then had a stretch of about 2 miles of missing or unsafe stiles, fields where the path had been covered in crops and fields where the naturally inquisitive cattle were more interrogative than ever and we had to resort to lots of arm waving and shouting to stop a stampede. (Dear readers you have probably realised by now that T isn’t too keen on crossing fields with cattle of any sort in them). We emerged across a stile at  New Barn Farm (SP652185) to be told immediately by the occupant that the path had been diverted around their garden. No real problem but what gives these people the right to change things just because it suits them. Mutter mutter.

Bridge over the River Ray (SP637201)

It seems a great pity that some landowners feel that they can ignore our ancient rights. We are so lucky in this country to have foot paths and public rights of way. Yet there are still some people who want to keep walkers of all sorts out of the countryside.

Never mind we limped onto Ludgershall "will we ever get there?" and emerged into a “Stepford Wives” sort of village with large open spaces and pretty cottages set back from the road. The pace quickened as the pub must just be round this corner – SHUT, probably open at lunchtime - we will never know. "OK let’s call it a day". It was 14:40. A taxi back to Bicester (only a 15 minute wait and a ten minute journey was an entertaining taxi driver, where we found a pub in the old post office, The Penny Black (5 out of 10 – real ale good and most welcome, ambiance not so great).

Back to Oxford in time for N to go to a gig (Ah! that's why we had to start early – again!) and P&T to returned respectively home to near Didcot and Reading. P reported later his train scheduled to stop at Didcot, didn’t (some great First Great Western excuse) and he had to go to Reading and back-track.

There was no way we were ever going to achieve our target of Boarstall or Bullingdon prison that day. Chalk it up to experience and make sure we plan the next leg with more care. Oh and T get your knee fixed. Next time we promise to be more up-beat.

Summary: Total of 7.2 miles. Hard work, bit on the warm side and not for hay fever sufferers. Foot path quality and stiles in Buckinghamshire 3 out of 10.  

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.